I'm sure this has been covered somewhere over time (if you know the thread, please post it...)...
But just how good are the digital workstation multi-tracks (studio in a box) -- specifically the 16 track hard disks like the Yamaha aw1600, Korg d1600, Tascam 2488, roland etc. all around the $900 - $1200 range
Using only quality mics, a decent room, a good set of ears & experience, no other external equipment or effects (just what is available in the machines), what kind of quality can you expect? Air-Play quality? Good enough to sell to the public? Good enough to get noticed by an A & R guy? Good enough to impress your friends? Not that much better than the 8-track cassette?
Or, how about this... Let's take the same musicians and record the same song with the same mics and in the same room using two different methods. One song would be recorded with the 'real' studio equipment, and one with one of the $1000 DAWs. Would the average person be able to tell the difference between them, and if so, how dramatic are the differences?
I'm mostly interested in the abilities of that segment of recorders overall, not so much whether Korg is better than Yamaha etc. (I'll start that thread later. .when I'm closer to buying one! :))
thanks!
Comments
They aint too bad. They are quite a bit better than a cassette
They aint too bad. They are quite a bit better than a cassette portastudio. They are good enough if you are looking to do your own thing and produce your own CD's. If you know what your doing on it, I could see a song recorded on one played on the radio. A&R people aren't necesarily looking for quality, they want a hit song.
They offer a complete package so you don't have to go out and buy separate preamps, eq's, desks, tape machines, outboard gear, etc. But because of that they are somewhat limited. I don't know how good their AD/DA converters are. I would assume they differ by manufacturer and model.
I don't like their built in effects and signal processing stuff. But for starting out, they aint too bad. Once you get more knowledge and experience you'll find that those are very limited and generally crappy sounding and you'll definitely want to move up to a more versatile system.
I've heard that with the more expensive units you can buy plug-in cards and get some good efx.
For people just starting out in recording they are great. They are like a portastudio, with (better) editing, better quality and more tracks.
I have a roland 1824 it was my first DAW, an upgrade from the Ta
I have a roland 1824 it was my first DAW, an upgrade from the Tascam 4 track tape. PRO's with DAW is that it is portable, wont take up much room, and fairly inexpensive. I used mine to do some projects that people thought were good.
Cons: Gain knobs usually are crappy if you move it a little bit then the gain structure changes dramaticaly, limited number of tracks in your price range I guess 12-18, usually can do a few effects but they are not good, you need some form of audio editing software to make it sound good, you really cant do any great recordings. If I were you I would take the money and buy a digital interface and some software, it will sound better. Go with like a 002 because with some mic pres you can do quite a bit of tracks, and you get plug ins.