JR#97
New member
Now that I've finally got a VF-160ex I'm going to do a quick review of the fostex gear I've used over the years. I'm pretty disappointed with fostex ditching the VF series. So that leaves the entry level MR series or the high end DVL2424. Nothing in between and no more stand alone mixers.
FD-8: The FD-8 was my first venture into forex land after having been a Tascam, Studer, and Otari tape guy for years. The recorder section of the FD-8 is pretty much the same as the VF08. 8 playback tracks and 16 virtual tracks. Decent editing capabilities and a host of midi functions including MMC of the transport. The analog mixer was limited, but had some serious headroom. I thought the mixer was the best sounding of any porta studio type analog mixer I had ever used. The pre's were ok and no phantom power. ADAT i/o enabled 8 tracks at once recording. The optical i/o could also be set to spdif.
I mated my FD-8 up to my pc and dumped tracks via the ADAT i/o. I would also midi lock and use my pc to play back midi tracks like a drum machine, strings, etc. Final mixing was always on the pc, but I would always track to the FD-8. My pc is just to noisy to track with and my machine wasn't beefy enough to avoid latency and hickup issues.
All in all, the FD-8 is a great value with a great sounding albeit limited mixer. Turning real knobs is something I miss.
VM200 Digital Mixer: If you see one on ebay buy it. These mixers are da bomb! I bought mine so I could record 8 tracks at a time via ADAT on the FD-8. There are 16 channels plus 4 aux channels that can also be the onboard fx returns. All channels have moving faders, mute, solo, and some multi funciton knobs that serve as pan, eq, etc.
The mixer worked great as both the input to the FD-8 for 8 track recording and also mixing off of the FD-8. The onboard fx are ok, but I dont' use a lot of fx anyway.
The real beauty of the VM200 is mating it up to a pc as a DAW controller. I used it to run Cubase SX. Every knob and fader can be assigned as a midi controller which ends up giving you over 100 faders and a ton of knobs to assign. The hard part was setting up the control table. But the "learn" function of Cubase SX made it somewhat easier. It's been a while since I've had a working pc DAW so I'm pretty rusty on that end of things. But it worked great when I was doing it 5 years ago. I'd take the VM200 over any of the control pieces out there anyday.
DP-8: The DP-8 is basically a patchbay for digital i/o. spdif and adat. I used it to connect 2 pc's, the FD8, and VM200. There are dials so that you can choose what input goes to what ouput. Pretty cool device that is a life saver is you have a lot of digital i/o. It will also help in mating up spdif coax to spdif optical. Right now it's between my VF-160ex, pc, and VM200.
VC-8: analog-digital i/o converter. Pretty cool and hard to find. I opted for the VM200 instead when I needed the conversion. The Behringer ADA8000 seems to be the popular choice now days.
VF-160ex: The VF-160ex is like a combo of the basics of the VM88 and the FD-8 with 16 tracks playback and 8 virtual instead of the other way around. Getting into the unit was pretty easy since I'm pretty familiar the fostex way of doing things. I don't care for menu driving things when it comes to recording and mixing and the VF-1600ex is no different. However, I will give credit that most functions are only a button or two away and not buried 2 or 3 levels deep in a menu. I like having the input, source, and record buttons for routing instead of how the vm200 handles the routing. I don't like the limited inserts. Seems to me that if the onboard compressor can only be assigned to 4 channels that the inserts would have been on different channels than those 4. So if I need more compressor options, I go through the VM200.
The fx are basicllly the same as the VM200. Using external requires returning into a channel. Not a big deal unless you need the channel. But that's where having the VM200 comes in handy. I can return into that instead.
VM88: I almost bought one of these, but I'm glad I didn't. The VM88 is the little brother to the VM200. No automation or MIDI. For whatever reason, they seem to go for as much as the VM200 in ebay.
VM04/VM08: Little digital mixers with spdif. I thought the VM08 was decent. I was going to use it to submix a drum kit and then spdif into my VM200. Ended up using a Mackie 1202 instead.
VR08: Basically the recorder section of the FD8. Needs ADAT i/o compatible mixer to work. If you want a quick additional 8 plus 16 virtual tracks without going the D-80, D-90, D-108 route, the VR08 is a great little unit for cheap. I recommend plopping in a hd instead of going scsi.
D-90/D-160: The D-90 is awesome and I'll probably pick up a couple if I can't get my hands on a D-160. The analog i/o is unbalanced rca, though. Kinda weird. I love the removable control panel a removable HD. The D-108 adds 16 virtual tracks, but are hard to find. If I had the cash, I'd just go with the D-2424.
I"m pretty happy with the fostex stuff I've acquired. I'm just sorry to see the good stuff discontinued. I wonder how hard it would have been for them to update the stuff to 24 bit? I doubt I'll ever touch the MR series. I played with a friend's for a little bit and hated it. The only feature I liked was the USB capabilities. It's a good entry unit akin to the ol' 4 track cassette type units.
FD-8: The FD-8 was my first venture into forex land after having been a Tascam, Studer, and Otari tape guy for years. The recorder section of the FD-8 is pretty much the same as the VF08. 8 playback tracks and 16 virtual tracks. Decent editing capabilities and a host of midi functions including MMC of the transport. The analog mixer was limited, but had some serious headroom. I thought the mixer was the best sounding of any porta studio type analog mixer I had ever used. The pre's were ok and no phantom power. ADAT i/o enabled 8 tracks at once recording. The optical i/o could also be set to spdif.
I mated my FD-8 up to my pc and dumped tracks via the ADAT i/o. I would also midi lock and use my pc to play back midi tracks like a drum machine, strings, etc. Final mixing was always on the pc, but I would always track to the FD-8. My pc is just to noisy to track with and my machine wasn't beefy enough to avoid latency and hickup issues.
All in all, the FD-8 is a great value with a great sounding albeit limited mixer. Turning real knobs is something I miss.
VM200 Digital Mixer: If you see one on ebay buy it. These mixers are da bomb! I bought mine so I could record 8 tracks at a time via ADAT on the FD-8. There are 16 channels plus 4 aux channels that can also be the onboard fx returns. All channels have moving faders, mute, solo, and some multi funciton knobs that serve as pan, eq, etc.
The mixer worked great as both the input to the FD-8 for 8 track recording and also mixing off of the FD-8. The onboard fx are ok, but I dont' use a lot of fx anyway.
The real beauty of the VM200 is mating it up to a pc as a DAW controller. I used it to run Cubase SX. Every knob and fader can be assigned as a midi controller which ends up giving you over 100 faders and a ton of knobs to assign. The hard part was setting up the control table. But the "learn" function of Cubase SX made it somewhat easier. It's been a while since I've had a working pc DAW so I'm pretty rusty on that end of things. But it worked great when I was doing it 5 years ago. I'd take the VM200 over any of the control pieces out there anyday.
DP-8: The DP-8 is basically a patchbay for digital i/o. spdif and adat. I used it to connect 2 pc's, the FD8, and VM200. There are dials so that you can choose what input goes to what ouput. Pretty cool device that is a life saver is you have a lot of digital i/o. It will also help in mating up spdif coax to spdif optical. Right now it's between my VF-160ex, pc, and VM200.
VC-8: analog-digital i/o converter. Pretty cool and hard to find. I opted for the VM200 instead when I needed the conversion. The Behringer ADA8000 seems to be the popular choice now days.
VF-160ex: The VF-160ex is like a combo of the basics of the VM88 and the FD-8 with 16 tracks playback and 8 virtual instead of the other way around. Getting into the unit was pretty easy since I'm pretty familiar the fostex way of doing things. I don't care for menu driving things when it comes to recording and mixing and the VF-1600ex is no different. However, I will give credit that most functions are only a button or two away and not buried 2 or 3 levels deep in a menu. I like having the input, source, and record buttons for routing instead of how the vm200 handles the routing. I don't like the limited inserts. Seems to me that if the onboard compressor can only be assigned to 4 channels that the inserts would have been on different channels than those 4. So if I need more compressor options, I go through the VM200.
The fx are basicllly the same as the VM200. Using external requires returning into a channel. Not a big deal unless you need the channel. But that's where having the VM200 comes in handy. I can return into that instead.
VM88: I almost bought one of these, but I'm glad I didn't. The VM88 is the little brother to the VM200. No automation or MIDI. For whatever reason, they seem to go for as much as the VM200 in ebay.
VM04/VM08: Little digital mixers with spdif. I thought the VM08 was decent. I was going to use it to submix a drum kit and then spdif into my VM200. Ended up using a Mackie 1202 instead.
VR08: Basically the recorder section of the FD8. Needs ADAT i/o compatible mixer to work. If you want a quick additional 8 plus 16 virtual tracks without going the D-80, D-90, D-108 route, the VR08 is a great little unit for cheap. I recommend plopping in a hd instead of going scsi.
D-90/D-160: The D-90 is awesome and I'll probably pick up a couple if I can't get my hands on a D-160. The analog i/o is unbalanced rca, though. Kinda weird. I love the removable control panel a removable HD. The D-108 adds 16 virtual tracks, but are hard to find. If I had the cash, I'd just go with the D-2424.
I"m pretty happy with the fostex stuff I've acquired. I'm just sorry to see the good stuff discontinued. I wonder how hard it would have been for them to update the stuff to 24 bit? I doubt I'll ever touch the MR series. I played with a friend's for a little bit and hated it. The only feature I liked was the USB capabilities. It's a good entry unit akin to the ol' 4 track cassette type units.
