Fostex VF160

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lilman42459

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Ok I am thinking about getting one of these.

How is the mix down in it? Is it pretty user friendly?
Does this get good vocal quality?


Thanks
Lilman
 
The internal mixdown is pretty cool...just hit a couple of buttons and you're mixing down.

If you have any experience with multi-track recorders, I find the unit pretty user friendly. Some of the more advanced features may require some in-depth manual reading. By the way, the manual is not the greatest, but I don't find it quite as bad as some other people do.

The vocal sound lies mainly in your mic and preamp, but if you're talking the built-in effects, they're not that great. With some pretty heavy tweaking of the presets, I've found you can get a sound that is "passable".
 
I've found the VF-160 to be incredibly user friendly. Many of the features I haven't even opened the manual for.

I like the quality of the machine, and I haven't toyed with it much in terms of mic's or mixers or preamps. I've gotten decent quality recordings with minimal effort. In terms of vocals, that isn't something I have had to concentrate on.

bing
 
Yes it has a compressor.
Mine does not have the built in CDRW ,and over here in the UK it is a ridiculous price (as are SCSI devices ) .Has anyone successfully used a different (cheaper) cdrw in the slot ?
 
Hi trousers

I'va asked that question myself about a cheaper alternative CDRW, and seen it asked elselwhere before, and the answer seems to be no. Recommended retail on the CD1A is £299 :mad: but most places have them at £199. My plan is to wait until somebody overstocks on them; in the meantime I use the digi out to get the tracks onto my PC. Very tedious but it works.
 
I am getting mine from American Music and it has a CDR built in already. You guys must have had your for awhile.

Can you burn each track by it self for computer editing or does this auto mix down?
 
Thanks Gary .
Trouble is that when I first went to buy , some of the shops I tried were trying to sell it already installed , almost suggesting they had come pre-installed .
The only thing we can hope is they sell enough without cdr and end up unable to shift them .
Seems ridiculous that they charge £199 when the same devices for laptops are much cheaper . That's why I was hoping someone had managed to fit a different drive . I borrowed a scsi zip from someone , tried to save a fairly standard 5 minute song and it asked me for 4 zip disks which are about 7 quid each !!!
Trousers.
 
lil - you can burn each track as a separate .wav file, dry or processed as you wish.

bt - hooking up the spdif to a souncard with digi in is free!
 
VF160CDR

Hey lilman: Have you received your unit yet???.....mine arrives tommorrow and I just wondered what experiences you've had thus far! Would like to get a "heads up"!
 
Listen guys, get a soundcard with Adat interface and you won't miss the CDRW at all. The cheapest Adat cards are less than £100 and if you have a CDRW in your computer which I believe you all have, it's easy to hook the VF up to computer and transfer 8 tracks at a time for editing on computer. Sure you can do it using SPDIF but thru the Adat interface its more than four times faster and there's a lot you can't do using SPDIF that you can with Adat.

Using Zip disks for transferring data to computer is as btrousers said slow and tedious. 100MB zip disk can hold 20 track minutes and that's not very much. I tried it once as a test when I got a zip drive for upgrading the OS in my VF16 and it took minutes to write one disk. Using the Adat interface it's much faster and less complicated.
 
Mine comes in next week. Can't waiti to get it. I have a friend coming when I get it to do test recordings. I can't wait
 
Again , out of my depth here , but what software do you transfer the tracks into and what kind of editing are you doing on the pc that you will not have done on the VF160 ?
Just curious for future use .
 
Input.....I need input......

Well I received my VF160CDR about a week ago and have been going thru the manual as suggested, before operating the unit, (do they make a VF160CDR for dummies manual?) and now I know less then when I started reading it! I come from the 'old school' days of four track reel to reel and cassette (before the days of personal computers) and did my last recording almost 20 years ago, so I'm really over my head here. So Sunday, I made my first attempt to home record my newly formed band with the VF160. I got the VF160 because I wanted the capability of recording a full band live in simo, and needed the portability of a stand alone unit, verses a computer based system, so I utilized the direct record method as opposed to buss recording (Is this smart?) I can't access the built in eq or effects using this method (correct?) until after the recording in mix down. (Is there a way to eq or effects during the recording using outboard gear, and if so, how?) This is how I connected it up in conjunction with my PA system: I have a Mackie 808M powered mixer board that has eight channels, so I added a Behringer MX802A min-mixer that has 6 channels (4@XLR and 2@line-in) in order to gain enough channels to mic my drums with Nady Drum Mics (4@DM70;1@DM80) and 1 SM57 on the hi-hat. I access the two line-in inputs with line matching transformers (is this really necessary, because I think I read in a post where someone just used a 1/4 inch to xlr connection) to mic my kick drum and hi-hat. From the "drum mixer" I go main out L&R to one channel on the power mixer that has L&R line inputs. For vocals, I use one Sennheiser Profipower MD431 for lead (which happens to be over the drums), one SM58, and one Peavy PVM 580TN. I access the VF160 by using the insert jacks on the mackie for the three vocal mics and go directly to channels 4,5, and 6 of the recorder. I came out of the "drum mixer" from the RCA tape out L&R to a Y cord (2 to 1) to channel 1 of the recorder. For the lead guitar I go out of his mesa boogie amp by accessing his record out jack by way of his tuner to channel 2. For the bass player, I use a joint connection by coming out of his combination pre-amp/stomp box/direct box, by way of his parallel 1/4 inch output (he also has a xlr output, should I be using that?) and the output of his chrous effect he has built into his amp, connected to a Y connection then going to channel 3 of the recorder. Guitars are not miced thru the PA. Connected in this manner leaves 4 channels open on the PA and channels 7 & 8 open on the recorder. Extra gear I have on hand are an array of audio-technica 350d mics, an Alesis Quadraverb, and a DOD dual 15 band graphic equalizer. Any comments regarding this configuration would be greatly appreciated, as I admit, I have limited intelligence in this field.
 
Someone else will be able to help you with your setup more, but you CAN access the effects in direct mode for monitoring purposes. They will not be recorded that way. This is so you can give your vocalist some reverb in their headphones for example.
 
Re: Input.....I need input......

Hey shadowkat,
ive recorded a few bands with similarities in equipment
to what you have posted..im a bit confused though on what is getting recorded - i'll put my 2cents in ; could you define the instrumetns (e.g. 2 guitar amps, keys, 4 peice kit, how many vocalists) ?

T

ShadowKat said:
Well I received my VF160CDR about a week ago and have been going thru the manual as suggested, before operating the unit, (do they make a VF160CDR for dummies manual?) and now I know less then when I started reading it! I come from the 'old school' days of four track reel to reel and cassette (before the days of personal computers) and did my last recording almost 20 years ago, so I'm really over my head here. So Sunday, I made my first attempt to home record my newly formed band with the VF160. I got the VF160 because I wanted the capability of recording a full band live in simo, and needed the portability of a stand alone unit, verses a computer based system, so I utilized the direct record method as opposed to buss recording (Is this smart?) I can't access the built in eq or effects using this method (correct?) until after the recording in mix down. (Is there a way to eq or effects during the recording using outboard gear, and if so, how?) This is how I connected it up in conjunction with my PA system: I have a Mackie 808M powered mixer board that has eight channels, so I added a Behringer MX802A min-mixer that has 6 channels (4@XLR and 2@line-in) in order to gain enough channels to mic my drums with Nady Drum Mics (4@DM70;1@DM80) and 1 SM57 on the hi-hat. I access the two line-in inputs with line matching transformers (is this really necessary, because I think I read in a post where someone just used a 1/4 inch to xlr connection) to mic my kick drum and hi-hat. From the "drum mixer" I go main out L&R to one channel on the power mixer that has L&R line inputs. For vocals, I use one Sennheiser Profipower MD431 for lead (which happens to be over the drums), one SM58, and one Peavy PVM 580TN. I access the VF160 by using the insert jacks on the mackie for the three vocal mics and go directly to channels 4,5, and 6 of the recorder. I came out of the "drum mixer" from the RCA tape out L&R to a Y cord (2 to 1) to channel 1 of the recorder. For the lead guitar I go out of his mesa boogie amp by accessing his record out jack by way of his tuner to channel 2. For the bass player, I use a joint connection by coming out of his combination pre-amp/stomp box/direct box, by way of his parallel 1/4 inch output (he also has a xlr output, should I be using that?) and the output of his chrous effect he has built into his amp, connected to a Y connection then going to channel 3 of the recorder. Guitars are not miced thru the PA. Connected in this manner leaves 4 channels open on the PA and channels 7 & 8 open on the recorder. Extra gear I have on hand are an array of audio-technica 350d mics, an Alesis Quadraverb, and a DOD dual 15 band graphic equalizer. Any comments regarding this configuration would be greatly appreciated, as I admit, I have limited intelligence in this field.
Click to expand...
 
Still need more input....for the brain!!!

theletterq: I'm getting that thru the pa system as I'm doing this live and simo. What I mean, is there a way to use, say my quadraverb somehow, to ad effects, or my graphic eq, to the recording, as it records, and monitor as well.

teaintthesahara: I'm using 6 tracks on the recorder. I have the last two free. Track one are the drums (which go thru that Berhinger mixer that has 6 channels for 5-piece drum kit and hi-hat. Track two for lead guitar. Track Three for bass guitar. Track four for lead vocal. Track five for backup/lead vocal. Track six for backup/lead vocal. This is a three piece rock 'n' blues band. The lead guitar player has been using track seven on some songs as rhythm guitar after simo recording.

I appreciate any and all suggestions or comments and will gladly submit any additional information you may need to help me in this endeavor. Thanks in advance.
 
You can use the Quadraverb via the Aux sends. The only problem with this is you'll have to give up a channel for the return (Fostex brilliantly designed an effect send with no dedicated return). When you say you are recording live, does that mean you are recording your actual live show?

Also, since you have two more inputs available, I would try running the drums into a stereo pair of tracks.
 
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