Picked up a new toy...

[Rod S]

Ok, my 2 year Gear Acquisition Hiatus is over...

 

Picked up one of these guys a few weeks ago. Fostex MR8 Recorder.

 

http://www.fostex.com/images/products/digital/mr8slant.jpg

 

I was trying to find a solution to a few problems I had, and this turned out to fit the bill for the most part.

 

- Be able to track friends playing guitar, wind instruments, and singing, so I can include in my songs, and mix in my PC at home.

 

- I wanted to be able to shuttle the data back and forth easily to my pc so I can edit the files

 

- Be able to record rehersals digitally and store them.

 

- Have a decent 'general purpose recorded' for ideas

 

The only drawback with this thing is the recording time with the standard memory card it comes with - but I'm planning to pick one up soon. It's kind of a pity, since 'as is' it's practically useless for multi-track recording, IMHO - but it fits my needs rather nicely. I only really need to track with it, I don't plan to really mix on this thing.

 

I ran some tests tracking a singer. I did the piano arrangement at home, transferred the .wav file to the Fostex, recorded her voice, then transferred the recorded file (as wav) back to the PC.

 

I was surprised - the quality is actually quite good, and it certainly fits the bill for demo purposes and more. Plus this thing is dead simple to operate and the file transfer works really well. My next purchase will probably be a nice preamp + condenser mic.

 

I was originally planning to use my laptop, but the damn thing never ran reliably for audio. I've been having to use it for work stuff that I wanted to, and the audio performance went to hell once I started installing more junk into it. Oh well.

 

It does have a few features which I don't plan to use, but I'm really digging this thing. If it turns out I'm using it more and more, I may 'upgrade' to another portable recorder. The price is low enough (US$299) that I decided to risk it and see if it would fit my needs - looks like I'll be using it a lot.