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Jimmy Lee
 
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I am looking for opinions here. I am going to give up my complex Pro-Tools
system (wayyy to powerful and COMPLICATED for my needs) and go to an
all-in-one Digital Audio Workstation. I have narrowed it to the Yamaha
AW16G, the Yamaha AW4416, or the Roland VS-2400CD. Which of these do you
think is best and why if price is no option.

I want durability, ease of use - simplicity, and capability. I want simple,
yet powerful and effective. By the time I boot up Pro Tools, get everything
set, deal with the damn latency issues, upgrade the constantly changing
software, and overcome all the little glitches here and there, I am no
longer inspired to play!!!! And I am a degreed engineer. When I am an
engineer, I want to be an engineer. But when I want to play - damn it I want
to play!

The Yamahas seem to have effects that are assignable to each individual
channel. Nice. I cannot tell if the Roland does that or not. The Yamahas,
though, only have two XLR inputs with phantom, the Roland has 8. Big plus
when playing/miking a grand piano and recording two singers at once.

Opinions, please. Via email or posted here.

Thanks,

Jimmy Lee
www.cdbaby.com/jimmylee




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Mike Rivers
 
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Default Opinions on a digital audio workstation?


In article writes:

I am looking for opinions here. I am going to give up my complex Pro-Tools
system (wayyy to powerful and COMPLICATED for my needs) and go to an
all-in-one Digital Audio Workstation. I have narrowed it to the Yamaha
AW16G, the Yamaha AW4416, or the Roland VS-2400CD. Which of these do you
think is best and why if price is no option.


Have you spent a little time working on either of those? I doubt that
you'll find them any less complicated than ProTools.

Have you considered an analog system, or at least an analog console
combined with a digital recorder? How many tracks to you need? Do you
want to use "plug-in" processing on an essentially unlimited number of
tracks? How many mics do you work with simultaneously?

There are many considerations, and the best way to get what you really
need is to buy the functions you need as pieces and connect them
together in a way that works for what you need to do. If you can live
with 16 tracks going into a mix, I'd suggest that you look at a
stand-alone digital multitrack recorder that has analog I/O and a
modest analog console. If you use your present ProTools system as a
mixdown recorder, you have the simplest setup for tracking, a setup
that's easy to understand when you're mixing, and a system that allows
you to edit and assemble a completed two-track project.

There are some good deals on Mackie hard disk recorders these days
(they're 24 track, but you don't HAVE to use them all), Alesis has
one, and there's a Fostex 24-track that has a couple of boosters here.
You might find that for about the price of a Yamaha or Roland
intgrated system, you can get something that's much easier for you to
use, to build on to, and get good sounds. It's not a no-brainer
decision by any means, but something to think about. Hopefully you
have a good dealer who can offer you some alternatives.


--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo
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Trent Smithers
 
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Default Opinions on a digital audio workstation?

Carlos,

Pro Tools is complicated. First, you have to get a Mac that is approved.
THEN, you have to get a SCSI accelerator card. THEN, you have to replace the
stock CD-RW with one that is approved as compatible by Digidesign. THEN, you
have to set up all the components you are using in your system (I believe it
is the DAI settings). THEN, you have to have Quicktime installed. THEN, you
have to set the buffers just right. THEN you have to install the Pro Tools
software. THEN, you have to tweak everything to optimize the system. I took
mine to a Pro-Tools expert who showed me things that optimize the Mac and
software that I otherwise never would have know. THEN, you have to install
the Plug-Ins and get them to run correctly. Now you are ready to record,
right? NO! THEN, you realize that you only have 2 XLR mic preamps, and they
are not very good at that. So you go out and buy 8 mic preamps with Phantom
power, and wire everything up. Now you have spaghetti all over the place.
Are we ready to make some music yet?

No. There are some extremely complicated screens with all kinds of
waveforms, and tons of buttons that most never need. And you must change
settings when recording and playing back, or you WILL get latency issues.
So...

THEN, you have to start reading the manual. You will find out that it is
crap, so you will then buy an aftermarket book of 350 pages to read through.
THEN, you will start to be able to understand the extremely complicated and
complex file structure used by Pro Tools. THEN, and maybe then, will you be
able to lay down a few tracks. And THEN, you can go through their
complicated means of exporting a file to WAV format. And when you want to
use it, or move it, you haul the monitor, mouse, keyboard, digi 001
interface, mic preamps, and Mac tower unit.

Now compare that to the Roland VS-2400CD. Get it out of the box. All wires
go into it. It has 8 preamps. Good ones, all with XLR. The burner is built
in. The effects are too. It is all configured. No horsing around with
compatibility issues. No worries about using too many effects and eating up
computing power. I made more music with my little old analog Tascam 4 track
than I ever did the Pro Tools system due to its needless complication. Some
call it elegant. I call it cumbersome.


"Carlos Alden" wrote in message
...
Jimmy:


I had a Roland VS-880 for years and really liked it. I could use it

pretty
much straight out of the box as a tape recorder-like device, but I

invested
LOTS of time in learning all the editing and effects stuff, too. I would
think that either the Yamaha or the Roland would be fine for a starter

unit,
but for more than that, be prepared to spend lots of time futzing.

Having said all that, however, I have since moved to a computer based
system. It takes MAYBE a few seconds longer to boot up and be ready to go
compared to my VS-880, and I have better sound and more flexible options.
If you purchased a dedicated computer with known compatibility with
ProTools, you shouldn't be having a mountain of problems, really.

For example, why are you having latency issues? Is it a USB input
interface?

After previewing the Digi 002R I finally bought a MOTU 828 MkII. Comes
with MOTU's no-midi recording program, AudioDesk, which is VERY much like
ProTools. After about three hours of initial messing around, I have it up
and running very easily. ProTools was like that, too. There is no

latency
to speak of, tons of great effects, and best of all, visual graphical
editing, which I really like for my radio productions I do with kids.

Sounds like you've made up your mind to move to an all-in-one unit. If

so,
I don't think you could go wrong with either you have chosen. But I'd

look
again at your system and figure out what's making it not work right. I'm
no engineer, and a computer based DAW isn't hard for ME to figure out.

Carlos



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2mb
 
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Default Opinions on a digital audio workstation?

windows or mac?
If windows, you should give cool edit pro 2 a try. Much simpler and
straightforward.
l8,
2mb

"Jimmy Lee" wrote in message
...
I am looking for opinions here. I am going to give up my complex Pro-Tools
system (wayyy to powerful and COMPLICATED for my needs) and go to an
all-in-one Digital Audio Workstation. I have narrowed it to the Yamaha
AW16G, the Yamaha AW4416, or the Roland VS-2400CD. Which of these do you
think is best and why if price is no option.

I want durability, ease of use - simplicity, and capability. I want

simple,
yet powerful and effective. By the time I boot up Pro Tools, get

everything
set, deal with the damn latency issues, upgrade the constantly changing
software, and overcome all the little glitches here and there, I am no
longer inspired to play!!!! And I am a degreed engineer. When I am an
engineer, I want to be an engineer. But when I want to play - damn it I

want
to play!

The Yamahas seem to have effects that are assignable to each individual
channel. Nice. I cannot tell if the Roland does that or not. The Yamahas,
though, only have two XLR inputs with phantom, the Roland has 8. Big plus
when playing/miking a grand piano and recording two singers at once.

Opinions, please. Via email or posted here.

Thanks,

Jimmy Lee
www.cdbaby.com/jimmylee






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