Any other Akai DPS24 users?

[guernica]

......just wondering

[dtb]

uh..........no.........but

btb has DPS16 that he and his band bought a few years ago........he used it some at home, and he brought over here Sat. to see if I could get it to read the cd drive they bought with it. He had a few projects on it, but could'nt get the drive to read. Of course I had to fuck with it and lost all his songs. no biggie.........still could'nt get the drive to work, and now we can't even get it formatted.

but hopefully, he called his bandmate who is a genius with this stuff, and he is coming over the holidays to get it back right.

did you have ?...........I sure do.

[rustyfingers]

Define "user"?

I own one but haven't used it in a while.

Dennis

[guernica]

dan, naw...no questions, just wondering if anyone besides me was using one.

dennis.......you 'putin 100% now man? ...did you ever get all of those tech problems worked out?

[rustyfingers]

[dog]

Yup.

Had mine for about 3 years and still haven't figured it all out. Course I'm about as sharp as the edge of town so...

S'all good tho. Great piece of gear!

[dtb]

hey fellows, as soon as we get this holiday season over, I'll get btb's DPS16 hooked up. cause we got questions for sure.

[Diplomat]

Yeah, I have one.
It rocks.

[thinline]

Yup, I got one, too. Still learning. It was my first recorder and I went in with no knowledge or experience whatsoever. I decided to go for a unit that I would keep for several years rather than get something smaller and then want to move up shortly thereafter. I rpobably made the learning curve steeper by doing this but I am having a blast and there is just tons of support from the folks ond the DPS board.

[Treeline]

I've got a DPS16... The sound is killer! I'd love a DPS24, but there's a house to paint first and all that jazz.

[Killthecat]

Hi all...I am going to purchase a recorder in the next few days and I have it narrowed down to either the DPS24 or the Roland VS2480. I tend to be leaning towards the Akai but I don't know anyone that has ever had one. Have any of you guys had any bad experiences with it, or any types of problems? And if you are familiar with the Roland, would you have a strong preference for one or the other?I know I'm "brain pick'n" but they're not cheap and I'd like to know as much as I can before I buy one. Thanks in advance for any input you can give me.

[jake-O.W.A.]

I can only speak for the Roland. STAY AWAY! It's an embedded menu nightmare. Unless you are the kind of person who loves to use a manual to do the simplest of task...do not buy that piece of crap. Someone gave me one to try and I gave it back.

[jake-O.W.A.]

Well to be fair the one I used was the VS1680 but I imagine they are similar.

[Killthecat]

I saw someone else saying the same things on another BB. And I haven't seen any real complaints about the Akai DPS24. All the posts I've seen have been real positive about it. (and it's about $700.00 less than the Roland).

[guernica]

The dps24 was a great idea as far as design goes. Its open architecture really does allow you to route just about anything, anywhere you want.
The onboard pre's are as good as any I have heard (in a middle of the road price range). And, as with most quality stand alone's, you can get cracking with some pretty good recording right out of the box.

BUT, there are pitfalls with this machine.

-first off, dont count on any os upgrades or help from akai. They are pretty much done with it (despite the release of the mkII), and there isnt expected to be any further development on the machine. Go to the dps24 forum and notice how many people are waiting ridiculous amounts of time for fixes. IMO, this is a huge deterant from buying this machine, and an incredible blunder on the part of Akai.
Folks had hoped that maybe there would be a faster connection to a computer in the works (possibly via an additionally purchased firewire or usb2 card)....not gonna happen. Youre stuck with usb1 which is pretty much useless, imo. You do have the option of getting a scsi drive , transferring via cd, or going out spdf, but a fast realtime connection that allows you to work with all tracks and a computer seamlessley would have been great.
-In my opinion, the onboard fx really dont compare to the quality or flexibility of being able to use plugs. You can use some by utilizing the adat and routing, but its a work-around, and wont work with everything. Research the plugs you like, and make sure that they will work. ...again, the dps forum is a great source for this.
-Im not a fan of the 3 band shelf eq. Its not as musical, imo as the eq.'s offered with most of the major computer sequencers. No high or low pass filters.
-The channel compression is adequate for light dynamic compression during mixes, but (again, imo) it is not adequate if you use compression for tone shaping.

So, would I have purchased this unit 3 years ago if i knew then what i know now? ...probably not.

Ive never used a roland, so i cant offer anything there. Imo, if youre gonna blow $2500 on a recording set-up, seriously consider going with a computer and software. Its easily expanable, more flexible, has better editing features, and will integrate better with future recording development.
...just my opinion.

[jake-O.W.A.]

I really don't understand why anyone would get a standalone these days. I use a MOTU896hd with an ADA8000 for 16 ins with Reaper and the whole thing cost me about a grand WITH software. Way more flexible, powerful and it's got to be better sounding in the end.

But then this is the wrong forum section for that...

[thinline]

Did the $1,000 include the computer as well?

[jake-O.W.A.]

[Killthecat]

I thank you for the input...I am recording right now with nothing more than a good computer, Adobe Audition 1.5 and 2.0, and an M-Audio Mobile Pre / USB. I can get pretty good results this way because there is no one else on these tracks but me, and I can only do one at a time. What I want to do is buy whatever I would need to go out somewhere and record a live band. I have already found a band and I can do this where they rehearse. What I want to do is go out and get the tracks, then bring them home and get them all on my computer and into Audition. Then take it from there and do what I always have done...just using someone elses tracks instead of just me. So I need equipment that will allow me to record at least 10 or 12 live tracks at the same time. (It's a 3 piece band). And then interface with my computer at home. What would you suggest that would get me what I'm after ? Keep in mind that I will be basically starting from scratch.
I do appreciate all the input...I know you guys know a great deal more than I do about these things.

[Treeline]

Sounds a little like what I do - except I'm doing live sound as well, so I don't track anything but a mix and separate vocals. I bought a mackie ONYX mixer, 16 channels, with a Firewire card. When I'm recording in the field, I run the firewire to my laptop with Reaper installed, can arm up to 18 tracks (16 and a stereo mix) and I capture the data to an external drive (I use a good size Lacie). So far, so good, except that I go absolutely crazy trying to do this and run sound at the same time. It's definitely a two person endeavor.

In fact, I've found it quite a bit easier to do my live tracking with the DPS16 and focus on live sound. I'll bring home from one to four, maybe five tracks, do a submix and track a stereo mix via s/pdif to my computer, record in Reaper, build clones to bring out features I want and recreate a stereo field as the band was on the stage, render and import it to Adobe 2.0 for a nice massage.

Remember a live band recording will have none of the advantages of a studio, particularly concerning track bleed. You can get individual tracks, but it is not the same as a studio endeavor - the individual tracks mean much less to the end result, so you don't need 16 of them. Four or five will do you fine. That's why I try for one track with a good representative mix without vocals, one each of the vocals, and maybe one for percussion or acoustic guitar - whatever I might want to stand out from the mix.

So before you invest in multitracking capabilities to do live band tracking, get some hours under your belt with three or four tracks at one time, and see how that goes.

[L J Max]

[Killthecat]

Treeline...Thanks for the response. I have quite a bit of hands on experience with multitrack analog recording. Nothing was ever better to me than 2" tape and the old Neve console. I completely understand the bleed issues that are involved with tracking in a live environment. The biggest problem confronting me is my lack of knowledge or experience with the huge amount of digital units available and what combinations or pieces of equipment are necessary to do this. I love Audition and have been using it long enough now to be very comfortable with using it to do all production tasks. And I'm real good with computers as computers go. I just don't know much about the methods available to go out and get tracks to bring home and load into the computer. I realize that I could probably go out with a hard disk recorder and a mixing board and do a little grouping and patching and come back with some type of a mix, but I am hoping to be able to isolate as best as possible and come back with as many tracks as were needed. At that point, I think even though they would not be "sterile" tracks to work with, I could probably turn them into something much better than what these guys in the band have ever had done for them before. And because it's only a three piece (drums, bass, guitar) it probably would end up being just drums and bass initially, and dubbing the guitars and vocals and whatever else they might want individually afterward.
I appreciate your info and response.

[Killthecat]

guernica....Thank you very much for that. Very informative. I went to the dps24 forums and read for a couple of hours. Seems like for every 1 person that likes the unit, there is also one that doesn't. The USB1 issue seems crazy to me as well. I would have figured it have something a little more advanced considering all the other features it claims to have. The EQ and plugins wouldn't really be an issue for me because I wouldn't be using it for mixing or mastering...just tracking.
I thank you for taking the time to respond...that was real cool:-)

[thinline]

Jake, the reason I asked about the computer is that I don;t really have one at home. I have this old Packard Bell with a 15 Meg, yes 15 Meg hard drive. The damn thing takes the old larger black floppies! I just don't have use for one at home. I use it to balance my checkbook and that's it. I also don;t have a cell phone so feel free to draw your own conclusions re: that guys is a freakin' luddite.