Advice needed for all-in-one multi-tracker

[Sounds Great]

For a friend of mine. He wants to buy a compact unit that has 8 tracks with at least 4 microphone inputs and built in CD burner. I am not up on the latest, so I thought I would pose the question. Perhaps a Roland or Fostex or?

Thanks.

[PHILANDDON]

The Akai DPS24 MKII is probably the best. Also, the priciest. I have a Roland VS-2000 which I like pretty well. I had the BR1600 which was way cool and easy but decided to "upgrade" to the VS-2000. Often, I wished I hadn't.

[aussie_techie]

Yamaha AW series, an easy user interface and they can be had fairly cheep the Rolands are a bit pricey for basicly the same thing and can be harder to use.

[Mark]

Korg's new D888 kind of meets your criteria.

Except for the CD burner bit

[squeegybug]

How compact?

I've owned Yamaha AW16G and Akai DPS24. The Akai is outrageously great sound and extremely powerful. It's my only studio recording and mixing system now. But it's 40 lbs and a large footprint.

The AW16 is tiny by comparison. Preamps are nothing spectacular, but the overall sound can be decent, good effects and EQ, and they are cheap in the used market. I agree they are easy to use. 44.1k/16 bit though. I've not used the current AW1600 version which does offer higher resolution, but at higher cost as well.

The smaller Roland/Boss/Fostex/Korg/Zoom/Tascam stuff I've used felt awfully plastic-y to me.

Steve

[Sounds Great]

Thanks everyone, I will research those models.

[aussie_techie]

Originally Posted by squeegybug

The AW16 is tiny by comparison. Preamps are nothing spectacular, but the overall sound can be decent, good effects and EQ, and they are cheap in the used market. I agree they are easy to use. 44.1k/16 bit though. I've not used the current AW1600 version which does offer higher resolution, but at higher cost as well.

if you are looking at the used market the AW4416/2816 offers a fair bit more than an AW16G with more channels, motorized faders, detailed automation, and you can record at 24bit and 48KHz. of course they are a fair bit bigger. it sucked that the AW16G only did 16 bit i never realy cared it didnt do 48KHz. the limitation was done to make it easy to burn direct to CD with no saple rate conversion or dithering needed, still i think they should of just done 24bit i mean the processing was 32bit float anyway so there should of been a dither regardless, but oh well just keep you input levels decent and it wasnt an issue. pres were nothing special in either but they always worked fine and clean and low noise enough to run anything into them.

alot of info on all 3 on www.aw4416.com

[Andrew Kinsey]

The Fostex VF160EX has 16 channels and an integrated CD burner, its alot cheaper than the Akai DSP24.

Fostex do have an eight channel unit, the MR8 however it doesnt have a cdrw.

Check out the following link for pics and prices.
http://www.soundtools.co.uk/Products/Mixers/DM.htm

[Mark]

How in the hell is the MR8 an 8 channel unit??

Sure, it's got 8 faders, but I challenge any one to get more than two mics into the bleeding thing.

Unless you can plug one of those new USB equipped mixers into it.

[Fisherman]

Originally Posted by Andrew Kinsey

The Fostex VF160EX has 16 channels and an integrated CD burner, its alot cheaper than the Akai DSP24.

Fostex do have an eight channel unit, the MR8 however it doesnt have a cdrw.

Check out the following link for pics and prices.
Sound Tools Ltd - Digital Mixers

I just bought Prism Sound Orpheus through Sound Tools in UK 3 weeks ago and still waiting for the rest 250£ and receipt.

How pro is that?

Avoid dealing with this guy Andrew Kinsey.