digital work stations

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jelly_292

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hey all,
i'm new to all of this and had a couple of questions.......i am in the market for a good 8 track digital work station...what is the best for the money? and what are the key features to look for? no compression right? any info would be greatly appreciated! thanks...adam
 
Adam- I've spent the last year looking at DAWs. For the money, IMHO, the Fostex VF08 ranks right up there. The Boss BR-8 would be "da bomb" if not for the 100mb zip disk, which places severe limits on recording lengh.

Some of the things I looked for are:

16 vs 24 bit (the VF08 records in 16 bit)
Large internal harddrive (for longer recording time)
ability to run to a CD burner
compression vs. no compression
built-in effects
built-in EQ
ease of use (i.e. small learning curve)

That's just for starters, and I'm sure I forgot a few things along the way. They run about $600. everywhere.

Not to play devils advocate, but for $400 more you can go 16 track!

Good luck, and have fun!
 
Yeah, if you are going stand-alone, definitely look into 16 track...youll kick yourself later if you dont....
 
G'day Jelly

Yeah, wot Keith said.

I was in the same position as you about 12 months ago.

After considering everything I thought I needed and what I wanted to do with it vs my budget, I went for the Korg D8.
8 track, uncompressed, hard-disc is easily upgradable (Toshiba Laptop!), built-in effects and dead easy to learn!

Sure, a unit that records in 24 bit would be nice, but how pro do you want your recordings to be? Seriously.
Is it just for demo's and a few CD's for friends and family and to sell from the back of your car or at gigs? (... can YOU tell the difference between 16 & 24 bit?)

... and yep, 16 tracks would be handy, but with digital you can bounce tracks all over the place and not lose any quality. And if your budget did stretch the 'few extra dollars' you could spend it on a nice mic or two.

So, decisions decisions.
Decide what you want to do with a recorder, how much you have to spend (be realistic!), and you're on your way.
Easy!

Macca
 
Yo, Jelly-

I agree with a lot of what Macca says. Whether you really need 16 tracks depends on what type of recording you plan on doing. For instance, if you plan on micing the drum kit, you could use up 4 tracks right there. If you plan on running stereo effects, you can easily get to 16 tracks fast. The good news is that the price of ALL the machines has collapsed recently. You can get 16 tracks today for what 8 tracks cost a year ago (case in point- Fostex VF16 @ $999 @ MF, and they'll throw in a pair of headphones and a mic!).

When I started looking over a year ago, I wrestled with the PC vs. Portastudio dilemma, and settled on the portastudio. For my needs, it fit the bill. I remember reading a review in Guitar Player, where they mentioned that Yamaha was about to release a 16-tracker with a built-in cd burner. Well, they did- the AW4416. Cool machine, but relatively expensive ($3500 at the time, closer to 4k with the cd burner option. The learning curve on that machine appeared a little overwhelming to me. Knowing that it wouldn't be long before the others joined the foray, I held out. Earlier this month, Korg began shipping the D1600, basically a D-16 on steroids! Total cost for the whole enchilada, including built-in cd burner- $2000. HALF of what the AW4416 cost, and the AW4416 has been out for less than a year. I'm sure others (Tascam, Roland) will follow, but I'm done waiting, so the Korg D1600 is what I have ordered.

Back to the 8 vs. 16 track issue, I'd rather have too many than too few. It may be a stretch financially, but in the long run, you'll be happy you went with more. At least that's what every producer I know tells me. Good luck.
 
i use a VF08 at home and it works great for simple demos, song sketching and basic stuff. i don't agree with the 'you can bounce down tracks cause it's digital and it won't degrade in sound quality'. once your talking about machines like the VFs or their competitors it's not so much about how many different tracks you can lay down before mix down but rather how many tracks you can have individual control over. if you bounce down a bunch of guitars, a drum kit, backing vocals or whatever, you'd still appreciate being able to lower/raise that volume that you first thought was perfect but in the final moments doesn't sound so good with all the other stuff. if you think you need to record more than 8 sources and if you got the money to go for 12, 16 or 128 channels, then do that. you won't regret it.

the vf16 sells for $919 at somewhere. www.vf16.com has the link on the first page. i recommend having a look at some of the other brands. the VFs are good, but i imagine there are some drawbacks to them if your just starting out with this stuff.

good luck, jelly.

micmac
 
Digital Stations

Have any of you guys played around with a KORG D12? I'm getting ready to invest in some sort of digital recorder but I haven't decided on either the eqiupment or the medium (MIDI, hard disc, ADAT...).
 
Skate- The d12 and d1600 are so new that I've found it hard to find anyone who's had a chance to really get into these two machines in detail. Harmony Central has a few reviews/comments on the d1600. They may have something on the d12; I'm not sure. I had a chance to mess around with the D1600 this weekend at MARS for a few hours, short of laying down tracks. Pretty amazing machine for the money.
 
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