Help me decide please!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Pier Calacino
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Pier Calacino

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Hello folks,

Maybe you can help me make up my mind or help me avoid making a big mistake on whether to buy the Yamaha MD8 or the Tascam 788, or something else, but these two are the ones I have been looking at. I am really having a difficult time deciding between the two. I get to where I think I have made up my mind and then I read a post or hear a comment that starts me thinking again. I would like to hear your honest opinions, pros and cons of the two.

I currently use a Tascam 424MKII and would like to take the next step up! I want somthing that is easy to use, reliable and has great sound quality.

OPINIONS PLEASE !!!!!

Thanks in advance for your time and help, I value your advice.

Sincerely
Pier Calacino
 
A few thoughts . . . .

Pier,

You may want to think about going in another direction. Make no mistake, good sounding recordings can be made on minidisk recorders, but they do use data compression to fit the data to the minidisk. This to some extent colors the sound. If you're not a purist, then the relatively inexpensive minidisk multitrack is good for you. It is arguable whether or not the data compression is audible (I think it is).
I'd suggest taking a look at computer recording with a soundcard and software and/or a stand-alone Digital Audio Workstation. These things record to hard drives and most DO NOT compress the data.
I guess it all depends on how pristine you want your recordings to sound and what your budget is.
Give us some info on your budget and your needs.

--Tax :D
 
Thanks for the thoughts TaxMan88

My budget is around $1,500 and my needs are just home recording with a drum machine, guitar, keyboard and vocals. And I do want them to sound reasonably good !

So do you think I should be looking at a hard disk recorder or an ADAT package ?

Just forget about the MD8?

Thanks
Pier
 
YO Calacino of the Pier:]

I use the MD8 and it's all right but not as good as the 24 bit sound hard drive boxes.

With your budget you might want to look at several options. The Roland 890 looks like a good 24 bit box; I don't know what the learning curve would be but it will be there no matter what the literature says.

Also, you want to make sure that the gear you get will record on X number of tracks. Some boxes record only on two tracks at a time; others, four tracks; others 8 tracks. I've never had the need for 8 tracks at once as I also use a drum machine and over-dub to build a song. For singers I usually feed in CD background music and the singer does her thing -- works fine and saves me a lot of work doing "special arrangements." [I don't want to work that hard any more.]

If you can get a HANDS ON demo of various units, it would be worth the trip to Full Compass or Sweetwater or wherever. If that is not practical, then you need to do much research and get a unit that suits your needs. But, make sure you get the 24 bit sound; at the moment, that's about the best other than more expensive gear.

Good luck and keep recording.

Green Hornet
 
i'd reccomend the md8 - some of the people on this post go way overboard on the md8 compression - without equipment - you can't tell - for the money - i don't think anything comes close to the md8 - 8 tracks in one direction for 1000.00 - wow - i did extensive research on these records (boss/roland etc.) and lucked out - the guitar center where i purchased my md8 had a guy who recorded a tune on several of the recorders - each one a different recording - and no one could tell the difference from the md8 / roland / boss etc. - NO ONE - now, granted - this guy was good and knew what he was doing - and this is not a shot against inexperience - it takes time to make good recordings regardless of the box you are using -
and a 24 bit box recording won't sound any better than an md4/8 if what you are putting in is lacking - hard drive machines ??? - i would have filled any of them completely in about 3 weeks - and then i'd have to spend an awful lot of time downloading to zip disks - clearing the hard - reloading what i need to work on -
you'd be surpised just how quick they fill up - and i guess the disc is one of things i most like about the md8 - i just don't want to spend time doing disc work
(copying to zip/clearing/re-loading etc.) - i'm tickled pink with my md8 and will have a cd out sometime this summer - all recorded with the md8
 
Thanks for the input !!!

Thanks Gbrigman for your input !

So I guess it's an MD8 !

You know that's what I kind of thought but I just wanted to hear it from some one who had actual experience.

I guess the only thing to worry about is if they discontinue the media. Do you think this will happen ?

Thanks Pier
 
Minidisc will probably continue as a medium for a long time. It has a huge user base around the world and I speculate that Sony is making a lot of money on it. It never caught on in the US for some reason.
 
mini discs won't go away - they are extremely popular in europe - quite a bang for the buck - i think you'll be very happy with the md8 - also -
check out www.tapewarehouse.com - i've been getting sony md data disks for 10.19- 10.49 each - they ship the same day and are tops in service !!!
 
gbrigman said:
some of the people on this post go way overboard on the md8 compression - without equipment - you can't tell -
Click to expand...
...then you simply don't have very good ears....

Bruce
 
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