AW16G geared for guitarists?

  • Thread starter Thread starter NLAlston
  • Start date Start date
NLAlston

NLAlston

New member
lately, I have been driving myself very close to 'Nutsville', in my attempts to grab one of these Yammie wonder toys - the Yamaha AW16G. However, in almost everything that I read about it, now, there is a mention about this machine being geared for guitarists. Is this to say - because this recorder was manufactured with the guitarist in mind - that there might be another brand which would be better suited for the vocalist, or keyboardist? I am very close to arriving at the monetary amount that the purchase price of the 16G would command. I just want to be reasonably sure that I will be making the right choice with the 16G.

Blessings,

Nate
 
It's a good machine for anything actually. It has 1 'High Z' input for the guitar, 2 XLR inputs for mics and the rest balanced 1/4" jacks. The effects inside the unit are hand for most anything also.

Personally, I use external effects and a tube amp for my guitar and mic the cabinet to the recorder. I feed my vocals, keyboard, and guitar synth directly in.
 
I'm a keyboard player using a Hammond XK-2, and have had no problems with direct imputing. I've also laid down some tracks with my Ovation acoustic electric Custom Balladeer using the Hi-Z input. Running these tracks with a sample pad has been no problem at all, once I figured everything out. The sound is tremendous, and the creative possibilities are endless. This is my first endeavor into multi-trackers, and for the bucks, this is one great machine. I too shopped around at practically every other multi-tracker on the market, and came to the conclusion that the 16g was the best thing going. Yamahas AW series is a winner!
 
Nate, I'll throw my support with what others have written, and I'll add that I conducted a rather exhaustive search for about 6 months before buying my 16G. I read magazine reviews, checked chat rooms, and got my hands on various machines at my local stores. In short, I found that most machines at this price point are actually quite good (nothing seemed horrible), but I felt a world of difference when working with the 16G. I'd go as far as saying that the 16G's competitors almost seemed like toys (well designed and certainly usable, but still toys) when compared to the 16G, which is so beautifully laid out and thought out... and apparantly built like a tank, with its aluminum casing. In the end, my decision only came down to where to buy it.

The only big drawback, for me--primarily a guitarist, but also a keyboardist and horn player--was where to buy it. One lesser drawback is the rather sketchy owner's manual: most stuff is there, but I really need to search for it sometimes. The emergence of the new aw16g.com site (thanks to our Dinsdale) and my new friend Ed Blackmore (Yamaha techie), though, give me confidence that I'll always have help when needed.

Enough blathering, but I do understand your need to make a wise decision. I myself was in your shoes just a month ago.
If you can actually get your hands on these machines, I think you'll find your decision much easier, Nate.

Good luck,
J.
 
Yo Nate, be a little late:]

I'd wait until after the Xmas season is over before you buy. Chances are you'll get a better deal. Call all of the 800 numbers unless you have a favorite vendor -- especially, give Full Compass a call because their price is "usually" the best, but not always.

I bought my 2816 there and find the box to be very good but, as mentioned, the manual is weakly organized and skips around but it does cover the bases.

I've taken old cassette tapes done on my "old" Tascam 488 and remastered them through the 2816 with excellent results. Surprising results in many cases.

You'll enjoy the AW16 for sure.



Green Hornet :D :D :cool:
 
Hi J,

I know that I have bombarded this forum with many questions on the 16G, and you all have been so very understanding & helpful throughout my extensive querying. It's just that the salespeople, at the places that I have visited on digital recorders, seemed to know really NOTHING on the 16G. They could rattle on and on about the Korg's, the Roland's, and the Fostex's - but nothing really helpful on the Yamaha. What I have learned on this unit, has been through certain web-sites - but mainly from this forum. Yes, Dinsdale did indeed erect the AW16G forum site, and it is going to be a really BIG help to all owners of this recorder. I know that the 16G will be the one for me - I just needed to get some clarification on a few things.

Blessings,

nate
 
Arcaxis,

It was given to my knowledge that the AW16G does utilize a lap-top hard drive. As to the user being able to change it out, I couldn't say.

Blessings,

Nate
 
I'd really like to know if it's user-replacable as well. One of us should give a Yamaha tech a call sometime and see what's up. Of course, we'd have to word it like "If my harddrive fails after my 16G is out of warranty, is it possible to...".

And, NLAlston, I'd say they know more about the other units because they've been around longer...the 16G is so new.

You should get to a Guitar Center or something and hook a keyboard up to it and play around.

-Dinsdale
 
Hey Dinsdale,

You are right: Hooking up a 'board and taking the 16G through a few paces, at the store, would offer some revelations. But, I am going to go on the general consensus here: This being that the AW16G is an awesome piece of machinery for the $$$. You know, of all the vehicles that I have owned, my current - an Oldsmobile Silhouette Mini van - is the absolute best. And I never test-drove it. So, I'm going for it.

Blessings,

Nate.
 
Yo Nate, Dins, Et. Al.:]

Just a reminder:

Since a UPS power supply is "strongly" recommended by Yamaha in the "manual," for the 2816 and 4416, I would imagine you ought to think about buying one if you buy the AG16.

My manual states that if you lose power while the unit is ON, you can damage the HD and/or lose data. I'm assuming this is also true with the AWG 16?

I have a TrippLite power supply which will give me eleven minutes of power in case power goes out -- AND, in my neighborhood, power goes out fairly often, even without a storm. It only takes about 15 seconds to shut down the unit as proscribed in the manual.


As I recall, my unit was around 75 dollars. You can get more power but it cost more money and you only need a few seconds to shut down your unit.

I'm assuming that what applies to the 2816 and 4416 will, in most cases, apply to the newer unit AWG16.



Green Hornet :D :cool:
 
Green Hornet,

Thanks, Pal. I do remember reading a review, or post somewhere, where the author mentioned that his only problem with the 16G was the susceptibility to power losses. I will DEFINITELY get something to guard against this. We don't have frequent power outages here (it, more oft than not, takes a good storm to shut us down) but I wouldn't want to take a chance on a freak occurrance damaging my unit - when I DO get it.

Blessings,

Nate.
 
Yeah, I've been meaning to get one. And, like the Green Hornet said, it only takes 15 secs to get the machine shut down so you don't need much...Any UPS that would power a computer for 5 minutes should power the 16G for atleast 10 I'd guess.
 
Last edited:
I agree with the need for a power back-up. I picked up an APC brand (11 minutes) for just $35 at Circuit City, a popular electronics chain in Calif. Believe it or not, my power did go out recently, and the damned thing worked as promised. I'd recommend choosing one with audio beeps, if possible, since these alerted me from another room. (I remember thinking, What the heck is that sound?!)

J.
 
AW16G for guitarists?

I'd have to say yes, in that the AW16G also includes guitar amp
emulation stuff, so you can plug an electric guitar (or bass
too) directly into the input 8's high impedance connection.
In reality I'm quite disappointed with the direct guitar sounds,
but, I have a line 6 POD, which I love, so I'm not worried about
the AW16G's guitar features..
To be honest, I haven't spent any time trying to tweak the
AW16's guitar sounds. I tried it long enough to say yuck,
and hooked my Pod back up!
Cheers,
Gord Wait
 
I'd have to say, no, it's not geared for guitarists. My main reason for saying this is that the guitar amp simulations are extremely unsatisfying. I am a guitar player, and despite my dissapointment, I've decided to keep the unit. I think there are many other features that outweigh the lack of good guitar sounds. I plan to either get a POD-like device or simply mic a speaker.

Bottom line... don't plan on getting your guitar tones from the AW16G.
 
I'd have to agree that the 16G's guitar sims/effects are not up to par although I'd clarify this statement to focus only on the *electric* guitar. The EQ and dynamics for my acoustic guitars are, in fact, sounding very good, overall (even excellent, if I take the time to tweak), much better than I'd expected.

This 16G mini-minus doesn't bother me a bit because I'd planned to use my J-Station anyhow, especially since I have so many sounds already tweaked to my liking there--sounds that I can also use, via the J-Station, when performing live.

J.
 
No, I am not a guitarist - by any stretch of the imagination. In almost everything that I have read, or heard about the unit, there always seemed to be great mention regarding how suitable this recorder was for guitarists. My primary usage of the 16G will be for the recording of vocals, against my already sequenced music. That this particular unit suffers in its 'Amp Simulations', may just mean (hopefully) that it excels in the area of my interest & application.

Blessings,

Nate.
 
Yes, it sounds great as a recording machine..

I recorded some tracks using my freind's good acoustic guitar, and decent microphone and got some great sounds out of the machine!
No problem with the quality of the unit as
a multitracker. Dead quiet too!
Very pleased overall with the machine..
Gord Wait
 
AW16G for guitarists?? SURE!! for NON-GUITARISTS?? You bet!! most standalone DAW's toss in the collection of "amp and stompbox" simulations these days. you'll find them in the Korg, in the BIG Yammies, in the Rolands and even in the mighty little Tascam 788. do you need them or will you use them?? who knows. i dabble primarily in acoustic guitars and ambient electric guitar,..but OCCASIONALLY i feel the need to crank up some monster tone with the Stratocaster. i hooked my Strat into the AW16G and scrolled through the insert effects and immediately found many tweakable presets that rivalled the tones that i can spew out of my POD. most importantly, i was able to get some very nice CLEAN electric guitar tones out of the AW16 insert effects. REMEMBER,...INCOMING signals can be sent through effects, dynamics, eq,..the WHOLE WORKS. cool beyond cool.
FORTUNATELY,..for those of us who don't EXCLUSIVELY record distorted or heavily amped guitar,..there are TWO nice effects processors on board with a MULTITUDE of reverbs, delays, choruses, etc. these all sound VERY nice and all feature MANY tweakable parameters. PLUS,..you can tweak a preset till you fall in love with it and then SAVE it to a new location, name it "'VERB FROM MARS" (or whatever) and use it later whenever you want. there are something like 80 user locations for your own "tweaked effects",..PLUS you can utilize 2 mono (or 1 stereo) EXTERNAL sends (to patch in your favorite stanalone delay/reverb, etc.)
cheers.
p.s. i also worry a bit about Yamaha's tendency to place "factory-only" restrictions on the drives they use in their DAW's (the AW2816 and AW4416 have similar "restrictions"),..but i'm sure there MUST be compatible harddrives and cd-drives (even IF they are made by Yamaha) that can be obtained (and installed) if such an emergency arose.
:) :) :)
Merry Christmas and God Bless Us Everyone and all that. cheers again.;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top