Topic: Korg D888

[junkyardt]

could not find a thread specifically for this unit in search. just wondering what people think of it who have one? is it regarded as a good value for the money? a piece of junk? any problems people have had with it? i just learned that i can have access to a brand new one to use, for free, and i'm unfamiliar with it.

[Ozpeter]

Best place for opinions on this is http://www.studiotrax.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=160

Absolutely essential info from a post of mine over there: -

The D888 always maintains one wave file for each track (or virtual track), for ease of subsequent editing with PC audio editing software. Each wave file has to start from the zero time point in the song.

Therefore if you do anything which changes the content of a track or a virtual track, such as adding to the end of it by further recording, or changing the middle or begining of it by punching in, or by recording from somewhere other than the zero point in the song, the D888 will have to render a new wave file for the track to amalgamate the new audio with the original, and will display the message "working" while it does so. If you record on many tracks at once for more than a few minutes, this "working" process can take some time, and you cannot use the D888 until it finishes.

When session recording with punch-ins and so forth in a single song, there's no way to avoid this. If the song is of conventional length, the "waiting" period should not take long. But if recording concerts or rehearsals, you should avoid pressing "stop" in short breaks in the performance - it's probably easier to delete unwanted parts later.

As soon as you press "stop" at the interval in a concert or rehearsal, when you have a little time before recording will recommence, you can either create a new song for the new segment of the event, or switch all tracks in use to new virtual tracks, being sure to reset the transport to the beginning of the song. That will avoid seeing the "waiting" message for more than a few seconds.

There are two simple rules to avoid seeing the "working" message for more than a few seconds...

1) Never start recording into a new song or an existing song except at zero seconds (the song start).

2) If recording over the top of an existing song track, start from zero seconds, and make sure you finish recording after the end of the original recording on that track (or virtual track) so the new recording completely over-writes the original one.

If you are forced to turn off your D888 while "working" is displayed you may find that there is one or more temporary files containing the last recorded audio, but you are strongly encouraged not to do this - follow the two rules set out above to avoid the necessity.

Note also that there has been much discussion related to the trim controls on this recorder.  When you operate the trim control near its highest setting, the gain increases very rapidly.  Personally I've not found that to be a problem, as with my mics I don't need that amount of gain.  The preamps seem reasonably low noise to me so if need be, record at a slightly low level and normalise in your DAW later, to avoid trim control problems.

Some have reported pulsing noises in recordings in sync with the hard drive writes.  Again, i've not found that to be significant personally.  Maybe it varies per machine or with the mics in use.

I've made several recordings of a pro symphony orchestra in a major concert hall with this recorder and they've turned out well.  It's great to have preamp, monitor mix and recorder all in one sturdy box.

However, the Tascam 680 isn't much different in price - though it doesn't sport a capacious disk drive!