MR-8 questions

[gospel]

I am thinking about buying an MR-8. I have a few questions concerning it that some of you who have used it might be able to answer. I am considering the MR-8 not only because of the price, but because of the ease of use that they claim. I will be recording myself and soundtracks. Then I will be singing the harmony parts. Due to this I don't think I will need more than the 2 tracks that can be recorded simultaneously. My questions are probably somewhat newbie so bear with me.
1. How do I hook my mixer up to the MR-8?
2. Can I go ahead and lay down the soundtracks on the MR-8 and then record vocals? If this is possible, with the vocals going through the mixer and the soundtracks being on the MR-8 will I be able to hear the tracks through headphones?
3. When transferring recorded material through USB to my computer for mastering is it possible to transfer a track at a time or is it the whole song in stereo?
4. I noticed that Musician's Friend has a package that includes the MR-8, a pair of powered monitors, headphones, cords, and a condenser mic for $499. I don't know what brand the monitors are but they are blue and silver and one of them has approx. 5 control knobs on the front. The mic is a MXL? (I already have a Shure SM 58 and a Shure beta 58). What do ya think?

[mrx]

1. How do I hook my mixer up to the MR-8?
For recording, you can run any of your aux sends, or tape outs to the MR-8 line inputs. For playback you simply run the MR-8 line outs to two channel inputs on your mixer.

2. Can I go ahead and lay down the soundtracks on the MR-8 and then record vocals? If this is possible, with the vocals going through the mixer and the soundtracks being on the MR-8 will I be able to hear the tracks through headphones?
By 'soundtracks', so you mean your background music? Yes - you can use the mic preamps on your mixer, for example, and send that channel to the MR-8 for recording, and also hear your other (recorded) tracks at the same time.

3. When transferring recorded material through USB to my computer for mastering is it possible to transfer a track at a time or is it the whole song in stereo?
Either way - the MR-8 has the advantage of keeping each track as a separate WAV file that can be edited by any computer-based audio program.

4. I noticed that Musician's Friend has a package that includes the MR-8, a pair of powered monitors, headphones, cords, and a condenser mic for $499. I don't know what brand the monitors are but they are blue and silver and one of them has approx. 5 control knobs on the front. The mic is a MXL? (I already have a Shure SM 58 and a Shure beta 58). What do ya think?
Sounds like your mics are fine - most of those bundles put in crap they can't get rid of, although I haven't looked close at that one.

The biggest thing to keep in mind with the MR-8 is since it uses WAV files it eats up space on the card faster than units like the Korg, Zoom, Tascam, or Boss. Since you have a computer, though, it shouldn't be a problem.

[gospel]

I appreciate your reply mrx. One more question.
Does it matter that my mixer is not a stereo mixer?

One more thing. I have some software on my computer (Goldwave and Audacity) that I have used for mastering before. Does the MR-8 have good mastering capabilities? I guess what I'm getting at is will I need to go out and spend megabucks on multi-track and mastering software?

[mrx]

Hmm, what kind of mixer?

[gospel]

It's a Mackie 406M powered mixer.

[mrx]

A PA mixer? You'd probably just use the MR-8 standalone, then.

[gospel]

What about mic preamps?

[mrx]

I just checked out the 406 - you can use the mic pre's on the Mackie and run a line out to the the MR-8. You can monitor yourself on the Mr-8 (headphones - stereo), or run the MR-8 outs to a couple channels (or tape in) in the 406 and monitor that way.

[gospel]

Originally posted by mrx
I just checked out the 406 - you can use the mic pre's on the Mackie and run a line out to the the MR-8. You can monitor yourself on the Mr-8 (headphones - stereo), or run the MR-8 outs to a couple channels (or tape in) in the 406 and monitor that way.

The way I've done this before is using the insert jacks on the mixer and going only to the first click which is a direct out only using the preamps.


Thanks alot! I've looked on a lot of sites and the MR-8 must be good because it is out of stock on a lot of sites. I'm gonna keep looking. Maybe I'll get one by tax return time. The only other concern I have is with issue I've read in other threads about the storage room on the card. Do you have to complete a whole song before moving it to your computer or can you move a track at a time or multiple tracks at a time?

[redStar8]

Hi,
From my experiences so far:

1) MR8 USB mode
When you go into the MR8 USB mode - the compact flash (CF)files mounted on the MR8 show up in the my Computer Icon in windows as a removable drive.
You can copy the files elsewhere but all the tracks are there -
I've also heard of people replacing tracks there (I think you have to be careful with that). I've also imported them as audio tracks into Micro Logic AV arrangement package and they work fine.

2) Wav Manager
While in USB mode on the MR8, you can open Fostex supplied WAV manager and transfer files between the MR8 and any directory on the PC's hard drive
or transfer tracks from the PC back to the MR8

3) CF reader
You take the compact flash (CF) card from the MR8 and use a USB cf card reader on the pc. There you can copy or replace files on the CF.

This is really flexible arrangement !!!

Good Luck

[mrx]

Yes, you can move tracks individually. For example, create a scratch backing track with drums, bass and guitar and copy that to track one. Record vocals against that and save those off to computer. Maybe clear everything and put a scratch track with only drums and bass back on track one and re-record guitars. Then, move those guitar tracks to the computer. You can keep giong like that, and then eventually put all of those tracks into a an audio program on the computer and create a final mix.

The argument has been made that with a hard disk recorder, you wouldn't have to do all that track swapping, which is a good point. On the flip side, the MR-8 makes moving tracks to a computer very fast and easy. It's also small, light, very easy to use (very little digging through menus, etc.), and cheap. Sure, the price goes up if you buy a larger CF card, but those are appearing for under $100. Once people start posting more songs, I think you'll be amazed at what is possible, even with the included card.

[gospel]

mrx,
you said in one of your previous replies to use the MR-8 as a standalone unit. Is that possible using a non-condenser mic plugged straight in to the MR-8 and monitoring by headphones. Or do you have to have a pre-amp?

I'm not going to say "just one more question" because there will probably be more.

You said you use n-track. Does it work well for you? It seems to be the least expensive multi-tracking software that I've found.

[gospel]

Ordered my MR-8 today and some AKG headphones. If any of you guys that are already using the MR-8 see anything in the questions above that you could add I would appreciate it. I got a call from a pro gospel group that is interested in me and I want to send them a good demo as soon as possible.

[mrx]

The MR-8 doesn't have phantom power, but it does have XLR inputs. I've used my Shure SM58 and our Samson PA mics. The only mic pre's I use are from my Behringer mixer.