o2r to buy or not to buy!!

[halfmoonman]

Hey

I'm looking to set up a studio for myself and band,
I came across an advertisement for a Yamaha O2r version 2
It goes as follows,

02r mixer fully loaded with 3 TC unity FX cards giving 2 M2000 processors and a TC finalizer. Setup for 32 ADAT IO connectivity plus the standard Analog ins

its going for £1400

I'm kinda new to this only spent a few weeks in various other studios.
I like the look of the machine.
Do you feel this is a good starting point??

Cheers
Andrew

[ddageek]

Get a decent DAW! It will do everything an O2R will do and then some! I had an 02R for 2 months its one of the few pieces of gear I got rid of that I have never missed!

[antoniosolo]

Buy it, any decent engineer can do wonderful work with whatever he has to work with, especially PT . I want one myself. You will see a lot of guys follow each other like sheep talking convertors which is a subject you should research thoroughly. Learn to use EQ's and compression and you are fine!

[private_stock]

I've used one a handful of times and for what it's worth, I don't like it. Not that it sounds bad or anything. I actually kind of dig the built in EQ and Compressor. It doesn't cooperate with the way my brain works though.

You might like it a lot though. I know more people that really like it than don't.

[ambiguity]

I liked 01v96 better than the old 02r (admittedly I've only used the 02r twice in my life, years ago).

If I were setting up a studio for myself and a band, I'd probably get a new Onyx 1640 with the a/d card and be set.

[dannygold]

Originally Posted by ddageek

Get a decent DAW! It will do everything an O2R will do and then some!

Agree. And a DAW probably doesn't have as steep a learning curve.

[Bad Radio]

Well, I had the O2R V2 with Cakewalk and then I decided to "upgrade" to Pro Tools HD with a Control 24. That ended up being one of the biggest disappointments of my life. Don't get me wrong, PT is good for recording, editing, etc. But the mix engine flat out sucks. The O2R mixes sound WAY better. The converters are pretty harsh though on the Yamaha. So I'd use an external A/D into the DAW and then go litepipe out to the O2R.

[hipass]

The O2R is super easy to use and far easier to understand than any DAW if all you need is something that is fast and easy to use it sounds like a pretty good deal. FWIW a bar bones O2R goes for about 900-1000USD

[Johns]

Originally Posted by hipass

The O2R is super easy to use and far easier to understand than any DAW if all you need is something that is fast and easy to use it sounds like a pretty good deal. FWIW a bar bones O2R goes for about 900-1000USD

Spot on.

[EV676]

I just repurposed a O2R version 2 as a live mix board. I added a pair of 8 channel mic pre's, and moved a previously used Lexicon PCM-70 and a pair of DBX 166XL comps from the Mackie 1604 in the old rack to the new one.

I use the on-board EQ's and aux sends for floor monitor mixes. I don't use any of the Yamaha processing except for some compression on the output buss before it feeds the fiber back to the main studio.

I use it to mix bands/vocalists etc for our morning TV show. I rarely need more than 12 inputs since we keep things on a smaller scale.

[willoswald]

Oddly enough I'm just about to put my O2R on ebay. I used it as a offline edit mixer for a TV/Film cutting room but it was a joy to use and the best guitar amp I've ever had. The EQ and reverbs are really useful and it can chase timecode etc. plus all th I/Os allowed me to use it as switcher too. No more replugging! It is so under used I hide my head in shame, still in it's original box too! I doubt if you should pay £1400, seems top of the range price. I'll be lucky to get half that. Good hunting and enjoy the flying faders! It would be grand for a small studio, live band etc.

[psycho_monkey]

Originally Posted by willoswald

Oddly enough I'm just about to put my O2R on ebay. I used it as a offline edit mixer for a TV/Film cutting room but it was a joy to use and the best guitar amp I've ever had. The EQ and reverbs are really useful and it can chase timecode etc. plus all th I/Os allowed me to use it as switcher too. No more replugging! It is so under used I hide my head in shame, still in it's original box too! I doubt if you should pay £1400, seems top of the range price. I'll be lucky to get half that. Good hunting and enjoy the flying faders! It would be grand for a small studio, live band etc.

I think you need to try out a few more guitar amps!

[willoswald]

Originally Posted by psycho_monkey

I think you need to try out a few more guitar amps!

Ha ha! I mean of course the amount of EQ that you can bring to bear makes the most enormous sound difference. Plus the reverbs and compression, then stick it into your favourite amp! Thanks for the correction.

[Superflex]

If I had the choice I would rather use a daw or a 2nd generation Yamaha digital mixer like the o1v96 or o2r96. Don't get me wrong. The o2r was a great board, but in 2010 it would just not be my choice.

[Rednose]

before I got my setup I went to a studio to track drums with an O2r.
I was highly underwhelmed.
I think my Mix Wizard sounds better for drums.
Along with my API and rack of DBX 903's, its a better bet IMO.