Fostex MR16HD/CD Digital Recorder

What @$$ hole in his right mind said this review was not helpful? I suppose it to be a jealous and envious motive because I have this nice FOSTEX and HE DON'T! Well anyway, I'm here to help YOU out! Read on and PLEASE click helpful. (-: Thanks! David. OK, Here we go...

I took a dice roll buying this. First off I needed a multi track recorder. Second I refuse spending tons of money paying a studio, and YOU should too. I have heard mixed reviews in this. I bought it because I got it for $350 and NOT $500. So far so good. here are my friends because I am too new with it...

My friend has it and recorded 22 full length songs in house and 8 outside live songs. Used every track and then some. Every song mastered without a hitch. I listened and in several high end studio comparisons, found it would be hard to tell the difference in quality.

I was leery about getting this unit. I am not nervous anymore. It is the easiest to learn, most intuitive digital recorder available anywhere at any price. The sound quality is ridiculously good. The CD's it burns are equivalent in sound quality to ones you buy in a store.

I have had friends who worked for years in a prestigious recording studio and spent thousands recording their own demos. Now they wish they'd known then what I know now... It could have done it all on their own in a basement for a few-hundred bucks! Live and learn.

A con: After one friend had the machine for just over a year..no warranty,,it coped out..burner would not work. Their service department might as well be a ecivres department the reverse of service they are no use at all (he said).

This machine worked after spending two hundred bucks getting it repaired. I would say do not buy anything anymore with out the extended warranty.

OVER ALL:

I will be using a computer to do my final mix downs. I would not use this Fostex recorder to do a final mix down due to the limitations below. PROS: -The sound quality is very good. -I like the fact that you can backup/manage the WAV files on a computer. -The 8 mono and 4 stereo (16 total) tracks is a good number for what I'm doing. -40gb hdd is a good amount of time(110 hours?) -User Interface is good, easy enough to use. -Update the firmware before you use it, I have not had many stability problems.

CONS: -You can't pan/balance the stereo tracks after you've laid them down. -Most of the effects are for the input signals only! Once the tracks are laid down, you can't add/remove the onboard effects. You can only add a post-recording effect from a few reverbs and delays on mono tracks 1-8. -The seeking process is cumbersome and slow. The metronome is annoying and the song does not save the tempo when you exit. It's good for the money, but definitely has it's limitations and flaws. As long as you know what those are before you decide to buy, you won't be disappointed with the MR16HD. But TRY to get a good deal ON EBAY. This way if it don't live up to what YOU want it to do, it won't bankrupt you.

I think (considering all above pro and con) $350 on Ebay (B/4 S&H) is great.

Good Luck!
DTD