I just got my Fostex VF160. Paid $435 used with shipping. I am very well pleased
with it so far.
I use it for field recording live bands at the park. I find that using xlr
cables to the deck and then using xlr to high impedance transformers to plug it
into the 1/4" inputs keeps me from having to max out the gain to get good
signal.
This deck has the cd/rw included and I have found it to be the preferred way to
back up my tracks. I also used the sp/dif toslink connection but it has some
problems.
Using the sp/dif cable all the tracks are recorded to a single .wav file on my
DAW. There are audio markers that indicate the start of a track. When the Fostex
loads the tracks back it uses these markers to break up the tracks.
This works but.
It would be difficult to reconstruct this session on a daw or any machine other
than a fostex.
It always records at least 8 tracks. Even if you only used a stereo pair. The
unused tracks are recorded silent, something only John Cage could love.
Using the CD/RW I choose .wav file format when I save. Each track recorded in
the project is saved as it's own .wav file. These tracks can be played on any PC
even without DAW software. Or they can be loaded into a multitrack DAW software
in perfect sync.
A one hour stereo program can be backed up to a singe CDR. Last week we were
changing drum kits at the turnaround and I didn't stop the machine so I recorded
2 hrs on a single program. No problem each track was saved to a single CDR as a
single .wav file ready to be read by any post processing setup.
Where the CD/RW comes in handy is in saving smaller projects. You can save them
to CDR but each program saved closes the CDR which means only one program can be
saved per CD.
I write each program to CD/RW and then copy it into a folder on my DAW. I can
use the same CD/RW letting the fostex initialise it between saves. Then when I
have saved all the programs I want (or that will fit) I can write them to one
CD, not just for cost savings but for convenience and reduced storage space.
When the Fostex reads this CD, written on my DAW, it determines the program name
and track numbers from the file names and you can scroll to select which program
you want to load. Then it loads all the tracks right back where they were when
you saved them.
Even if I lose my Fostex at some time in the future I still have the CDs. I
don't have to but another one to restore my sessions.
Because of this you can see why I like to use the CD/RW. I have not tried to use
the SCSI option but it probably works similarly to the CD option. You will,
however, have to be able to read the SCSI hard drive on a machine with a CDR in
order to make a permanent backup. Even large SCSI drives eventually run out of
space.
The sound on the hard drive is always temporary. The saved programs on CDs are
the equivalent of your tape archive.
To quote Robert Wilkens ... You got to move ... that data to a CD sometime.
-------
Cross posted at my blog, MixRemix.
http://mixremix.com