Fostex 16 track recorders?

harley_ou812 · #1 12-02-2002, 10:17 AM

I was just at MUsicians Friends website and I was looking at the Fostex digital 16 track recorders. I wsa wondering if anyone has had expierince with them or Fostex in general. Is it a good recorder? Or is it something that will sound horrible? I have never realy heard of fostex before and I am new to the recording scene. Any help will be greaty apreciated thank you

harley_ou812 · #2 12-02-2002, 10:22 AM

Oh yeah I am looking at the VF-160 with cd burner

Johnalex · #3 12-02-2002, 11:38 AM

I own a VF-16. I think it is a great piece of equipment, just wish it had more XLR inputs. THe adat, spdif, and scsi ports on the back definantly come in handy for digital conversion, but you also have that cd burnere biult right into it. It has a pretty decent sound, I think that the EQ on it is pretty dull, and the biult in effects are sort useless, alot of them sound the same and have a certian irritating vibe to them. IT is a great price for a unit like that and fostex does have a decent customer service department. Another small problem I noticed is that the manuel is translated from JApanese, and is not that easy to read. All in all it is a great unit. Check out this site..VERY imformative

www.vf16.com

lermgalieu · #4 12-04-2002, 02:05 PM

I have it as well and agree with Johnalex. I wish it had more XLR in and the effects suck, and the times I have tried to automate mixes have always failed. However, it is a great mixer/hard disk recorder for the price. My model has no CD burner, so I need to either by the Plextor CD burner or the Terratec EWS88D PC card. I am just trying to figure out if I can transfer data as digital files or if this card will only transfer the digital data in real time...

drivers · #5 12-10-2002, 05:19 PM

The VF160 can record 8 analog tracks at a time, not 16 as it seems most product descriptions imply. You can however also record 8 adat digital tracks if it is input digitally from another device which is probably where they get the 16 figure. Or you can record 8 analog input onto 16 tracks but each track is doubled for instance 1 and 9 are the same. I'm not sure why you would want to do that anyway.

GreyBeard · #6 01-23-2003, 09:56 AM

I've got a VF-16 that I've had for about 2 years. I also got an extra A to D to A converter so I can record 16 tracks at once. To fully utilize the machines capabilities, you also need a good analog mixer with extra XLR outputs. I use a Mackie VLX20. The sound and features of the Fostex are more than adequate for any home recording needs. I think if it has a down fall it would be 1 the compressor and 2 the manual. jmho