I made the plunge. My ZOOM MRS-1608CD is in the mail.

[XNASA]

http://www.americanmusical.com/item--i-ZOO-MRS1608CD--brand-290.html

I researched all the other 16 track recorders and this one just can't be beat for the price. Plus AMS throws in a free condensor mic.

[johnnie]

1. That's cool

I'm curious about those also. I have thought of going that route, but I am pretty happy using the computer still. Although having a pretty decent home studio in my basement you would think I would be down there all the time..I'm not. So I can't justify getting me one of these things, but I sure would love to have one..lol.

[Pepperbelly]

2. I don't even use my amps for recording anymore.

I do everything using the multi-tracker's patches. It has a patch for Matchless amps that will bring tears to your eyes. All of the patches on the Zoom machines are good. They run from Fender emulations (tweed and twin) to vox to Marshall to Hi-watt to Matchless to Soldan ... It's heaven for a tone junkie.

I just got through doing a cover of an old Beatles song ... Paperback Writer, slowed down to 90 bpm, with two rhythm guitars (snicker), one using a Soldan and the other a Mesa Boogie with the lead work on Matchless.

:D

[XNASA]

4. Too many 'computer operators' in the house.......

It's a struggle for me to even get any puter time in my own house. We have a nice Dell that everyone uses and an old PC that is for gaming.

The beauty of this new device is.....it's for recording ONLY!!!!! It's for me. No one can load video games on it or use it to check their e-mail, etc.

So it works out well.

[johnnie]

5. I understand that

I have three computers and they are mine, mine...all mine..mwaa ha ha ha ha ha
I just wish they would have had all this cool stuff back when I was really writing a lot and into recording. I use to record so much on my old four track tape machine. They have those little digital multi track recorders out there that you can almost fit in your pocket...man, that would have been so cool to have back then.

[ProfessorGAC]

6. That's Why I Bought Mine

I like the "dedicated" use thing too! Built in mixer, effects, gates, phantom power, etc. etc. etc. No other reason to exist but to record.

I think you made a most excellent choice.
The Professor

[XNASA]

7. I forget which model you own.

Do you have a ZOOM as well? For some reason, I thought you had a Roland.

[ProfessorGAC]

8. I Don't Have The Zoom

I've got a Fostex model, but i bought it for the same reasons. I got mine about a year ago, and it was a store model, so it's a year older than that.

The bells and whistles change year to year, so your new one will probably have some stuff on it that mine doesn't, but i think "it's in the way that you use it".

It's fun to play with, and easy to use. Good enough for me. I think you'll be glad you took your plunge.
The Professor

[livinginphotographs]

3. Nice.

And damn, it's a lot cheaper than I would've thought. I use my computer for recording, but that Zoom is really tempting.

I've bought from American Musical Supply before, and I like them and Zzounds much better than Musician's Friend.

[Pepperbelly]

9. I got my Zoom from Music 123 and was impressed.

The price was as good as you can find and they got it to me 3 days before I was expecting it. Icing on the cake. The Zoom 8 track machine is at $699.

[XNASA]

10. WTF. My wife just called. It's already been drop shipped.

It took less than 2 days to get it.

Guess what I'll be doing tonite.......

[johnnie]

11. You are going to have to give us the 411 on it

That was fast, I bet you already told them you are sick and on your way home.

[XNASA]

13. Here's the scoop.

Everything seems to work just fine.

It's not too difficult, although gleening the concept of the "Rhythm Pattern" was something new to me.

The built in drums and bass are separate and don't eat up any tracks at all, but they operate in tandem, creating a "Rhythm Pattern". So you can write your own rhythm patterns since for most straight ahead rock the bass and drums are usually locked up, so it makes sense.

The device operatates as 8 independent mono tracks and then 4 stereo pairs for a total of 16. The idea being that as you build your subgroups of things like guitars and BG vocals you can mix those down to stereo pairs, or if you have a keyboard, you probably use a stereo pair for that anyway.

The guitar FX are monsterous. This is definately a unit made for Rockers.

The quality of all the controls is very good. Nothing seems scratchy or wobbly and the display is huge, which was a big selling point with me.

I haven't hooked it up to MIDI yet, but the pads for the drums seem OK. I imagine that after I get a keyboard MIDI'd up to it, I won't be using the pads.

All very intuitive. Sounds fine. I'm happy.

[Pepperbelly]

14. I knew you would be ...

Zoom multitrackers are the shit. The real shit.

:D

[ProfessorGAC]

15. Ah. Big Display. Perfect For Us Old Guys!

That's one of my problems with mine. The display isn't really that small, i guess, but one has to switch an awful lot of windows to get to various functions. If the display were larger, a lot of that would be a non-problem.

Big displays are definitely a good thing.
The Professor

[jpgray]

12. That's the great thing about AMS

Both the guitars I ordered from them arrived in about two days.