Fostex vf-16

[cidnbnet.nb.ca]

Anyone used the fostex vf-16?....I just came from a music store and it was on sale for $1400.00 (Can.).....It looks good and it seems like a good deal?....It's either this or the Tascam US-428....I like the portability and the familiarity of the fostex....anyone have any helpful suggestions?....thanks

[strat0124]

cross the border...they go for around 9 bills stateside.

[cidnbnet.nb.ca]

Yeah that works out to about the same in canadian dollars....but what about the units themselves?.....are the effects good on the Fostex?...I know the Roland and Boss units have some pretty good guitar fx, as well as over all effects. The only thing i'm not crazy about with them is the whole zip thing. Anyway any info would be greatly appreciated..thanx again....

[stratman_dup1]

I have one so I'll give my opinion. The effects are usable, but not what I'd call stellar. The compression is there if ya need it but I'm going to get an outboard compressor cause I don't care for the onboard compressor, plus you only have compression on tracks 13/14 or 15/16 plus master tracks. That gets used up really quick, wish it had dynamics on every channel. There is also no dedicated effects return for outboard effects, you have to use a track for that. Signal routing is not very flexible in bus recording mode, there is no way to keep multiple tracks seperate in bus record. The best you can do is pan tracks hard left and right. Of course in direct recording mode you can record up to eight tracks independantly (16 if using adat as well). Actually I would say to make sure portability is really a factor, it is much easier to edit on the computer than any stand alone recorder. I bought a sound card with Adat I/O so I could fly my audio tracks into my computer and edit/add effects there. It is much easier than trying to do any real editing within the VF itself. Over all I like the VF-16, as I said the effects are usable if not stellar but what do ya expect for the price. I haven't had a problem with mine, but of course right after I got it I quit my band so I haven't used it as much as planned but I have done quite a bit at home with it. But to be quite honest I got it because at the time I was in a band and I needed 16 tracks to work with. Had I known that I was going to be leaving the band I probably would have settled for an 8 track that gives the option to record at 24 bit resolution (VF is 16 bit). Might be a good idea to go check out [url=http://www.VF16.com]www.VF16.com[/url] a non official user sight where you can look at the forums and see people's problems and complaints before buying. Good luck.