Why the Fostex MR8-HD is better than the original MR8

cellardweller said:
That thing is SO NOT RED!!! :mad:

That abomination is a disgrace to the good name of Fostex.

Besides, everyone knows that real men use compact flash EXCLUSIVELY!!!
I mix down on my CF and then bounce it directly to 8 track tape.

NOW GET WITH IT!!!
Click to expand...

"black is beautiful" -Martin Luther King
 
preamps needed?

Hi, for the MR8HD users out there:

How important do you think is an external preamp needed with this machine? Assuming I'll be using at least one condenser which needs phantom power. I'm buying one soon, plus I have extra $$ (not much) and wondering whether to splurge it on extra mics or a preamp instead (say, a DMP3).

Thanks!
 
I probably won't be overly helpful, but I have a MR8 (and IT is RED! :rolleyes: ), and though it's been a while, I seem to remember a noticeable difference using my dmp3 as the track count increased.

My ears are far from "golden", but IMO it's (dmp3) a worthwhile investment ~ if only for the phantom power, cleaner pre's aside...




Has anyone had an opportunity to compare the pre's of the MR8HD to those of the MR8?
 
flyderman said:
Hi, for the MR8HD users out there:

How important do you think is an external preamp needed with this machine? Assuming I'll be using at least one condenser which needs phantom power. I'm buying one soon, plus I have extra $$ (not much) and wondering whether to splurge it on extra mics or a preamp instead (say, a DMP3).

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I've been using an MR-8 for two years now, and just recently put 50 bucks into an ART tube MP for my cheapie condensors. I was using a simple phantom power supply before that, and there is a BIG DIFFERENCE! I don't know how much of it is glorious tube sound (because I highly doubt there is much of that in a $50 unit), but I am sure that the 70 extra dB of gain really do help.

I would definitely get at least one preamp for your MR-8, if not two (one for each simultaneous-recording channel).
 
One issue: no moving parts...

I have an original MR-8 (and RED, too :D ) which I use for external recordings and overdubs where instruments are hard to move (ever tried to fit an entire church organ together with all registers into a two-room apartment?). I like it primarily for the non-moving-parts recording capability. No moving parts = no mechanical sounds to block out.

Apart from that:

The effects section sounds 'cheap' - not intended for serious use, I guess.

The headphone output sounds crap in my opinion. Use for overdubs only, if anything.

Only 16 bit recording possible. Well, I can live with that considering the price tag.

regards, Nils
 
I have been recording with my MR*-HD for a few months now and it has been very good to me. No problems or regrets. Working on a preamp now.
 
Updated: MR-8 MKII versus MR8HD (or MR8HDCD)

Is there any reliability advantage of a recorder that stores data on Compact Flash cards (CF) rather than on hard disk?

I'm grappling with the decision over MR-8MKII @ $249 versus the MR8 HD @ $399 or the MR8 HDCD @ $449. The latter two seem quite appealing because of the extra memory of 40GB and ability to record 4 tracks at once, unless there is a reliability issue that translates to CF cards being better.

Thanks.
Michael Y.
 
YeshuasFan said:
You forgot to mention that with the MR-8HD one can record 4 tracks at a time while one is limited to 2 tracks at a time with the MR-8.
Click to expand...
That's the specific reason I bought one ....... a cheap live recorder.
I take it to gigs ..... run one line from the PA and then set a mic at each end of the stage to catch stage sounds.
Quick and easy enough to casually do it at all gigs and a fairly decent live recording where you can hear everything.
Plus you can record several weekends' worth of gigs before you have to empty it.
I haven't really used it as a multitracker at all.

One thing I don't like about it is no EQ on the different tracks ..... just those overall presets ...... but I can always dump it to mybigger recorder for better mixing although that's a pain too since I don't see any way to get all 4 tracks out of it individually other than two at a time thru the stereo outs and then sync them up to each other.
But a nice unit for the $.
 
Yeah, but the red ones have built-in bass traps, they improve your engineering skills by 5 points and upon receipt of ol' Red you'll spontaneously get laid.

What do you think Chevelle was talking about?

I think the Red speaks for itself....
 
I was going to order an MR-8 sometime this month (still saving a few more greenbacks), until I found this thread. Soon as I have the chance, I'll be ordering an MR-8HD instead.

Matt
 
I've had an mr8hd too for a couple of years...

Great. It has paid itself back and then some. I use it for my home-recordings constantly, I've recorded a dozen live gigs with it, and drums on demos of two bands.


...now I want an mr16hd... because 4 simultanious inputs aren't enough.. :o
 
I have an MR8HD, upgraded from an MR8 several years ago. I've never encountered the problem you speak of here but I have found that formatting the hd every once in a while is a good thing as I found out that even though you move your files from the recorder to your pc, all the track deletions and whatnot remain on the hd and fill it up. So I made it a habit to re-format it at least once a month.

I still have the MR8HD but I recently upgraded to an MR16HD and totally in love with it.

The Teleman :drunk:




crgl said:
ok, I finally found an important flaw in the MR8-HD. According to the manual:

" If you make recording or editing to a song many times, audio may be occasionally interrupted when the song is played back, due to data fragmentation. Note that this is not a malfunction."

I assume that this interruption will have no effect in tempo or bouncing since this will mean repeating recordings everytime there occurs an interruption.

also:

" When importing data from a personal computer to the MR-8HD, there is the danger that the MR-8HD file system may be destroyed. Especially, deleting or adding files many times may cause the fragmentation of FAT32, resulting in sound jump caused by performance deterioration. Therefore, before loading data from a personal computer to the MR-8HD, save all necessary folders to the personal computer and format the MR-8HD hard disk. "

Everytime I want to load a song into the MR-8HD I will have to format the internal disk for preventing errors ? and if have 30GB of data on the MR-8HD ? :eek:
Click to expand...
 
ART makes a very nice tube pre-amp and sells for about $30 at Musician's Friend. Very nice unit for the money.

http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/ART-Tube-MP-Studio-Mic-Preamp?sku=180581

Personally I'd say save the money by buying this pre-amp and buy the mic(s). For a low cost condenser mic the MXL 990 is a great mic. I have several other more expensive condenser studio mics and the 990 is comparable to all of them. For the price you can't go wrong.

As for not using the on board phantom power, as mentioned in one of the above threads, I don't quite agree with that. I've used the on board phantom power on both my MR8HD and MR16HD and have never had a problem with either of them.

flyderman said:
Hi, for the MR8HD users out there:

How important do you think is an external preamp needed with this machine? Assuming I'll be using at least one condenser which needs phantom power. I'm buying one soon, plus I have extra $$ (not much) and wondering whether to splurge it on extra mics or a preamp instead (say, a DMP3).

Thanks!
Click to expand...
 
Personally I'd forget about the units with the built in burner. I've heard there have been problems with those. I just use the MR8HD and MR16HD and move all my recorded files to my computer and use one of 3 burners, 1 internal and 2 externals. It's not worth the extra $100 in my opinion.


analog_freak said:
Is there any reliability advantage of a recorder that stores data on Compact Flash cards (CF) rather than on hard disk?

I'm grappling with the decision over MR-8MKII @ $249 versus the MR8 HD @ $399 or the MR8 HDCD @ $449. The latter two seem quite appealing because of the extra memory of 40GB and ability to record 4 tracks at once, unless there is a reliability issue that translates to CF cards being better.

Thanks.
Michael Y.
Click to expand...
 
The MR16HD has only 4 inputs also, the advantage is having 8 separate tracks to work with instead of only 4 and 4 stereo tracks to bounce to versus only 2 on the MR8HD. With a little creative mixing you can get some really nice recordings.

The Teleman



Jouni said:
I've had an mr8hd too for a couple of years...

Great. It has paid itself back and then some. I use it for my home-recordings constantly, I've recorded a dozen live gigs with it, and drums on demos of two bands.


...now I want an mr16hd... because 4 simultanious inputs aren't enough.. :o
Click to expand...
 
I have had the MR8HD/CD for about two years. never had a problem with recording, mostly at home,. It does what I need it for. Only problem I have with it is it won't make wave files so I can burn the CD. I get an error message and it completely distroys the recording files. Going to try to download into my PC and burn them there. I have had no help from Fostex, they just say to reformat the HD which does nothing. If I can't get it to work in the PC it's in the scrap can.


:cool:
 
andyk said:
I have had the MR8HD/CD for about two years. never had a problem with recording, mostly at home,. It does what I need it for. Only problem I have with it is it won't make wave files so I can burn the CD. I get an error message and it completely distroys the recording files. Going to try to download into my PC and burn them there. I have had no help from Fostex, they just say to reformat the HD which does nothing. If I can't get it to work in the PC it's in the scrap can.


:cool:
Click to expand...

Is your HD full? Remember that a "Delete" does NOT release disk space. Only a re-format will do this.
I suggest you take Fostex's advice and also update with the latest software release.
Stereo Wav files, made in the 2Mix folder, will download directly into a PC or on to the CD burner. Tracks are mono Wav files and will only download using WavManager.
 
andyk said:
I have had the MR8HD/CD for about two years. never had a problem with recording, mostly at home,. It does what I need it for. Only problem I have with it is it won't make wave files so I can burn the CD. I get an error message and it completely distroys the recording files. Going to try to download into my PC and burn them there. I have had no help from Fostex, they just say to reformat the HD which does nothing. If I can't get it to work in the PC it's in the scrap can.


:cool:
Click to expand...

I don't understand what you mean about it not making wav files as that's the only kind of file the Fostex recorders make. Now as for the built in burners, I heard a lot of horror stories about those and avoided getting one with either my 8 track or 16 track recorders.

As stated in another reply to you earlier, got to Fostex website and download the free WavManager and transfer all your recordings to a folder on your PC and then I'd format the hd in the recorder. Also stated in that post, when you delete or any other such thing, all of that is still on the hd so it pays to back up all your tracks and format it every once in a while. I do mine about every week or 2...

Also .wav files tend to be pretty big files so my recommendation is that you convert them to mp3 128 bitrate before you burn, will save you a lot of space on the disc and you can get more on. I know some people will laugh about this but one of the simplest and best convert programs I've found is Musicmatch Jukebox. I'm not sure which version I'm using, it's not on this computer, but it's an older free version which is all you'd need. I don't use it for anything other than the file converter.

So good luck....
 
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