Korg D16 Opinions

[playitout]

Does anyone have an opinion regarding any aspects of operating a Korg D16 or D8?

[OpenDoerr]

Good question. I don't have the D-16, but was wondering the same thing. I've never heard anything redeeming about the D-8, but the specs on the D-16 look impressive and I heard an mp3 demo of one at http://zzounds.com/a/mp3/kord16_demo1.mp3 and the sound was impressive.

The thing that concerns me is that for the life of me, I can't find an objective review of it, or a forum that gives the pros & cons anywhere. Either the people who own them are too busy making music with them to spend time on the web, or no one is buying them.

Is the D-16 being poorly marketed, or is it poorly made?

O.D.

[This message has been edited by OpenDoerr (edited 12-19-2000).]

[playitout]

Odly enough, I just noticed that the Jan 2001 edition of Electronic Musician put the D16 on their editors choice list. They basicly give a brief synopsis of what Korg website already has.(they do actualy say some features actualy "sound nice") Then they sum it all up by saying that the unit is easy to use, and that it is compact. That may be as "in depth" a review as we will see.

[OpenDoerr]

The thing that really interests me is how small it is.

It's 16 tracks, but it's smaller than the 8 track VS machines. It would make on site recording so convenient. You could use it in a gig set up in place of a sequencer so that you don't have to worry about sequencer timing problems and loading samples. Just record some of your backing tracks and have it playback on stage.

The DA and AD at 24k is great as well. Also, you can download new OS versions as they come available. With all these features, the price seems rediculously low compared to other units. I wonder if the low price is making people suspicious that there must be a catch. I can't say I'm not one of them.

O.D.

[playitout]

Yes, the price does seem rather low. The optomist side of my brain says mabey things came together with engineering, manufacturing and testing like it can with certain products that are introduced.

Then the don't get ripped-off side answers back with something like a conversation on NYPD Blue that has a cop interrogating someone who is trying to act naive.

I will probably buy one in Jan or Feb from Guitar Center. They have a 30 day take it back policy. I know Korg has a rebate that expires Dec 31, but I have seen those rebates get extended in the past. The Korg N1 had a rebate that expired Jun or July 1998 that is still on.

[Tunesmith48]

The Korg D-16 just took one of the editor awards in the latest issue of Electronic Musician as their favorite stand-alone DAW of 2000. I think that's gotta count for something. I've looked hard at them myself and if I was to add a SADAW to my Mac-based digital studio the D-16 would be my choice too. I think they're a terrific value.

[EDL]

About 7 months ago I purchased the Korg D-16. My previous experance has been tape. I have been quite impressed by the D-16 I have done some individual recording and some with a 7 piece band. If you use good mics and good technics you will get good results. One thing I have either not figured out yet or is not possible is how to use external effects on more than channel at a time. (atinput). I may not need better effects than what comes with the unit. I have not used effects a lot in the past so I wonder if a good effects processer is needed.

[playitout]

EDL, thanks for letting it be known that you have a D-16 unit. I have made myself a nuisance at the music store, using a keyboard and headphones to do simple recording routines with the Korg. Actualy it was nice of them to let me sit there with a manual and put that thing through some paces. I was impressed enough to buy it. BTW, the latest operating version is 2.0, but I don't know if it will make it easier or possible to do the multiple external effect thing.(would that be for mix-down purposes?)

OpenDoer, the 24 bit processing does have a catch. It will only allow 8 tracks to be played simultaneously. It is 16 bit that will allow 16 tracks to be played at once. This is not a problem for me, as 16 bit processing seems to be more than adaquate. I will try in the future to set up some A/B comparisons, because there could be some timbres that will require higher processing. Will it make a difference to me? I doubt it, but there may be situations where 8 tracks will be enough.

[OpenDoerr]

playitout,

Great to here you got one. When you do have time, let us know what you think of it.

Any flaws that stand out right away?
Annoyances?
Features you wish it had?

Thanks for your time.

O.D.

[MikeS369]

I just got a D16 Tuesday and have just started to figure out how to use it. Once I get more into it I will try to post updates.

A couple of things worth mentioning are the size of the unit. I kept hearing how it's about the size of a phone book. I didn't believe it but it is. It's about the size of an open Yellow Pages. Another thing is that the D16 now comes with a 4.3gb hard drive. A nice addition I had not expected.

Right now I'm trying to figuer out how to patch together drum patterns and how to insert effects. The drum machine sounds like a drum machine. Better than they sounded 3 or 4 years ago but drum machines just don't do it for me. Unfortunately I don't have a set of drums. So I'll say the drum sounds are adequate. Beyond that I can't tell you much at this point.

There are three short demo songs that come with the unit and if they were actually recorded with the D16, then I believe this is one hell of a recorder. Hopefully in a month or two I'll be able to add some useful info.

[playitout]

The first few hours of use went something like this for me:

After listening to the demo goodies I thought it would be good to isolate some of the drier sounding tracks in order to test some of the effects. The effect section is rather striaght-forward and easy to get around, also seems to have an adaquate number of parameters for the effects that I edited. There are no complaints from me in the effect department, as they can be used in record and/or playback situations. The EQ section was also easy to understand, offering a fixed high & low along with a sweepable mid.

The basic layout of the tracks are as follows: 1-8 are completely independent of one another, although they can be paired for EQ & effect purposes. This should not be necessary too often as the rest of the tracks are already paired off.(9/10, 11/12, etc. to 16) You can record tracks 9 and 10(&other pairs) with different sounds @ different times, but the EQ & effects must be the same for both @ playback. You may get around this by recoding effects with the tracks. Since I am recording MIDI sources so much I will use many stereo pairs anyway.

When I got around to actualy recording things into the D-16, I decided to use some rhythm tracks that I had previously sequenced. So I set the Korg unit up to be a MIDI master clock, which allowed me to keep everything in sync and not to have to record all sequenced parts at the same time. There are plenty of inputs with which to route your signal into the unit and I had no trouble getting nice strong readings from the level meters. When recording live tracks, I used the auto-punch function a few times with no hassle. The counter display is nice because it lets you read in Measure-Beat-Tick, Minutes-Seconds-Milliseconds, MIDI time code, or Free time display mode.

There are many features that I did not test, but I will say that this thing will accurately record your input signal. If you like to twist it around it will do that too. I have enjoyed using it so far & am looking forward to future use.

[MusicBro]

I recently purchased a d16 for my brother as christmas gift from Guitar Center. In one of their mailers they had a coupon for 10% off of anything in the store. All total, inclunding the korg $100 rebate I will have saved $230. I found that for $1,000 the d16 was the best bang for the buck! I considered the new Tascam 788 (4 record, 8 playback) @ $899, Roland VS-890HD @ $1,599 and found that the d16 was more comparable to the Roland VS-1880HD @ $2,199 at a much lower price.

Since christmas I asked my brother (a keyboardist who also works with vocalist) to also do some research within our 30 day trial to see if there was something better within the price range (after all $1,000 is nothing to scoff at for equipment and if your going to buy you might as well buy right even if you have to spend a little more $$). He too came to the conclusion that the Korg D16 was a very good buy and has no intentions of returning it.

He liked the Korg because of its larger touch screen - bottom line its easier to see and use. He also like the number of inputs as well as the nifty built in mic. The effects sound great as well. Korgs REMs rivals Rolands COSM.

To our surprise we found that Korg upgraded the Hard Drive (on the version 2.0 d16 which is now being sold)to 4.3 gb. You won't find this in any literature that you'll find online or elsewhere (just a small insert in the box which also describes the other software upgrades tells that it was upgraded from 2.1)

From my shopping research I learned that the d16 could be used very well with our Mackie analog mixer for recording live stuff because of its 8 inputs. Because of the version 2 software upgrade it can now save files to .wav format wich is useful if you want to work on the files on a computer which we enventually plan to do. It also can burn to a WIDE VARIETY of CD-Burners from several manufacturers (not sure if the same is true with Roland). Using the CD burner you are now able to either burn audio CDs (final product) or save your raw data (which can later be uploaded back into the d16 for further manipulation) which is another version 2 software upgrade. And finally ANOTHER BIG PLUS is that the d16 is upgradeable and Korg is actually provinding updates to keep the excellent product current.

The only draw back to the d16 is its lack of advertisement and therefore recognition in the music community (unlike the Rolands which are seen everywhere). We have been hard pressed to find online forums or user groups for this product. If you know of any please let me know.

I think Korg got a late start in DAW game and are playing a little catch up. Playing catch up does have its advantages though, you get to see what your competitor came out with and one up them. But with brand like Korg you can't expect them to be behind for long if you really want to be confused about what to buy (Maybe it will come out in the US sometime this year?)

Check this out!http://www.korg.co.jp/newproducts/index.html

[playitout]

MusicBro,
That D-1600 looked pretty juicy on the Korg Japan page. Wonder how long before it is introduced in the US?

BTW, you were right about the 4.3G hard drive. It took me until today to notice, when I was going through the disc utility functions on the D-16. I guess I was in too big of a hurry to get something recorded into my new gadget. There it was, on the display 4.32G. Then I looked back in the box & there was the extra piece of paper saying the hard drive size was bigger. The only things I had taken out were the manual w/the 2.0 adendum and the registration/rebate stuff.

My geuss is that Korg is not tooting their own horn on this so they can make an even bigger deal when they roll out the D-1600.

I'm also not aware of any Korg forums or online user groups for digital recording, but would sure be interested in hearing about them if & when they happen.

[OpenDoerr]

I'd also be interested in what the price point would be on the D-12. With the D-16 being so low already, I imagine a D-12 would be dirt cheap. Especially when you compared to the VS 890ES.

I'm hoping an online user community will show up soon. I usually don't buy products until I've seen other people's dialog on how they use the product.

That's how I bought my Yamaha EX5R. I followed other people's experiences with it on an online community and then decided this is something I wanted to be in on.

Come to think of it, the folks in the Internet Marketing departments at Yamaha, Roland, and Korg ought to have a drawing when the release a new product where people enter their names to receive the product. The only caveat is that the winners need to make frequent contributions to an established online community for a set period of time.

The manufacturers would have more exposure for their product, less help line calls, and a location to identify wish lists for upgrades/fixes.

O.D.

[MusicBro]

With all those registration cards Korg collected for the $100 rebate I gotta believe that there is some kind of mailing list out there. The cards even included a request for an e-mail address. You'd think that Korg would use this in their favor to provide additional support and marketing for and toward their users.

Maybe I'll have to send Korg a little e-mail to ferret out some more information. If I find anything, I'll let ya know.

Incidentally, my brother recently saw that the rebate is now $50 for the D16 if purchased after the 12/31/00.

Make sure you get your $100 cards to Korg before 1/31/01.

[MusicBro]

FYI

I found another D16 forum at
www.egroups.com/group/KorgD16 (http://www.egroups.com/group/KorgD16)

[OpenDoerr]

Nice catch MusicBro. Too bad the forum isn't more similar to this site.

[mfine]

i've been producing a cd with the korg d16 for the past few months and think it's a great deal. for the price i don't think u can do better (maybe the fostex vf-16). korg delivers more bang for the buck than roland does.

the sound quality and effects are great, editing is pretty comprehensive, works great with an Orb drive for SCSI backup, has MIDI sync, and the Scene automation for mixing has saved my butt. the main drawback is the puny hard drive- 2 gb is nothing. i can only store about three 16 track songs in the thing at a time.

if i had it all over, i'd buy it again or likely buy the new model called the Korg D1600 which has a larger hard drive and built in CD drive i think. this is brand new so must be more costly.

[OpenDoerr]

The current D16's are shipping with a 4.3 gig drive now. I agree though, that D1600 looks impressive although all I've seen are pictures on a Japanese website so I don't know any of the specs.

The D12 also looks cool. As affordable as the D16 is, I'm really interested to see what the price point on the D12 will be.

OD

[rosespappy]

The Korg and the Fostex were the two units we narrowed our search to, this forum was extremely helpful. We ultimately chose the FostexVF16. I'm reasonably certain that both are capable of top notch results in the hands of experienced folks... I am not, however, one of them..yet. We are due to recieve the unit, and as soon as it's out of the box, I'll be posting something.(Most likely under the heading HELP!) Anyway, it would be interesting to keep an ongoing comparison of plus's and minus's to provide referance for others trying to choose a unit. For me, it was a toss-up. The other people that we write and record with however favored the Fostex ads' insertion about ADAT and PC linking, since they utilize those media, and this should be one more piece in the puzzle. If you think about it for too long, you'll do nothing soon. Money, you can get more of brothers and sisters, time you can't buy with a 3 cd deal.(or anything else for that matter!) Good luck! rosespappy