I'm thinking about going digital:
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/DP008EX
Is anyone using that machine or one similar (esp. in price range)?
i think kf whitman praised that machine somewhere, tiny + feature rich...
that tiny screen though, as with my zoom or any other device... its like mixing with an old cell phone... menu/ choose page/ choose parameter/ adjust value/ go back one page/ choose wtf there went my train oh well...
those onboard mikes are probably also above average.. see if you get option to record, lets say, 1x line in (from mixer/mik/whatever) +1x onboard mik for instant room/ambience, shit wont sound so flat when blended into a bit of space
There are two analog inputs. I doubt I'd use the built-in mics but who knows? Could be useful... Price seems good considering the other digital recorders seem to jump up to $300-400.
I used to have one, ended up selling it to buy a cassette 4 track. :b
It's a very orderly and intuitive unit. It'll do what you expect it to. Minimal menu-diving. Good sound quality & overdubbing is effortless. The mics are a bit awkward due to placement, though I didn't experiment much with them.
Gripes: Eats batteries, power supply sold separately. It doesn't record in .wav like on handheld Zooms and the like; you convert .001 (etc) files in the "track export" setting, and it is not fast. Longer tracks can easily take an hour.
Avoid, except if you like to play with menu, sub-menu, sub-sub-menu. If you have big fingers, difficulty is duplicated.
I think that the Zoom R8 is better.
No power adapter means it's out of the running. The Zoom R8 includes it. I'm just looking around. I'll probably wait until the 4-track has died.
I thought there would be more options for multitrackers...
zoom H4N recommended -- also R16: record 8 at once, then add another 8. decent onboard mics. laptop sized. everybody's selling theirs cos the new models have "more of everything". 2nd hand ca.200-250?
I switched from tape to digital in the last year and very much grew to prefer digital- the workflow is a little more difficult to wrap your head around than on a cassette 4 track in my opinion, but I definitely prefer that cold clinical digital tone.
Quote from: bitewerksMTB on January 02, 2017, 10:37:14 PM
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/DP008EX
Is anyone using that machine or one similar (esp. in price range)?
Just noticed this topic. I got that very one earlier last year, I think it was. Great little unit if all you want to do is just record sounds, layer them, maybe edit them a bit. But if you want more editing function you're better dumping files onto a DAW. For straight up, raw recording, it's fine. The inbuilt microphones are okay but nothing special. The big advantage is its portability and affordability. The disadvantages I suppose are there's a bit of faffing around with creating partitions and such, going between pages on the menu to do things like name tracks, adjust eq and panning and so forth - perhaps not much worse than working out a good analogue multi track. The problem of course is the more features a unit has, the more one has to learn. In truth, the eq-ing and other editing parts are probably more trouble than worth bothering with. And yes, the track "exporting" thing adds more time than should be necessary.
Mine has a power adapter included, so I'm not sure what the story is there.
Mostly I just use it as an interface between instruments and main computer. I got the thing originally because I wanted something portable I could record at different sites, and this is small and cheap. It could well be used as a back-up recording/editing device if and when my main computer dies, but I wouldn't rely on it all the time.
But I do like it as it meets my needs very well.