yamaha aw16g vs. boss 1180 multitrackers

[jeffree]

I've read the popular "yamaha aw16g vs. 2816" discussion below with great interest although the responses eventually spiraled into pointless anger.

What seems obvious to me is that the yamaha aw16g and 2816 fill different recoring niches, and mine--as a musician first, engineer second--requires as simple a recorder as possible. Fortunately, a few companies, especially Yamaha and Boss (Roland) have stepped up to respond to this need.

With that said, the new Yamaha aw16g seems geared toward musicians like me--people who want good clean recordings with a minimum of fuss. In fact, I enjoyed someone's comment that some of his best recordings came from his old cassette portastudio; I can make the same comment even with my rather complex old master tapes (in the Pat Metheny/Steve Morse, Yes veins).

The real question for me (and maybe you) now is this: given that the Boss 1180 and the Yamaha aw16g seem like direct competition for each other in the $1000-for-all market, which machine will give me the simplicity yet quality that I'm seeking in a home recorder? Which will be the best for a musician--who's really not so interested in technical knob spinning--to purchase with my $1000?

I'd appreciate anyone's knowledgeable feedback.

 

[Son of Mixerman]

If I remember the aw16g is a 16 track recorder and the 1180 is only a 8+2 track recorder. Ive seen the 1180 for $745 on the MF catelog cover. Personally, I think if the budget supports the $1000 for the AW16G then it would be my choice of the 2.
But that from a person biased towards the usage of yamaha products for the home. I know that 16 tracks is better than 10 and that yamha has pretty good dsp processing. If you can try to audition them both if you live near a retail store. If not, then blindly purchase the yamaha product and never look back. Did you go here?

http://www.aw4416.com/e/news/aw16g.html

16 track playback and 4 band parametric eq is worth it to me.


SoMm

 

[The Green Hornet]

Yo Jeff who is FREE:

Yeah, that discussion about the AW16/2816 got headed South but that wasn't my fault.

If I were to buy, I'd go with MixMan and get the Yamaha AW16. it will do a good job, I think. I can't say for sure because I've never had one in my digits.

I'm sure the manual for the AW16 isn't much better than the 2816. However, I've got to say, the manual for the Yam MD8 was pretty good for basic use -- not so good for the "intricate" stuff.

So, if your ears like the AW16, go for it. Things you might want to find out are: How fast does it do CDR's [CDRW]? The 2816 will do them 8x's, and less.

Does the AW16 have a pre-write program to help you stay free from errors when burning a CD? I would guess it does but I have not seen its manual and cannot say. I'm only suggesting what you might look at.

Now, the biggie. Several folks have said the DSP in the AW16 is the same as the 2816. OK. DSP is digital signal processing. But, the manual for the 2816, specs section, says its DSP is 32 bit.

I don't know if the AW16 has 32 bit processing. You might check it out.

But, as I said in the past, for a 1k difference in price, something has to be different between the two units that equates to 1k.

I have written Yamaha for a succinct explanation of that difference; I heard from them and they said they would answer soon. So far, no answer.

Lots of Luck,
Green Hornet