Question

[Judge]

I've got a vs 880ex and am happy with it beside the fact that it has a small screen, but i am now looking to upgrade because i need the use of more tracks so here my question 2 u.....is there anything else worth considering beside the akai yamaha and roland series ?

i'm after 24 tracks and have been exploring the option of gettin 2 1880's for a total of 36 tracks mainly because i can get 2 of em used for less the 3000 australian dollars each.....here the 24 track brand new is around 9000 same goes for the akai which i think is a little more expensive.....now i've read a bit about the akai and it has some diffrent features with one in particular that i like which being the mulitple out puts for u monitors so u can switch between the 2.....whilst the roland has 5.1 mixing which may come handy later on down the track when i learn more about the machine. Any help would be good.....also am i better off gettin a mackie mixing desk and hookin up each channel to an adat? i herd some guy do it and got a 48 channel recorder like that?

Peace
Judge

 

[geekgurl]

Does it have to be a dedicated hard-disk recorder? I don't think you'll get much for your 880ex if you try to sell it, and other folks have had problems transferring data between those and the 1880 (you can import 880 data to 1880, I think, but it doesn't go the other way). Maybe assess your needs because you're at a point in technology available to you that far exceeds what you have; you can essentially upgrade on a clean slate.

I know this because I looked into upgrading recently. I have a VS880 and plan on keeping it for portable recording applications, but since I have a reasonably fast PC (and my idea of reasonably fast is certainly a joke today -- a PIII 550!), I can run multiple tracks of recordings done via software on it, no problem (I call it "fast" because it's fast enough to do what I want it to). If you develop a recording rig that's computer-based, your recording setup is very expandable. But then you have to deal with the computer. For some people that's not an attractive option.

Also, consider inputs. Do you just need like 1 or 2 at a time (are you recording one instrument at a time) but need lots of tracks? Then how much does an M Audio Audiopile card and Sonar software package cost in Aussie ducats? That's about $600 US when factoring in Sonar XL, the de-luxe model ... and the A/D converters in the Audiophile are supposed to be better than the 1880s. Just a thought.

I don't want to derail you ... just piping up with another option (computer-based) to consider in your upgrade plans. Maybe it's worth considering, or maybe your situation calls for stand-alone recorders ...