Hard drive space and preamps on vf160

[Herm]

I have been thinking of buying a vf160 for live use and can get by just fine with 8 tracks.
My question is does the amout of time you can record double if
you only use 8 tracks instead of 16? I hope that makes sense.

I didnt want to get into swapping harddrives for more time if possibe. I would like to be able to record a 4 hour gig.

Also will the 1/4 inch inputs work well with mics like sm57,s
on guitar amps or will I still need an external preamp of some kind
for that?

Thanks for the Help.

 

[Axe4Yahweh]

The VF160 with it's 20 Gig HD gives almost 8 hours of record time using 8 Tracks. (472 minutes)

You will need Mic Pres or a mixer with Channel inserts on the mic channels to record with mics.

CR ><>

 

[glynb]

Its possible without preamps

Well I record directly with a Sure sm58 without using a preamp.

For vocals you have to turn up the input gain knob very high in order to get a hot signal, but it does work. I would have thought for micing up a guitar cab it should work fine as the signal is likely to be much louder than the human voice.

I believe you can buy an attachment to turn the vf160 from an 8 to a 16 track simultaneous recorder, but its not something I need so haven't bothered.

 

[PeteHalo]

Vf160 does have 8 mic preamps but only two of them have XLR jacks and phantom power that can accept both dynamic and condenser mics while the remaining six has only 1/4" jacks so you'll need a suitable adapter or a mic cable with a 1/4" plug on the other end to connect a dynamic mic into those inputs.

If you didn't get a hot signal even with the gain knob at max then you'd need another preamp in front of the built-in one but if you get a hot signal by turning up the gain then the mic pre is doing it's job just fine.