GAS Flashbacks - Digital Recorders

[Markyboard]

During one of our holiday Zoom-fests we reminisced about old gear which sparked some GAS flashbacks.

 

http://www.muzines.co.uk/images_mag/articles/mt/MT_90_06_roland_s770_large.jpg

 

I wanted one of these puppies SO BAD back in the day. This was before GAS was even a thing. I bought a S1000 maybe a year or so before this came out and was just drooling over the additional features.The thing was I didn't really enjoy sampling but I made myself believe I liked it. Ah to be young.

 

Soon after or maybe simultaneously the digital recording evolution was under way with the ADAT. Didn't really care for that but I sure wanted the Tascam version

 

 

I had a 244 porta-studio casette multi tack recorder and spent a couple of years saving for a decent reel-reel. But then the ADAT thing got me focused on digital. I remember going to the West LA Music show (prior to my NAMM years - maybe 1987) and Pro-Tools 2 track was coming out. I asked the guy about an 8 track version and he told me a number of reasons why that wasn't possible. A year or 2 later Roland was introducing their first 4/8 track digital Hard Disk Recorder.

 

 

Way more than I could afford of course.

 

 

And then maybe 2 years later I was drooling over this:

 

 

Technology and prices were changing so fast by the time you had the money for one thing it was near obsolete. In hindsight this was a good thing. Lessons with hardware sequencers (MC500, MC500 MKII) told me this recording stuff would all be in the computer at some point. I ended up spending money on synths, mixers and monitors until things settled out a bit.

 

Good times.

[eric]

Good times and good thread! I never owned any sort of early digital sampler or recorder - I do fondly remember trying to cobble together 4-track music on a cassette-based Yamaha MT1X or something like that.

 

My first hands-on exposure to sampling was via the Ensoniq Mirage Rack that one of my music professors had in the college music lab (along with mostly old analog and modular synths). We never actually made any samples for it, but it was cool to load sounds from the 3.5" disks. We were oohing and aahing over the piano sound. A couple of years later, I had the Korg M1R in my rig, which satisfied my early rompler needs for a number of years.

 

I also remember people buying several Alesis ADATs - one local guy had like four of them in a rack for 32 track digital recording, if I remember correctly. There was an Alesis mixer that worked well with these, though the gear was not very reliable.

[Markay]

IIRC Ry Cooder's album Chicken Skin Music was one of the first Albums to be released on CD and remastered as a DDD CD. The harsh sound of this CD killed my ardour for digital gear for many a year. Now I am 100% digital but it didn't get off to a good start, particularly as one whose ears were groomed on a warm valve analogue sound with all its sonic short comings.

[BluMunk]

I've got an Akai DR16 Pro in a storage unit (anyone want it)? A younger and foolish-er me thought I'd make good use of it, but it was really beyond my needs/interests at the time. I ended up sticking with my Yamaha MD8 minidisc recorder for most needs.

[KuruPrionz]

I recorded a song to a friend's ADAT, we used a keyboard sampler for tracking. It was more about convenience and experimenting with what was new than anything else. It sounded pretty OK, sort of.

 

Some time later I "mastered" a 16 track (Tascam 1" reel to reel) down to stereo ADAT. I had no idea what I was doing, because it used tape I ignored the "D" and overloaded. That sounded like one would expect, thin yet harsh.

Used up my time, on to the next.

 

Much later I got a Korg D1600, probably an earlier model that the pic I found (attached). It had a built in hard drive. It was not insanely noisy until you stopped recording, then a cooling fan for the hard drive would fire up like a jet engine and run until it decided the hard drive was cooled down enough for another take. I think I owned that for about 6 weeks and played with it twice or so, hated it. Got it for a good price used so I got out of it OK.

 

I've got a friend's Tascam 4 track cassette deck sitting in my closet on more or less permanent loan. I've found a few packs of NOS high bias cassettes from Maxell and TDK at thrift stores cheap.

This is one of the nicest Tascam decks, with XLR inputs and a decent mixer. One of these days...

 

In the end, modern digital is the best set of compromises for those of us who must watch our budget and want both ease of use and quality sound. I don't miss the early days of digital at all.

[ProfD]

Great thread. Next to playing KBs, pro sound and recording has been my thing too.

 

Back in the day, I also drooled over the Tascam DA-88 but never bought it or the DA-38. I did have an Alesis ADAT at one point. My 1st hard disk recorder was a Yamaha AW4416.

 

Over a decade ago now, I stopped producing music and recording. I'm just a KB player now. But, I still have a full PA system and computer-based recording capability.

[mcgoo]

The production studio I used to work for had 3 of those DM-80's when I started there in the late 90's. And a S-770 (with monitor). I brought in my maxed out ASR-10 rack, so between the 2 samplers I had 32 MB (NOT GB) of RAM!!! I hated those DM-80's. I had a VS-880 and thought it was much more intuitive. We couldn't move to a computer based DAW fast enough for me! I remember it taking about 7-8 seconds for the DM-80's, my Cakewalk computer (MIDI only) and the video deck to sync up with SMPTE. I don't miss those days, although I miss how often I got to write & produce jingles back then. Those boogers are much rarer these days (at least in my world).

[Markyboard]

The DM-80 is my earliest recollection of a multi-track hard disk recorder aside from the 6 figure Synclavier and 5 figure RADAR.

 

On the other end I believe this was way late to the game and I suspect they didn't sell too many of these:

 

[MAJUSCULE]

I'm trying my best to spend money on the things that will endure... this thread is a good reminder!

 

Not sure how long my interface will last, but otherwise, I think I've been spending money on the right things. I think.

[Markyboard]

I'm trying my best to spend money on the things that will endure... this thread is a good reminder!

 

Totally agree Eric. No matter how much people try to convince you otherwise there's not too much "new" stuff out there. If you're young and/or missed something along the way it's great to be able to fill that void with plenty of good stuff to choose from. Otherwise you're just filling boredom... temporarily. IMO.

[ProfD]

The DM-80 is my earliest recollection of a multi-track hard disk recorder aside from the 6 figure Synclavier and 5 figure RADAR.

 

On the other end I believe this was way late to the game and I suspect they didn't sell too many of these:

 

Alesis HD24XR

Yep. Alesis was a little late to the hard disk recording party with that one. By then, Pro Tools had spread like wild fire.