There is one aspect where it excels. I have seen one of these at a live gig for a band where the engineer simultaneously used it to mix and record the band. While a laptop can certainly do a lot more intracks and other areas, it still requires a lot of level messing around once plugged into a live recording desk and constant monitoring. With this, they have only one central point to monitor, the live mix, not the levels being sent to the laptop as well.
Just an observation

 

Soundforge or FL studio! You can use Newtone in fl studio! it has a Time warp section! its not just for tuning!

 

Making "portable" hdd recording devices like these was a great idea at the time, because most of our computers were still quite slow. But they had to make use of mechanical hard drives, and these were a frequent point of failure. Even when the machine was carted around in padded road cases and so on. I'd never put anything important on one. I almost bought a 2480 recently, it was 200$ only. Those drives are sketchy as hell to buy used and so I decided against it. You can use the OS based utilities to check the drive and format like a computer; but they seem to always pass these checks and fail anyway. Playback of recorded material will endlessly stutter.

 

Last edited: Sep 27, 2022

They were great for their time. Storage devices have often been a central point of failure for all things computer-oriented, even nowadays. The nvme makes for a lower point of failure other than overheating if not shielded properly ,because you'd have to crack the mainboard or join-points, which means the whole system is potentially screwed if that happens anyway.
The idea was great as you said for its time and in some cases, you get them for nostalgia. The joke is I kept my original KORG M1 at a nostalgia level. Cycle around 20 years+ later and people want them again. Go figure? truthfully, having the KORG digital version of it and comparing, the pristine nature of the digital version is better audio-wise. That said, it lacks a kind of 'grittiness?' of the actual keyboard which is not analog anyway. Go figure too?

 

I still have the original Kawai K4 I bought, instead of the m1 and I think it was the d-50 that the store also had in stock that day in 1988. lol

I only say this because at that time, the discussion about digital vs analog synths was still a new conversation. And so people got used to referring to them using those particular terms (analog vs digital) but when recording these to a computer; if you are using cables, a mixer, and a unit for analog to digital conversion so that the audio may be represented by a computer?

to me that hardware k4, which is a Pulse Width Modulation synth is entirely "digital", but by connecting it to my analog board it has become an analog sound source hitting my mixer over an audio cable. It's almost pre-saturated, when compared with the digital recreation plugin.
The entire loop has power applied to it.

Anyway, most of these hdd recorders do have optical and/or coax spdif. But I think many you will find at such prices will only have 16 bit convertors for the initial recording, unless a digital in connection is also used.

 

Last edited: Sep 28, 2022

Yes the older ones were all 16bit. The oxymoron is a huge proportion of studios justifiably record and master at 24bit 48Khz. The end result is dithered down to 44.1Khz and 16bit.
Add to this the loudness wars with streaming sites deciding to have their own algorithms that change the mastering means the artists in scenarios that involve all acoustic instruments end up with their master not being what they intended. The only way to circumvent this is to put them up for sale in true lossless mastered unaltered format and no CD pressing, thereby narrowing their audience to nearly a millionth.
Rather than start a war, I will simply say "no comment"

EDIT: I know a few artists when they heard their tunes on Spotify, Soundcloud, Pandora, Amazon, CDBaby and iTunes say things like "If I wanted 60 cycles and below boosted that much I would have done it in the mastering".

 

Last edited by a moderator: Sep 28, 2022

Exactly!

 

Last edited: Sep 28, 2022

If you are referring to the Korg D3200, you are wrong, It is a fantastic machine, very solid, full of hidden resources. An analog approach but a digital soul with infinite possibilities. Properly equipped, it records flawlessly and works for hours on end without a hitch. I've had it for years, I've already made several orchestral music CDs (with dozens and dozens of overdubs) and I still don't know all its opportunities. It's a real shame that Korg has suspended production, I would buy a new pair instantly.
This is my last cd finished in May, entirely recorded with the Korg D3200.
https://www.ellinselae.org/Di Ciel Muse Symphony/Franco Del Moro - Di Ciel Muse Symphony.htmhttps://www.ellinselae.org/Di Ciel Muse Symphony/Franco Del Moro - Di Ciel Muse Symphony.htm

 

No, I'm definitely correct. I did not remark upon a machine I have never owned, while the other 3 Rolands I have used beyond extensively to the point I know the pain and suffering their hdds can result in . The "change a loop bpm" on them is referred to as "time compression/time expansion". Maybe yours has a menu item like that; people now expect to see "time stretching". was my point. The operation is actually changing the length, so it rebuilds the thing and it takes forever. It is not simply changing a bpm parameter in a sampler.

the Korg looks cool anyway. if it also had a coax spdif rca connections it would fix @Xeraser's edirol Everquest. Do you mind giving up your adat optical in for this thing? etc.

 

Last edited: Sep 29, 2022