Optimal Hard Disk recorder $1000-$1500

by **Tweak** on Sat Dec 17, 2005 8:43 pm

Yamaha AW1600

Boss BR1600CD

Tascam 2488

Korg D3200

Alesis ADAT HD24

Opinions are welcome!

by **thursday** on Sun Jan 07, 2007 12:05 am

korgmakes a clean sounding machine better than the zoom 16 track i have (16 bit) and much better than my old Boss BR-8. I recorded my Ovation acoustic mic'ed with an AT4033 and the playback was spot on-really accurate. You can hear the "body" or fullness of tone that seems to be missing from 16 bit recording. I plugged a Squier bass direct in to its hi-z input and was very happy with the sound uncompressed.
the effects are dissapointing. the only patches that can multi effect are for guitar, maybe usable but not great. I really don't care for the Korg reverb no matter how i tweaked it. Even the old BR8 with one hall and one room program sounded smoother.
Session Drums; useful but underwhelming. Better sounds with the Zoom. The Zoom also had pads to make up your own beats. You are stuck with what's on tap w/ the Korg. The loops play and as you tweak the knobs you can strip or add parts to the percussion ensemble.
But, and its a big one the basic loop hasn't varied. Which means there isn't as many beats as advertised. Oh , and the fills SUCK.

by **Drew** on Sat Feb 10, 2007 7:26 pm

With the korg D3200, What options do I have for hooking it up to speakers? How do I do it?

by **thursday** on Sat Feb 10, 2007 9:57 pm

It has monitor outs. just hook 'em up to a pair of powered speakers or to a power amp if your speakers are passive

by **Drew** on Sun Feb 11, 2007 10:11 pm

Thanks

by **thursday** on Sun Feb 11, 2007 10:15 pm

also has headphone out, master out,aux outs s/pdif out

by **sundait** on Fri May 04, 2007 3:45 am

i did read that for multitrack..if possible go for 24 bit, uncompress format..is br1600 in this category??

by **thursday** on Fri May 04, 2007 10:55 am

no br1600 is 16 bit

by **Catchup** on Wed Aug 08, 2007 1:01 am

The AW 1600 wins my vote - I own it, and it does what it is supposed to well.

by **Didier PAIN** on Tue Sep 25, 2007 7:49 am

The Tascam 2488 is a very nice tool.

by **tdixon** on Mon Nov 12, 2007 5:05 pm

Fostex MR16HD 16-Track Digital Recorder

http://cachepe.zzounds.com/media/qualit ... c3861b.jpg

Very, Very cool multitrack. On it's way to me. Compliments if ZZSounds. $439.00 plus free shipping.....yeah yeah yeah !!!!!!

by **Tweak** on Tue Nov 13, 2007 5:25 am

http://www.zzounds.com/a--3745/item--FO ... /sid--SCf3

Interesting pricing on this product. $399 for the one without the cd burner.

by **nickeax** on Thu Nov 15, 2007 3:46 am

I just purchased the Yamaha AW1600 this week and I already love it. I also have a Tascam 2488 which has been having read problems... The 2488 is a very nice unit to work with (when it works!), but I couldn't trust it not to fail so I went to DAW based recording.

Not a wise move for me! I really hated working with my DAW (EMU 1620m), it seemed like too much frustration just to get up and running. I know many people do not have the same problems that I had, but enough was enough for me.

I simply want to assign a channel to a track and record away. And the AW1600 does this to perfection. It's a long way in front of it's rivals in my book, as it's built with work in mind. The things that you really look for when you want to get the job done are on the Yammy.

Of course, I can't make professional grade recordings in my little room with the 1600, but that's not what I'm about. I want to have fun making music and if I ever create something worthy of it, I'll head to a real studio!

I'm not against anyones choices here, as I believe that as long as you're happy with your gear, that's all that matters. I just happen to have found the AW1600 to ring true with my style and needs.

For anyone interested, this is the first thing I made with it... http://www.guitaraustralia.com/KnockOnWood.mp3 (3.5MB)

by **rbmunkin** on Thu Nov 05, 2009 7:01 pm

Tweak,
Somewhere you mentioned that the Korg D3200 is easier to use than the Tascam 2488neo. Can you elaborate on that? Easier in what way?

Also, is it worth double the money? I don't need all the extra tracks that it offers over the Tascam, but there may be other reasons its worth the extra dough.

Thanks,
RB

by **Tweak** on Sat Nov 07, 2009 10:41 am

rbmunkin wrote:Tweak,
Somewhere you mentioned that the Korg D3200 is easier to use than the Tascam 2488neo. Can you elaborate on that? Easier in what way?

Also, is it worth double the money? I don't need all the extra tracks that it offers over the Tascam, but there may be other reasons its worth the extra dough.

Thanks,
RB

Hmm, i don't know if the d3200 is easier. I may have said the 2488 was complicated on some functions because I used to work with one, at least compared to the Zoom R16. Keep in mind these things don't use mice so there is a lot of button pushing and scroll wheeling to do just about anything. The d3200 has more internal processors and has the Session Drummer. The displays are small-ish on both, but the d3200 uses a smaller font it seems, as they manage to cram more info onto the screen. Not a problem if you have excellent near vision.

The product lines before the d3200 generation were BIG console sized 24 track machines that cost about 3,000. The d3200 took all that technology and got it down into a portable package. Todays trend is smaller still, fewer functions, no longer pretending to be a full DAW but something you record on and dump to a computer.

by **thursday** on Sat Nov 07, 2009 10:17 pm

the Korg has plwnty of frustrations. Its mic pres are not great either BUT they take well to a preamp upgrade like RNP. cant say if its an impedance
match but it works its quiet and you can hear the improvement in terms of "focus'

Probably the most user friendly would have to be the boss machines

by **Tweak** on Sun Nov 08, 2009 12:58 am

Welcome back, thursday. I had one of the Boss machines for a week. It sounded good, but it compressed the audio to make the files more manageable. Not sure if they still do that. I eventually went with the Yamaha AW1600. It seemed a little simpler than the 2488 and did not compress files. But Yamaha stuff is so ...Yamaha. The coders are in love with making "scolding" alert boxes. One is constantly pressing "OK!". That is one reason why I am beginning to think these things should be simpler or go all the way to a big console for people who don't want to use computers. That r16 by zoom really has me thinking. Also the Cakewalk VS100--a portable device that functions both as a 2 ch recorder --or--an 8 ch audio interface. It not only saves money, but could put hi quality components in a mobile unit.

by **mark harper** on Sat Nov 28, 2009 10:45 am

I noticed the Alesis is a completely different looking recorder. Basically looks like an amp. Is it used in the same way the other multi-track recorders are used. ? I currently have a tascam dp02 and like the ease of use....but looking now for a upgrade. thanks...

by **Tweak** on Sat Nov 28, 2009 3:58 pm

The Alesis is in a different class, often called "Modular MTRs". When you get one of these its assumed you will add a digital (or large analog) console, a patchbay. A computer is not needed in this rig, but may be used as an offline editor. I'm sure many ADAT studios actually feed tracks to a computer based sequencer after the recording session.

by **gregwar** on Sat Nov 28, 2009 4:04 pm

the alesis can also be used as 24x24 'online' converters my friend has one hooked up to his fireface 800 (channels 9-24) over adat sound alright and he can fire up just the alesis if he wants to get an idea down quickly without firing up the computer, daw, etc.