dudes, i havent tried the tascam, but i researched and found two choices for what i wanted to do. i own a triton, and i want to lay my beats to cd, but i also want to record my friends music, guitar, drums, etc. full band stuff.
basically i wanted something that is capapble for a full setup and/or ability to laydown clean tracks and exchanged on something else for better mixdown and mastering. well. my two choices where the akai dps16 and the korg d1600. these where my choices because of the 16 tracks, bit quality, and mixing and mastering to cd.
well i now own the dps16. i chose this for numerous reasons. one because of the price, i got a free akg c1000s mic. plus the cd burner that works with it, its a plextor plewwrite, the best in the computer world. it can be used on my computer, on my keyboard, and on my dps16. i also like the fact that the dps16 had 56 bit internal processing. no quality loss, so basically, if i recorded something flat, no effects, then i could save the tracks to cd as a wav, then take the cd to a real studio for professional mastering, really good for live recording. and with that piece, i can expand my recording abilities with access to good effects, and easy to use interface without having to buy external equipment until i wanted to. since its got the aux send/return, i can but a compressor, or whatever and apply external effects easily and not even worry about how good the internal effects are, even though they are(really good).
the differances i found between the d1600 and dps16 where minimal. the effects on the d1600 are more abundant, however, there are actually more presets, not actual effects, plus i did not like touch screen, i mean imagine how dirty it could get just from sweaty fingers, plus no matter what anyone says, a knob is easier to turn than selecting something and having to use the jog shuttle. knobs are nice for those who are learning because you can turn the knob quickly just to see what happens.
for my personal use, i dont need more than two xlr inputs, although 4 are nice on the korg, but with the dps, you can assign any input to any track, so you dont have to plug and unplug mics. if you can record one track at a time you will get a better mix anyways. for live recording i think i can just hook up a mackie mixer with better preamps anyways.
i really like the bigger screen, you would think for touch screen the korgs screen would be more square but its not, so a definate down fall. another thing that people question are the amount of actuall effects someone can use per track, well the dps16 is onlly four, and the korg advertises 11, i feel that if you need 11, you are a freakin idiot anyways because you need to record a good sound to begin with no need for effects, just effects to boost punch or erase mud, or normalize and master, nothing else.
asfar as the actual quality of the dps16, the faders and knobs are really tight, i like this because i hate flimsy feeling knobs. if you have a keboard and thats what you want to record, the dps is nice too because of the tilt sreen. i have mine on a tier above my keyboard, i tilt the screen so i can do everything thing right there, play my keboard, and record. micraphone check.
