M
MickB
New member
I have, and still use, my Foxtex D90 hard disk recorder.
Made in 1997, it was a rackmount box with detachable display which recorded 8 tracks at 16bit, 44.1/48khz. It also had two MIDI tracks (used only for sync' with other Fostexes) with optional balanced i/os and SCSI connections for upgraders.
When I used to record with it I found I had to use two hard disks - not just for space but also because the Fostex acted as an oven, cooking the hard drives causing jitter and dropout after just 2 hours of constant use.
My mates didn't care too much for having to take breaks to let the hard drives cool on the window ledges, blackberry pie style!
To top that off, the analogue outputs were muddy and ill defined, though the analogue ins were absolutely sweet. That was alright for getting a decent track down and rough-monitoring it, but backing up for mixing and editing meant running the tracks through the SPDIF out to a CD recorder, two by two.
And on top of that, the PROMS came loose on the board, causing malfunction. The PROMS are now discontinued I believe, so I bent the pins and re-seated them. By sheer luck, full contact was made again. Probably the heat making the board connectors warp.
To fix the cooking problem (no real ventilation or heat extraction), I keep the lid off and have the hard disk work from outside the holding cradle.
But despite that, I love it. Even though I've since got myself a PC setup with an M-AUDIO Delta 66 (I wanted a Multi or Fire Face but funds didn't stretch) for 24 bit fun, I still couldn't do without my Fostex. I wouldn't feel quite safe digitally recording anything 'proper' without a second machine to take a duplicate of the session in the background.
These days, hard disk recorders are vastly superior in every respect, but mine was an early one with all those lovely teething problems to cope with.
Anyone else with some nice (well, nice now) Fostex memories?
Made in 1997, it was a rackmount box with detachable display which recorded 8 tracks at 16bit, 44.1/48khz. It also had two MIDI tracks (used only for sync' with other Fostexes) with optional balanced i/os and SCSI connections for upgraders.
When I used to record with it I found I had to use two hard disks - not just for space but also because the Fostex acted as an oven, cooking the hard drives causing jitter and dropout after just 2 hours of constant use.
My mates didn't care too much for having to take breaks to let the hard drives cool on the window ledges, blackberry pie style!
To top that off, the analogue outputs were muddy and ill defined, though the analogue ins were absolutely sweet. That was alright for getting a decent track down and rough-monitoring it, but backing up for mixing and editing meant running the tracks through the SPDIF out to a CD recorder, two by two.
And on top of that, the PROMS came loose on the board, causing malfunction. The PROMS are now discontinued I believe, so I bent the pins and re-seated them. By sheer luck, full contact was made again. Probably the heat making the board connectors warp.
To fix the cooking problem (no real ventilation or heat extraction), I keep the lid off and have the hard disk work from outside the holding cradle.
But despite that, I love it. Even though I've since got myself a PC setup with an M-AUDIO Delta 66 (I wanted a Multi or Fire Face but funds didn't stretch) for 24 bit fun, I still couldn't do without my Fostex. I wouldn't feel quite safe digitally recording anything 'proper' without a second machine to take a duplicate of the session in the background.
These days, hard disk recorders are vastly superior in every respect, but mine was an early one with all those lovely teething problems to cope with.
Anyone else with some nice (well, nice now) Fostex memories?
