Fostex MR8HD Digital Multitracker Review

Home recording has come a long way since the days of the analog four track cassette tape home recorders. Studio quality recording used to be something only those that could afford studio time had access to until the digital age came along.

Now, studio quality recording can be done at home at a fraction of the cost and more and more home musicians are "doing it themselves". With the increasing popularity of online music, one can now write, record, produce, and publicize their songs and never leave their home. For that matter, one doesn't even need an actual band anymore if they know how to play multiple instruments or "fake it" using midi, synths, computer programs and the like to produce an album, other than for live performances.

There are numerous home digital recorders on the market. They come in everything from tiny 4 track boxes, to elaborate 32+ track multitrackers with all the digital studio toys built right in. They can be costly but now there are versions made to suit just about every musicians budget. If you are looking for a digital studio that has all the quality and lots of the toys of the big studio rigs without taking up a lot of space and draining your wallet, check out the Fostex MR8HD Digital Multitracker.

The MR8HD is an excellent middle of the road home recording unit that will get you producing music in no time for a price that's lower than most quality instruments. For around 400 dollars, you can have a state of the art 8 track digital studio with most of the bells and whistles included. Even though the MR8HD is only an 8 track unit, you can bounce all 8 tracks to a new song so you can have as many tracks as you may need. The drawback to this feature is that once you bounce the first 8 tracks, you are no longer able to edit those tracks so you have to make sure they are perfect before hand.

Another great feature of the Fostex MR8HD is the fact that it is laid out pretty much like a real recording board. Actual faders and trim pots make it natural to use for someone that has already spent time in a real studio. XLR mike inputs mean you don't have to suffer the quality loss and noise of adapting to 1/4 inch stereo plug ins. This unit can record up to 4 tracks simultaneously, so you are not limited to recording 1 instrument at a time as so many lower cost digital recorders do. The on board effects help make it a mostly inclusive box but the guitar distortion and reverb aren't as good as you will find in an external effects processor such as the line of processors Digitech produces. They do the job though.

The internal mic and amp modeling give your recordings a bit more life by emulating several popular microphones and amplifier cabinets. This feature makes it seem as if you recorded your song in a real studio with quality equipment even if you can't afford it. The 40 gig hard drive gives you up to 15 hours of recording time, and since you can export to .wav files for further computer work you should never run out of space. It does not have a built in CD burner but since it can control an external USB CD burner, you can still burn your bands CDs right from the box without a computer. The recording quality is 16-bit/44.1khz which is CD quality but if you plan to record many high volume tracks in the same song you could experience some clipping. The S/PDIF digital out, means that you can do real digital mastering to your external devices, this isn't usually found on inexpensive units. One big drawback is its lack of on board tone controls which can be overcome by using the instruments tone controls or going through a pre-mixer.

I own the Fostex MR8HD Digital Multitracker myself and couldn't be happier for the price. If you are looking for an inexpensive but feature rich digital multitracker, this one just may be what you are looking for.