ausrock
Well-known member
Fostex D160 R/MOUNT h/DISCS Has anyone had any experience with these rack mount recorders.........if so, what are they like ?
skippy
New member
I'll repost this here from another thread, because this info really belongs in this forum... I like my Fostex quite a bit, within reason. I'll explain that qualifier in a minute.
I have the D1624 standalone 16-track HDR (the 24/96 capable newer model of the D160). I got it because it was a good balance between performance and price, and because it was actually available at the time. Had it for a couple of months now. I chose it over the Tascam MX2424 because of price, availability, and the fact that they nickel and dime you to _death_ in putting together a usable configuration; and over the Mackie because I have exactly zero patience with vaporware. The Fostex arrived (well, arrived twice: the first one was DOA), got plugged in, andwas in use right out of the box within 2 hours. My kinda machine, once I got one that was alive.
I have an old-world view of what a studio should look like: the multitrack is a box here, the mixer is a box there, the mastering machine is another box over there, there are lots of wires, and no computers in the room. When one box melts down, I can still work with the other two... So I wanted the 1624 to simply replace the multitrack tape machine in that picture. It does that very well, and it does offer some useful editing features (cut/copy/paste) beyond what you could hope for with tape. To me, it's a tape machine with no razor blades needed, and that's exactly what I wanted. Other folks might well loathe it, because the manual is written in an amusing form of Jinglish, and if you expect it to be a DAW-in-a-box, you'll be *hideously* disappointed.
However, for what I needed, it was the perfect machine: cost effective, decent converters, adequate basic editing with a simple transport-control remote I can relocate anywhere in the room, and not one damned thing more.
Swapping tracks, copy/paste editing, erasing tracks, punching in, all work just the way I want them to. With the onboard converters, you can only record 8 tracks at a time, but that it not a critical limitation for me. The only operational thing that I really don't like is move/paste editing: the machine treats the whole disk as one linear recording area, so move/paste moves everything from your edit point to the end of the disk- which takes freakin' _forever_ if you get a big disk. You can achieve the same result with copy/paste, and that's much quicker. The unit is also a little noisy for control room use without a hush box.
Despite the last three items: two thumbs up.
I have the D1624 standalone 16-track HDR (the 24/96 capable newer model of the D160). I got it because it was a good balance between performance and price, and because it was actually available at the time. Had it for a couple of months now. I chose it over the Tascam MX2424 because of price, availability, and the fact that they nickel and dime you to _death_ in putting together a usable configuration; and over the Mackie because I have exactly zero patience with vaporware. The Fostex arrived (well, arrived twice: the first one was DOA), got plugged in, andwas in use right out of the box within 2 hours. My kinda machine, once I got one that was alive.
I have an old-world view of what a studio should look like: the multitrack is a box here, the mixer is a box there, the mastering machine is another box over there, there are lots of wires, and no computers in the room. When one box melts down, I can still work with the other two... So I wanted the 1624 to simply replace the multitrack tape machine in that picture. It does that very well, and it does offer some useful editing features (cut/copy/paste) beyond what you could hope for with tape. To me, it's a tape machine with no razor blades needed, and that's exactly what I wanted. Other folks might well loathe it, because the manual is written in an amusing form of Jinglish, and if you expect it to be a DAW-in-a-box, you'll be *hideously* disappointed.
However, for what I needed, it was the perfect machine: cost effective, decent converters, adequate basic editing with a simple transport-control remote I can relocate anywhere in the room, and not one damned thing more.
Swapping tracks, copy/paste editing, erasing tracks, punching in, all work just the way I want them to. With the onboard converters, you can only record 8 tracks at a time, but that it not a critical limitation for me. The only operational thing that I really don't like is move/paste editing: the machine treats the whole disk as one linear recording area, so move/paste moves everything from your edit point to the end of the disk- which takes freakin' _forever_ if you get a big disk. You can achieve the same result with copy/paste, and that's much quicker. The unit is also a little noisy for control room use without a hush box.
Despite the last three items: two thumbs up.
ausrock
Well-known member
Hi Skippy and thanks.......I think you said it all, but one thing I have found out is that u can get add-on converters that will increase from 8 to 16 similtaneous analogue inputs. So that kind of puts these recorders right up there.
skippy
New member
Yes, you can. The beast has 16 channels worth of ADAT lightpipe in (and out), so you can definitely stuff 8 more channels in if you need to. I didn't need to, so it was a nonissue.
I did get the balanced I/O option so that I can match the levels from the rest of my gear. Strictly speaking that's unnecessary, but I like minimizing hassles, and having single-ended _anything_ around gives me the hives...
Backup is also a little bit of a pain, but you do have the option of backing up via SCSI to a very limited set of CD-R drives, or to a regular SCSI disk or tape, or via lightpipe to whatever might be listening. I'm still working on the backup angle.
I did get the balanced I/O option so that I can match the levels from the rest of my gear. Strictly speaking that's unnecessary, but I like minimizing hassles, and having single-ended _anything_ around gives me the hives...
Backup is also a little bit of a pain, but you do have the option of backing up via SCSI to a very limited set of CD-R drives, or to a regular SCSI disk or tape, or via lightpipe to whatever might be listening. I'm still working on the backup angle.
ausrock
Well-known member
Skippy.....hope u see this;
Do the D160 and D1624 allow you to "bounce" tracks down to one track? I havent been able to find this out locally as yet.
It looks as though we will buy the D160 though as I can get one of the last ones in the country, new, at a price to die for and for our purposes I dont think 24bit/96khz is really going to make much difference.
I will keep u updated here, as things progress.
Thanx for your replies.
Do the D160 and D1624 allow you to "bounce" tracks down to one track? I havent been able to find this out locally as yet.
It looks as though we will buy the D160 though as I can get one of the last ones in the country, new, at a price to die for and for our purposes I dont think 24bit/96khz is really going to make much difference.
I will keep u updated here, as things progress.
Thanx for your replies.
skippy
New member
Well, yes and no. You can definitely bounce tracks down through an external mixer- the thing is just a multitrack recorder, so you have full sync record capabilities, just like any other proper multitrack. However, you can't do it without the external mixer: it has no internal mixing or signal processing capabilities, other than the simple editing functions. It is _not_ a DAW-in-a-box. If you want to bounce 15 down to 1, it'll do it beautifully: playback 15, sync record 1, no sweat. But the signal munging is all up to you to do externally.
I like digital multitracks for many reasons, and the lack of a sync-playback-record-bleed annoyance is a big one!
My advice would be to dive on it, *if* it's a screamin' deal and you don't need 24bit. Another thing might be to keep an eye out for the 1624 at a much reduced price, now that they have the 2424 out. If you miss the D160, that's a fallback plan.
I like my 1624, anyway. Best of luck!
I like digital multitracks for many reasons, and the lack of a sync-playback-record-bleed annoyance is a big one!
My advice would be to dive on it, *if* it's a screamin' deal and you don't need 24bit. Another thing might be to keep an eye out for the 1624 at a much reduced price, now that they have the 2424 out. If you miss the D160, that's a fallback plan.
I like my 1624, anyway. Best of luck!
ausrock
Well-known member
Thanx skippy, we are looking at buying a Mackie 24 channel, 8 buss desk, so bouncing tracks shouldn't be a problem.
I would be interested to hear what equipment you are using in conjunction with your 1624 and how u have things set up.
BTW.......can I connect to my PC to let us burn cds?
thanx
I would be interested to hear what equipment you are using in conjunction with your 1624 and how u have things set up.
BTW.......can I connect to my PC to let us burn cds?
thanx
skippy
New member
I'm using mine with an Alesis Studio 32 and a Masterlink. There's a reasonable amount of outboard gear of various vintages, and a 208-point patch bay in the middle. I like the inline board- it just fits my old working style, and I seldom have to repatch anything other than to occasionally run a >8 direct out (or a submix out) to one of the 8 tape ins, and to play with different outboard gear on the inserts. I have a pretty simple rig, with all the tape outs, tape ins, direct outs, inserts, and so on normalled from the bay to the board.
The backup/interoperability capabilities of the Fostex are not the best, despite their glowing claims of using the SCSI port for this. You can't connect directly to a PC via any mechanism other than the ADAT lightpipe connectors (or AES/EBU if you get that option). The box is a SCSI master, and so is your PC- so there's no way to use the SCSI connection between the two, other than sneakernet (plug a drive into the Fostex, dump data, unplug the drive from the Fostex, carry it across the room and replug into the PC, retrieve data). I'm still actively investigating 16-ch lightpipe interfaces for efficiently getting data onto a PC: I'm pretty settled on the Sonorus StudI/O card for this, but have not made the purchases yet.
I don't know anything about burning CDs on a PC, so I can't help you there (unless you slurp the stereo bitstream in from the board during mixdown). That's why I went with the Masterlink: I can convince myself that it's just a simple old 2-track with balanced analog ins, and not have to have a 'pooter in the loop at all...
The backup/interoperability capabilities of the Fostex are not the best, despite their glowing claims of using the SCSI port for this. You can't connect directly to a PC via any mechanism other than the ADAT lightpipe connectors (or AES/EBU if you get that option). The box is a SCSI master, and so is your PC- so there's no way to use the SCSI connection between the two, other than sneakernet (plug a drive into the Fostex, dump data, unplug the drive from the Fostex, carry it across the room and replug into the PC, retrieve data). I'm still actively investigating 16-ch lightpipe interfaces for efficiently getting data onto a PC: I'm pretty settled on the Sonorus StudI/O card for this, but have not made the purchases yet.
I don't know anything about burning CDs on a PC, so I can't help you there (unless you slurp the stereo bitstream in from the board during mixdown). That's why I went with the Masterlink: I can convince myself that it's just a simple old 2-track with balanced analog ins, and not have to have a 'pooter in the loop at all...