pc editing - cd drive or ADAT?

[blackest]

My band recently purchased a vf160ex and have found it to be wonderful piece of equipment. We have about 8 full songs stored on it, each with about 14 - 20 tracks each.

We would like to transfer the tracks to a pc for editing and mixing but need some advice as to the best way to do this.

I think there are two routes we could go down:
1) Using the cd drive to burn wav files. The only problem is that we did not buy it with the cd burner. I was wondering if it is possible to buy a standard laptop style cd drive for it or if you have to buy the fostex drive. The cheapest fostex cd drive we could find was £149.99 which seems very pricey for a cd drive.

2) Using the ADAT I/O and using syncronisation to sync to my pc. I dont have a soundcard with optical I/O at the moment - how much does it cost for a decent one?

What do you think is the best/cheapest option of the two??
I am hoping someone can help us as we really want to get mixing and hopefully have a cd ready by the end of the month!!

 

[Dulock Mangrove]

Well, let me see....

I'm sort of a newb, but I've had my VF160ex about a year now, so I can give some sort of constructive opinion I guess.

I would say it is probably "easier" to transfer via ADAT, but about the cheapest card you can get to do ADAT lightpipe is the EMU 1212M, which is $199 new. I have a 0404, and going to get a 1212 to transfer with ADAT, but it isn't really that difficult to just burn them to CD and then load them on your computer. Than you don't have to deal with MTC and all that.

If your in a hurry and want to start mixing, than I would just take the path of least resistance (cash). You'll bunk a batch of discs doing it, but you can always save those for when you get big, and they want to remaster, he he he he.

Sorry totally missed the part where you say yours doesn't have the CDR in it. I would think that any laptop cdr with similar specs to the Fostex would work, I'll look into that and get back to you, unless someone beats me to it.
In that case I would say the it will be cheaper to go the cdr route. I have never used the ADAT, so I can't vouch for it's ups and downs, but having used the cdr method, I really don't mind it personally.

I don't use that many tracks per song (6-12), but most of my songs have fit on a single cd, so you may be looking at two per song, maybe three, so that's like $10 and a couple hours of time, VS, like $200 for a sound card, plus a midi cable if you don't have one already, as well as at least $20-30 for a optical cable, or maybe a $100 for a CDR and you'll get the same results either way. Depends on what is more important to you, your time or the almight dollar.

Update>>>>>

This pulled from the Fostex web site.

PLEXTOR PX-W1210TSE *3 CD-R/RW 640MB OK:B/CD
Operation-Confirmed ATAPI CD-R/RW Device
Manufacturer Model Medium Type Capacity OPERATION
Fostex CD-1A *3 CD-R/RW 640MB OK:B/CD
*3 : In order to update the software or save / load WAV files using the Plextor CD-R/RW drive PX-W1210TSE or Fostex optional ATAPI internal CD-R/RW drive CD-1A, the VF160 software must be updated to V1.11 or later.

This basically states that they have tested said plextor cd drive, and it works, and I know that most hard drives will work, not just those on the Fostex web site, so I would assume that any CDR/W with the same interface, which I want to say is ATAPI will work. I really don't know though, I hope someone here can shed a little more light on the CDR subject. Hope this helps some, sorry it's so long, need to practice my typing.

Anyways, are you using a good sound card now? If not, maybe the EMU 1212 or 1820 would be a better route for you. It would be much quicker to transfer I would imagine, and you don't have to deal with installing a CDR. One thing I've learned around here is that sometimes the cheapest route isn't the best. I now wish I had bought the 1212 the first time instead of the 0404. I was trying to save $100 bucks, and now I'm gonna spend $100 more than I would have. Live and learn. Thanks for listening.

 

[Dulock Mangrove]

My final thoughts....

Well since I pretty much argued both sides of your question, I'll leave you with this.

After looking at the price of laptop cdr drives, ($150 is about the average, from what I see, maybe I'm wrong) I would probably go the sound card route. The prices are pretty close, and if you are planning on mixing on your computer, than it really makes more since to skip the "middle man" so to speak. Plus if your just using a regular consumer sound card, the emu will be a breath of fresh air. Just my $5.02 worth.

 

[blackest]

Thanks for the reply.

I agree that it's probably easier to transfer via ADAT and i will save a lot of cd's, but i usually like to keep backups of all my stuff on cd anyway so that shouldnt be too much of a problem.

I dont have a decent sound card at the moment, just the one that came with the laptop. Soundfusion crystal audio card i think.

I think i am going to go for the cd drive as its cheaper for me at the moment but the emu 1212 soundcard looks like something to think about for the future.

I'm from Scotland just to let you know, I have seem the emu 1212 for £139.99 over here but i dont have any ADAT or MIDI cables and that would be about another £30 for ADAT and £35 for MIDI I/O cable. that works out at about £205 compared to about £149 for the cd drive. Also i don't really want to deal with MTC and all that!

I'll let you know how i get on once i get the cd drive.

Thanks again for your input.

 

[carelessorc]

I disagree: the easiest way is transfer tracks as WAV files by CDR/RW. Transfer via ADAT may seem easy cos it's down a cable -but it isn't: as DM says there are sync issues, they are MIDI and digital audio issues, and you can only transfer 8 tracks at once, so it will take 3 real-time passes for songs which have more than 16 tracks. Actually you can do it without synchronisation, but then you have to have some way of lining up tracks.
I use CDR and it works a treat: all tracks line up, and I have a backup.
Also: I would buy the Fostex CD1A if I were you: as well as the drive you get a modified blanking plate so it looks right.

Digital Village £149.00; but use that price to haggle with another dealer?

Good Luck

Orc

 

[blackest]

thanks for the reply orc.
sorry for the delay in replying but i've been away on holiday.

The cd drive has just arrived and i'm just about to install it. Hopefully it shouldn't be too difficult. I'll then transfer all the tracks from my laptop onto the fostex and finish our recordings. They should be finished by the end of the week.

if you want, you can check out some live recordings i made here: www.myspace.com/blacklistedrock. quite muddy but they were just rough talkes and i didnt have enough time to set the levels properly or mix it properly. (they were recorded straight to cd from the mixer, no mixing, overdubs or anything - (not on the vf160ex))