Multitrack Recorders (aka Portastudio, VS, ...)

@Ian, thanks for your input. Well I just got an korg xd16 last night, already opened her up and given her a good clean, one jumpy fader, a couple of stiff tact switches, korg has all of these things in stock even a replacement rotary encoder. Anyway, until i saw this thing live I didnt realise how big it is, 70 cm wide, doesn't bother me , its really solid. I'm playing more live instruments thesedays, and wanted something quick and immediate, and never having a hardware multitracker. These MT's are the last of the top flight recorders. Don't care for 96khz but 24 bit does make a noticeable difference. After umming and ahhing for ages I'm glad I got this thing, spent 5 hrs straight. It has an analog compressor board for the first 8 inputs, sound quality is top notch very open.

i'm now the proud owner of a vs1680. it has one effects card, 2.1gig harddisk and version 1.02 operating system. it's in great condition.
i'm really enjoying working with it. love the editing functions for buliding up song and the ease of recording. i have set up my lexicon effects unit on the external outs.
i've managed to synch it with the mpc1000. although it seems to leave a fraction of a second before recording.
the loop function seems off. it seems to wait a fraction of a second at the beginning of each loop.

If you are talking about the VS when you mentioned looping these units do not loop well. At least in the sense that you are used to looping in a MPC. Remember these are for recording not live musician playing.
I tend to use the loop function when I want a singer to keep practicing a portion of the song they are recording. Then once comfortable we record.
Looping in an MPC obviously is a different matter.

The ideal way I find in using an mpc and a digital recorder is using multiple outputs on a MPC and having them go into the recorders individual inputs . Thus having your sounds separated. It is a great way to form a song.

I have never had a syncing problem. I use the song position pointer (SPP). I have made youtube videos of the syning of an mpc and roland vs. I used the 1880 and the vs2000 with a mpc4000. Works perfectly.

Glad that so many are getting back into the hardware.

THe VS1680 is nice. I notice that Akai dps16 seem to be around the same price lately as the VS units. The DPS is a better sound and easier learning curve if you can find it for less than $200. THe ROland units come with better effects and little items that make finalizing a project great.

I endorse the VS2480, 2400 and VS2000 above all though.

Cheers,
Ian

thanks for that video on synching -- i'm now using SPP and it synchs perfectly. very easy. i thought it was going to be complicated and convoluted.

i've set it up with the four seperate outs from the mpc100 and the coaxial digital outs/ins, two outs from my roland jx8p synth and two outs from a lexicon effects unit.

now i've got the synch sorted and its so easy, i've been using the digital outs on the mpc to record each track seperately into the VS, just to see how it sounds and to get practice at using the routing. the routing options on a digital mixer are so useful and easy.

i've got a basic handle on the use of locators and the editing functions -- so easy to quickly make nice arrangements and flesh out a track. really helps me break away from just having a pile of 8/16 bar loops on the mpc that never go anywhere.

I got started on an tascam dp-008 , now I'm playing with an akai dps16 and I was wondering what's the best way to get wav. Files loaded to hard drive without CPU and do they sell SD card readers for for akai dps16 cuz it made it so much easier on the dp-008 i could covert and put the on the SD card for dp-008 just with my cell phone and why come my tascam can do master records and my akai can't or can it and just haven't seen it yet? Could use some help ! my best friend who use to lace up all my tracks passed away last year and I really wish I would have gotten in to all of this aspect of the music when he was here but it is what it is could really use some help with loading wav files to akai without CPU for now I haven't spiten a single bar on the akai cuz I can't get a beat!!!!!!!

Kiladafi916 wrote:I got started on an tascam dp-008 , now I'm playing with an akai dps16 and I was wondering what's the best way to get wav. Files loaded to hard drive without CPU and do they sell SD card readers for for akai dps16 cuz it made it so much easier on the dp-008 i could covert and put the on the SD card for dp-008 just with my cell phone and why come my tascam can do master records and my akai can't or can it and just haven't seen it yet? Could use some help !

my best friend who use to lace up all my tracks passed away last year and I really wish I would have gotten in to all of this aspect of the music when he was here but it is what it is could really use some help with loading wav files to akai without CPU for now I haven't spiten a single bar on the akai cuz I can't get a beat!!!!!!!

SCSI ZIP DRIVE, SCSI MO DISK, or get SCSI CD-R.