Akai DPS 16 Users?

[lyricon]

Hi,
Just wondered if there are any other poeple out there that have a DPS16. I found it to be a very cool piece so far. Would love to hear some opinions and comments, share ideas..
Like the hidden group fader control function. Found it by accident. Not even in the manuel.

Greg N

[V12]

Lyricon,
One of my friends that I colaborate with is thinking about purchasing the Akai DPS16. I've always been a big Roland fan but the more I look at the Akai it seems to have the VS1880 beat. I wish I could find more reviews and info about it to forward to my friend. Myself, I've put too much money in PC recording to go any other route at this point. I'm thinking about purchasing the Roland Studio pack for my recording purposes. Anyway, good luck with your endeavors.

V12

[V12]

Lyricon,
I found some reviews for the DPS 16 @ Harmony Central. It got a perfect 10 from 3 different reviewers. I've never seen that before. This thing must be for real. Check it out @ http://www.harmony-central.com/Effects/Data/Akai/DPS16-01.html

[lyricon]

That's great.
I love the unit. It is easy to use and sounds great. There was one complaint on this forum about the faders. I find they are a bit funky but completly functional. They can send automation data through MIDI which is real cool. For the money you can't beat it. My next choice in a stand-alone would br the Yamaha unit. A lot more money though. The 10 gig HD seems bottomless. I am recording @ 44.1 24 bit resolution and it seems like i could loose track of the projects I have before running out of space. Back-up is an issue though. You have to buy a SCSI unit of some sort to back up the project and all data ( mixer settings ect.). I am using the S/PDIF out to my PC with a multi track program synced to MIDI time code. The Akai lets you assign almost anything in the machine to any output. I just send two tracks at a time to the digital outs. I have to chart the mixer and effects settings if I want to keep those.
The effects are great. Not as good as Waves may be but good enough. You can insert them on the inputs as well. Compressor is real useful. When I tried it out in the music store I didn't even need to crack a manuel.
A big plus It never crashes like a computer can.
As you can tell I am very happy with it and would highly recommend it.

sorry for the long post.

Greg

[V12]

I bet. My friend is real excited about the unit. The more I think about it, the more I wish I found out about the unit first. I was kind of skeptical at first when he told me about it but the research I do into the unit the more appealing it looks. I was/am thinking about purchasing the Roland Studio pack. But that would require me to update my computer and learn new software and hope everything jived together. The whole processs makes me quessy in the stomach when I think about it. I like the large display of my computer DAW but I would like tactical control over my mix like a desk top DAW. The Studio Pack looks like the most bang for the buck. But I hear people complain about the Roland interface and all the extra steps you have to take to perform routine functions. I'm going to have to think long and hard about this one. Akai needs to make the unit have multiple digital outs to incorporate it with other DAWs if you so desire. I know recording 2 tracks at a time has to be annoying at times... even though thats how I'm recording now. At any rate I've have plenty of time to figure out what I'm going to do since I have to save up for my purchase.

V12

[lyricon]

The two track at a time transfer is a bit of a drag but you can bounce one or two over fro editing and then bounce it back. This works because you can lock the two machines through MIDI.
The Akai has several hundred Virtual tracks that take can be stored in ofline so you don't have to loose.
It can record ten tracks at once through its seperate input mixer. I live the fact that the faders are the mix level not the recording level. That is set with the gain control for that input so you always record optimum level but you can monitor at the right level for mixing. Yor mix is mostly done by the time you are finished recording.
If you can afford it It would be worth the purchase. It is also very portable so you can take it to that great sounding room you wish you had in your house.

Greg

[BB]

Hello, I'm a new guy here, looking for info on the DPS 16, I have a 1680 and I'm considering the new DPS24 hopefully in December. It's looking pretty good.

Lyricon, or anyone else, when you have your machine externally synched via midi does this disable your s/pdif input like it does on the Roland?

I was wondering if Akai had already addressed this type of issue so it could possibly be carried over to the 24tr, the Yamaha had this problem with wordclock and has apparently fixed it.

BB

[lyricon]

BB,
Not at all. This is how I can transfer track to my PC for editing and backup. The Akai lets you assign any track to the digital outs. After editing you just re-record the track back to the same track it was on. or antother if you like. I always move the original to a virtual track as a backup as well as keeping an un edited copy on the PC. You can never have too many backups.
Sounds like the DPS24 answers Yamaha's unit and a bit of Mackie's digital 8 bus as well. If it works as well as the DPS16 you will have a very useful tool.

Greg
Di

[BB]

Thanks for the info,
Before the DPS24 was announced I wanted to sync another 1680 with it and discovered I couldn't do it digitally - bummer.

Now I'm gonna wait, cause it looks like the Akai 24 tr is everything I wanted, 24tr uncompressed, accessable faders, even 24 tr of digital i/o if you want it.

Btw,, is there anything you don't like about the akai? you know, pet peeves?
BB

[bluzgtr]

The online manual for the DPS16 says you can output two tracks at a time to a SCSI CD-ROM. Are these files in WAV format? Can you then use the CD-ROM in your computer to edit?

Thanks,

Larry

[lyricon]

Hi,
From the reading I did the Akai is real pick about which CDR you use. They list two on their web site and I never was able to find those models on the net for sale. I didn't look that hard though. In answer to you question. There are two kinds of CDs it writes I believe. A regular audio CD and a propritary (sp) backuo ao all audio and mix data. I don't know if it will write a CDROM type output. I just went out the S/PIDF out to my computer but as I mentioned above you need hardware to be able to do that.

Greg

[Alan]

Hi Greg, Without having a manual to hand, ..... assuming I have a scsi hard drive on my pc, does the machine download in wav format? that I could perhaps bring the tracks into Logic Audio?
Also, do you know if the hard drive is interchangable? ...as mine is 20gb
Thanks for any help Greg!
Alan. UK