Quote:
Originally Posted by CASD57
Thinking seriously in getting one of these...I've got a Zoom R8 but something easier/ less intimidating would be nice and sometimes I need a stepping stone to move up to the R8..or not  It's the way I learn..
Any updates with the units? troubles? |
They keep releasing firmware updates and so far they've been improvements or, at worst, they haven't made anything worse... I still love it - I was trying to work with Garage Band and it's just got too many options for my addled brain to deal with well. I'm coming from a Fostex 4-track back in the '80's and this is the first thing in the digital age that's been simple enough for me.
The two key weaknesses, for me at least, are these:
First, the mixing is not dynamic, so you set he level and panned location of a track at the start and it stays there for the whole track - you do NOT have the ability to raise the volume of a track or change it's left-right location during the song.
Second, the punch in capability is not great - there's no pedal or anything to punch in and punch out - it kind of gives you a few seconds to get in sync with the track before it starts recording you, but I've found this pretty tough to use effectively. And there's no punch out - you just have to reach over and stop the recording, which is easy to do cleanly in some cases and nearly impossible in others. For lead breaks and vocals I find it can work ok (if you give the vocals their own track), but for rhythm guitar I just basically re-record the whole track if I screw up.
You also can't change any sound effects after the recording is made - you can only set them up-front. So if you like your sound, great. If not, do it again...
BUT, overall I still love it. The self leveling is really good. The enhancements you can add when it's "mastering" the song to whatever format you choose are pretty good and you can roughly control how much they add. The bottom line is I USE it, and I've tried other stuff, I just got tired of wrestling with given my purely recreational purposes for recording. I even like the internal condenser mic well enough that I haven't added a mic yet and may never.
-Ray