General Thoughts on the VF80?

[Floored_Music]

Hi all, I'm new to the forum so suppose I should say "hi" first before jumping straight into brain-picking mode.

Now that that's out of the way, please pay no attention to the probe hovering near your ear... it's only there to observe and will in no way interfere with your muse....

All my prior recording experience has been with a Tascam 4-track analog (at least 15 years ago) and more recently with a freeware software-only setup on my PC, taking guitar and vocals straight into the sound card (not pretty, but it works to preserve tunes for posterity sake at least)

Now Mrs Claus is telling me I have a thousand bucks to spend on a recording setup for x-mas, whoo-hoo! Only problem is I know nothing about these digital studios and am more than a little nervous about making the wrong choice and picking a stinker. I like what I've read about the VF80 over anything else in this price-range and would love to hear what your general comments and thoughts are about the unit. What do you like, dislike? What works as advertised and what doesn't? Really, anything that you feel I ought to know up front is what I'd like to hear.

Thanks in advance,

 

[Dopple]

With prior experience with recording I can see it being a sweet machine. I on the other hand are learning from scratch and have only just started to understand a little of what it does. I don't have a great set up though so It's just really me and my guitar just now. I hope to get it working with my computer very soon. Just as soon as I figure it out D

 

[mrmope]

VF80

Much like yourself I had been recording on a Fostex 4 track for a few years, and a few months ago I got a VF80. This was a huge upgrade for me. The machine does everthing it says it does, easy to use, and excellent recording quality. I found myself wanting more tracks shortly after I had it, and wish I had bought the VF160, however, if you are sure you won't be recoding more than 2 tracks at once you should be very happy with this machine. Now how do I convince my wife how imprtant it is to spend more cash on a VF160?

 

[jfrog]

It's a great machine (I have a VF-08) - provided that the amount of tracks & inputs is sufficient for you. You can get around the track limitations by combining tracks, of course.

It also depends on if you want to spend all your music budget on the recorder, or have some $$ left for mic's, a drum machine or whatever else you need in your recording process.

P.S. Did Mrs. Claus happen to mention anything about MY equipment budget?

 

[a12stringer]

Since my previous experience in medieval times utilized an ancient Akai open-reel [analog] tape deck with sound-on-sound capability and using two cassette decks and a mixer to record two tracks at a time and then blend the two tracks into two mic'ed signals through the mixer into another cassette deck, I felt like I'd died and gone to recording heaven.

I later found out that much of what I had been doing was what musicians (including even the Beatles) had been doing for years before the advent of semi-pro home studio equipment in the mid- 1970s. I wish I still had those tapes, I wrote some songs that might have been worth keeping and laid down some great bass lines on a really cheap copy of a Hofner 500/1. Wish I still had that bass.

 

[Progger]

The kind of music you play will dictate the machine you should get. If its stripped-down (2 guitars, bass, drums, keyboard, vocals), a VF80 should be just fine. But if you want to get into adding little accenting touches, 8 tracks won't be enough.

 

[gtrplayer_1966]

Works for me!`

I've had the unit for about 6months. I returned the CD Burner. it's WAY too expensive for what it does and limits you to one song per CD. Crazy if you ask me. Plus a bit complicated to get it burnt.

I simply record my tracks, set the levels and then run it into my pc for further editing and then simply burn it or save it etc...

Have fun. I love it!

 

[LukeZen]

Re: Works for me!`

I've had the unit for about 6months. I returned the CD Burner. it's WAY too expensive for what it does and limits you to one song per CD. Crazy if you ask me. Plus a bit complicated to get it burnt.

You can definitely burn more than one song to a cd, I've done it many times. Took a helluva read to figure out how, it's not that obvious but it is possible believe me.

Luke

 

[gtrplayer_1966]

Well,....I must say that in another post of mine I was schooled on something very important!

If you do not use the internal burner with the VF80 and decide to go out of the VF80 into your computer...REMEMBER, unless you use SPDIF you are NOT keeping the digital quality! Therefore, unless you do that you defeat the purpose of digital recording.

This is a fairly easy fix though. Just ensure that your soundcard supports SPDIF in and you're set!

One of the best for the price in my research has consistently revealed the M-Audio Delta 410. Runs about 100bucks.
http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=239 <-- good info here.

Best of luck
Matt

 

[Lawrence Bulloc]

I've only begun to explore the Fostex VF-80, but my initial reactions to it are: a) It has a great sound--much better than what I had been using
b) the controls, while a bit daunting are not that hard once you've read throught the manual (and keep it handy while you're working)
c) It's good for the price.

I'm looking forward to learning a lot more about it.

 

[YeshuasFan]

I purchased my VF-80 three years ago and while I consider it good, it's not the best out there in terms of bang for the buck.
First, it isn't a true 8 track. It's a six track recorder. Tracks 7&8 are reserved for mixing down.
Second, the onboard FX are only available during mixing down and mastering--so if you want to use compression as an effect during the recording phase--you have to purchase an outboard one.
Third, the FX that are available are minimal at best. And some FX which should be standard aren't even included in the menu (such as phasing).

The comparable Boss and Zoom units are true 8-track studios, have built-in drum machines (albeit minimal at best) and do not include your rhythm track in the track count. So you actually get a 10-track studio for about the same cost as you pay for the Fostex VF80(EX).