Portable Digital Recorders

[billisa]

relating to what's been discussed so far:
: does the Fostex VF16 have that problem of not having real knobs and sliders on the face? and does anyone who's been following this have thoughts on the Korg D16?

It's now the Fostex VF160, and it's a great unit with 16 faders, plus a stereo master fader. Different effects parameters are adjusted via a jog wheel (very easy), plus the machine is very stable, not requiring harddrive formatting, optimizing, defragging, etc. Other machines do need optimizing, defragging, etc. The VF160 does this as you go, and saves everything along the way.

A lot of people like the Korgs, but the unit currently out there isn't the D16 but the D1600mkII.

 

[Dimebag]

What about the Korg D1200 does anybody know if those are good and easy to use?

I got one of those, and I love it. Off course, I would love to have an Akai DPS24 but I simply can't afford it... For what it is and for the price, the D1200 cannot be beat IMO... I tested just about every HD-Recorder in my price-range, when I was shopping, and the Korg came out as a winner, because of :
- It CAN do 24 bit, if it has to.
- It's extremely easy to use, compared to the others.
- The effects are great
- It has modelling features for both guitars, bass, and mics (and pretty good sounding)
- It did seem to sound more "clear and airy" compared to the others (also in 16 bit)
- It has a great "support-forum", although it's not an official Korg-site : http://www.korgstudios.com

The others I tested were AW16G, Tascam 788, Boss 1180, and Zoom 1066. If I could have gotten my hands on an Akai DPS16 or DPS12 (the ones with harddisc, not JAZ-drive) I think that would have been my choice, because those things sound great... but in my corner of the world they're not easy to find...

Dime...

 

[Paj]

SIAB

I've been using a Fostex VF160CD for about 1.5 years now, quite a bit for recording live, from the stage, during performances. Not one single crash and I've had days where it has been working 10-12 hours a day. Works even better and better with each free downloaded software upgrade AND useful features keep getting added! It records 10 simultaneous channels right out of the box if two of the channels can be input via TOSLINK (S/PDIF-ADAT lightpipe), and 16 simultaneous channels with a variety of manufacterer's 8-channel ADAT add-ons. The ADAT interface opens up a lot of hardware (including soundcard) possibilities and features.

Do you need all those channels live? Not for stereo-pair recording but a trio can gobble up 8-10 channels in no time at all, even before the drummer!

Stage setup time: From the time it takes to unzip the (free) gigbag, to cable, level and ready ten inputs---10 minutes or less.

There are a number of good SIABs out there, and with higher and higher sample rates in the newer stuff, the price for 44.1kHz (CD-quality) machines will only drop. If four simultaneous channels is all you need, Korg, Yamaha, Akais, Boss and Zoom might give you a model with extra bells & whistles that you like. If you're going to do live multichannel, Fostex is hard to beat in the price/performance category.

None of them is probably perfect but, having grown up (way) "back in the day", there are some amazing bargains to be had.

Good luck,
Paj
8^)

P.S.: The manual---don't leave home without it!