AKAI DPS16 owners- question...

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T

Titanship

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Hey,
To you who own these machines, or anyone knowledgeable about them, what do you think of them? Tell me about the onboard effects? Do they have compressor/limiters- do you use (like) them?
Thanks for any info!
Titan
 
mine is awesome. it has everything you could need.. except i dont like the compressors..they dont seem to do much and an outboard one would do much nicer. the effects are nice for any standard reverbs/etc... it's awesome


T
 
The built in digital effects are exelent if the latest version is used. But I have every thing in my rack allready so i use those compressors.
 
definately cool effects, really, its nice and simple, you first have to get used to how you route the effects on the bus, etc. but otherthan that its nice. i figured everything out just by going through each button, no manual. i have version 3.0 so the compressor seems nice, i think they did up date it in that version. i would recomond this one over the d1600 just because of the scsci cd burner. its a plextor, the best in the computer world, you can use the scsi to hook up to your keyboard or sampler, plus a computer, and then the dps16.

i have a dps16, and a sonar set up on a built computer with a amd 2.0ghz processor, and omni studio. so nice with both, i actually dont have a built in cd burner on my computer, i use the scsci that i use on my dps16. plus the deal i bought mine with was better than the d1600s, i got a free akg c1000s mic, a 200 condensor mic. actually better than anything i would have bought because i dont do alot of mic stuff except for rap vocals. i hookup my triton and dps16, instant cd.
 
I'm almost sold on this as a lightweight solution to remote multitracking.

Two questions:

How are the tracks moved into the PC environment?
i.e. 2 at a time, on CDR, 8 at a time, etc. Analog/Digital- Both?

And what size IDE drives are supported? Most ads I've seen show a 10GB drive and a 20GB replacement.
 
well, if you order one from zzounds.com, youll get a good deal and it will come with a 20 gb hard drive, plenty of space, even a ten gb hard drive will be fine, if it supports a 10 and 20 then it will support a 40, they are ide drives so they are cheap and easy to replace or install, however i wouldnt want to be pulling them in and out all the time. and i dont think you need to worry about any space with a 20gb.

and as far as getting it to the computer, you can use digital, however the best way is to use a cdrw scsci, you can save your tracks as a wave file, as two, or you can save the scene. im not sure how sonar handles scenes yet but im pretty sure you dont have to mix down first to get it to the computer. infact im positive. the dps also can import or export waves at 24bit so it will be able to export any track as a wave, plus the dps supports Connecting a CD-R/RW drive that supports Multi-Media Commands (MMC) enabling you to write audio tracks of the DPS16 directly to a CD-R/RW disc. so basically you can do what ever track you choose and have numerous tracks on a cd. if you export using digital, you just simply should play one track at a time to keep the tracks separate.

playing analog into a computer is basically retarded because if you already recorded it why would you rerecord onto the computer? unless you used the computer as a master recorder, but then you can process the sound digitally anyways with digital transfer. and if you are mastering on a computer you probably do not have external equipment, just plugins, so basically using the cdrw to exchange wav files is the most logical and best way.

if you want a remote recorder this is a good choice, because you can get a clean sound, and if you do any processing on it, it will be 56 bit so no sound loss, then you can keep the audio in the digital domain and transfer it to the computer and master on the computer. hell i master everything on the dps even though i have a good computer setup.
 
>if it supports a 10 and 20 then it will support a 40

Is that your guess or do you KNOW? This ain't a Windows Platform. Just because the files are saved in .wav format does not guarantee that any size IDE drive will work.
 
it supports 40, plus i dont think more than 20 is neccessary, if you use up that much space something is wrong, you should be backing up your files to cd just in case your hard drive takes a shit. i know its nice, but ive lost tons of information on my computer because of a crash and on my keyboards; resulting from power outages and internet usage.
actually wav files dont have anything to do with the hard drive, its how the software recognizes the size, on my mpc, i could insert a total of 64mb, it came with 4, if i would plugin two 32mb, it would override the 4mb and still only understand 64. same thing.

check akaipro.com for drives that have been tested and approved.
 
40GB is cool. 80GB would be better. :cool:

Still kind of a pain in the ass backing up a bunch of takes in an 8 track project @ 24/96 that covers even an hour.

What CDR/RW write speeds are supported?

~ 2.3 minutes of "tune" per CDR of 8 raw tracks @24/96

assuming 60 minutes of .wav file per CD

So if you had a 6 minute tune this would cover 3 CDs

If you had 10- 6 minute tunes this could fill 30 CDs. Ouch!

So I see that your acceptance of the 20GB drive is "reasonable". That will easily hold 30 CDs worth of tracks.

Still- there is no getting around this. You eventually want some hard copy that can be reliably stored for later mixdown.

IDE burners on PCs are cheaper than SCSI burners but considering the cost of the Akai this isn't THAT big of a consideration.
 
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