I’m currently using a Boss BR1200 (8 track) and it has served me well over the last few years in producing decent home recordings. The hard drive is starting to play up on me though and I’m tempted to buy a new recorder. I have been checking out the Boss BR1600CD and it is appealing because I will already know how to use most of its functions from my current Boss, plus it has 8 inputs (great for recording a band or multiple inputs that my current Boss cant) and has a digital input which is desirable for me wanting to input simple but high quality keyboard parts. I really want to avoid PC recording because I only ended up with hassles that way in the past and I like the fact I can take a recorder almost anywhere, although Im open to any complete PC and mixing desk packages there might be out there (I think Roland does one). I have read a few reviews on other Yamaha, Fostex, Akai, Tascam and Korg 8 and 16 track digital recorders out there but it’s hard to find good comparisons and there's a lot of different models.

What are some other great 8/16 track digital recorders out there at the moment I should be looking at?

I don't know that it's "great," but I was thinking that Zoom has a couple of digital recorders. At one point I was considering one of their palm-sized recorders and found a good online forum with many members and lots of demo recordings. Of course, an alternative might be a lap top and software.

I've been using a Roland VS1680 (16 tracks) for over 5 years now. I'm not sure how state-of-the-art it is anymore but I've had good enough success with it not to go over to full-on PC recording. Shoot me a PM if you need any tech info about it.

Specifically Im looking at the Boss 16 track in comparison to the Fostex VF160EX 16-Track Recorder, TASCAM 2488MKII 24-Track Digital Portastudio and Korg D3200 32-Track Digital Recording Studio. They all seem pretty good, particularly the Korg, although each one has a few advantages and drawbacks. Id like something with a RCA digital in and out, which the Boss and Tascam have. I'll check out the Roland VS - I had looked briefly at some of the VS 24 track studio's but they are out of my price range. 350 How does the VS handle on board mastering or do you do that on PC?

Cheers

Specifically Im looking at the Boss 16 track in comparison to the Fostex VF160EX 16-Track Recorder, TASCAM 2488MKII 24-Track Digital Portastudio and Korg D3200 32-Track Digital Recording Studio. They all seem pretty good, particularly the Korg, although each one has a few advantages and drawbacks. Id like something with a RCA digital in and out, which the Boss and Tascam have. I'll check out the Roland VS - I had looked briefly at some of the VS 24 track studio's but they are out of my price range. 350 How does the VS handle on board mastering or do you do that on PC?

Cheers
I used to use the onboard mastering quite a bit before I got some of my PC plug-ins. Not the most user friendly interface but capable of of pretty decent quality recordings. There was a learning curve for me with it but I would imagine that's any DAW anymore. The 24 track is really nice, but the 16 will do 8 tracks at a time which is more than enough for me. I've seen clean used ones going for $400.00-ish, I don't know what the BOSS' are going for. Good luck.:thumb:

Yea im using the roland vs-840 and it rocks!!!!!!!!!!

Killer efects the only thing I dont like abought it is it only has the digital output and not the imput but as far as sound quality itself and product reliability havent had one problem with it and have owned it for years when ever thay first came out 5,6, years ago are so maby even longer cant remember but solid peace of gear though to hold up for that long and still going strong dont have any noise problems from the sliders everything is extreamly low noise .

good peice of gear.

Ive got a Roland VS 2400 cd which does everything i could want and more and holds a lot of stock too :rock: