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#38108 - 02/15/00 11:19 AM Has anybody used the Korg D16?? I need info!
Animaniac Offline
Member

Registered: 02/02/00
Posts: 53
Loc: Coventry,WM,England
Hello, i am building a home studio and i am looking for a good recorder. I 've seen the korg d16 which is supposed to be great but i dont know neither how much it costs or if it is as good as the brochure says. So if anybody has used this thing i would appreciate whatever info you have.

Thanks

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#38109 - 02/29/00 03:08 AM Re: Has anybody used the Korg D16?? I need info!
Korgasm Offline
Member

Registered: 12/16/99
Posts: 270
Loc: Australia
I have not used one for recording but I had a great play around with a D16 the other day. What struck me 1st was how small the thing is- the same size as the D8! It is not the most well built thing on the planet either but this shouldn't be of too much concern if you will be mainly using it in your home studio.

There are a hell of a lot of features in this box including up to 8 insert effects at once (depending on the complexity of the effects chosen- much like the Korg Trinity). 2 master effects and 1 overall effect (great for the final master before burning a CD etc).

It is piss easy to use- much easier than a Roland VS recorder that's for sure! (I played around with both at the shop). I didn't need the manual to find where I was going and I like the fact that pretty much every major function has it's own dedicated button.

However, it is misleading of Korg to tell us that this is a true 16 track recorder- more like '8 mono plus 4 stereo track recorder' would be more appropriate!!!! Yes you can record 16 tracks but 4 of the 12 faders are assigned to 'stereo' tracks- many should not be too conerned by this arrangement because we all record stereo material at one point or another, but it must be taken into consideration. I hope Korg give us the option in a future software update to change this arrangement and use it as a true 16 track recorder- as for me, this limitation wouldn't stop me from buying a D16!

The touch screen is fantastic and really helps with navigating the unit! I must admit that I find the fact that Korg left phantom power of the 1 XLR mic inputs hard to comprehend! Come on Korg- great condensor mics can be bought for great prices these days and we should not be forced to fork out on an external phantom power unit just for this!!!!!

You can directly hook a compatible SCSI CD burner to the unit for direct CD mastering. I could not tell you how reliably it works but it looks easy enough to navigate.

Each channel has it's own 3 band EQ with swept mid and there are 128 vitual tracks as well as the '8 plus 4' main tracks. This is great for trying out alternate takes without using up the main tracks.

The D16 can also function as a 24 bit 8 track recorder if desired! Nice one Korg- and both 16 and 24 bit modes don't use any data compression! THANK GOD FOR THIS!!!!

What else can I say- after playing around with the D16 I was in 2 minds about the unit. I must say I got the impression of it being a 'everything but the kitchen sink' unit (it has effects etc as standard). However, it's lack of ADAT/TDIF I/O is a real shame, as is the fact that it has a (very unprofessional!) external power supply. Apparently, it lacks certain MIDI functions also but I couldn't check this out- such as dynamic automation (it does have snapshot automation though).

Also, it would be nice of Korg to provide coaxial as well as optical SP/Dif I/O.

However, in the end, I must say that I think the D16 is a fantastic peice of recording gear for someone who wants just one bit of gear for there home studio set up. I wouldn't see this as the centre of a commercial/pro set up mainly because of it's build and lack of pro connectivity. But that is not to say it couldn't be used by pros/semipros as a unit to take away on holidays or something like that! Yes it down have 8 analogue ins and a 24 channel/8 bus mixer. Also each fader gets it's own dedicated pan control also- THANK YOU KORG!

Whilst the D16 is a great unit, you must also check out the big competition which will be out within the next couple of months- Yamaha AW4416, Akai DPS16 and Roland VS1880- all of which will offer some awesome features.

Hope the above info is of some help. Cheers.

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