Fostex VF08

I bought this at Long & McQuade music for $900 Canadian, which is about $600 USD. I got it to record myself and other musician friends of mine, in my bedroom studio.

It sounds amazing. It's got two XLR mic inputs. For the price, this is the best entry-level quality stand-alone digital workstation on the market. Much better than the Boss BR-8. For one, there's better audio-digital converters. Two, you've got 10 Gigs of space, enough for hours of recording, while the Boss only has a 100 MB zip disk, you can record one 5 min song if you're careful. Three, from what I've heard the effects are way better. The Boss has COSM amp modelling, which the Fostex lacks, but other than that I think in terms of internal processing and stuff, the Fostex is way better. It sounds great, you can cut and paste, bounce trackes with no degradation and everything. It's even got a built-in feature that will eliminate specific pan positions from a mix, like a karaoke machine, so you can download songs and sing along, or play along. Very good quality piece of machinery. Easy to use.

It could use more inputs so you could record a band. As it is, you can only record two things at once. Unfortunate, but if you want to upgrade to equipment that can do that, you're talking about a significant increase in price bracket.

Solidly made. I guess we'll see in a couple of years how it's stood up. It seems to be decent quality, though. It's really small, which makes things really convenient.

Best bang for the buck. If you're getting into recording, this is the way to go, unless you've got the money to get a quality computer, or you've already got one. I might move to a laptop much later in life, but I don't have one now, and I need something that's portable, so a stand-alone seemed to be the way to go. My advice: go for it.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Technical: C exeactement is the same as the vf80 but without the cd included. The records are in wave format so no prob.

• 8 tracks + 16 additional tracks - record uncompressed Hard Drive IDE 5.1 ​​GB of origin is 16 hours record / playback (mono track). The hard disk capacity can be increased in future.
• How to Bounce simply an extension of the runway.
• Mastering Mode enables reproduction of the stereo master 7-8 with the effects of Mastering. In addition to the manual settings for EQ, Reverb, Compressor, Limiter ..., 10 pre-selected libraries are available with mastering a quick and easy access (Modes: Flat, Wet Mix, Light Mix, Live Mix, Pop Mix, Dance, Hard , 70's, Hall, Lo-Fi).
• Mode "Training" offers a slower reproduction without changing the pitch to face the music reproduction with the elimination of the center (it is the effect "karaoke", which can eliminate a guitar solo or mixed voices the center for example) and a mode of reproduction with repetition between points AB.
• 2-band EQ libraries. In addition to standard shelving type, 36 EQ formats are offered including bell type, LPF, HPF ...
• Digital input / output S / PDIF to export and import stereo signal digitally.

UTILIZATION

Convenient device for recording, mixing live and studio group. it's very easy to use. Everything is recorded on a hard drive.
we can take it everywhere because of its small size and the rendering is excellent.

SOUNDS

All right. digital quality

OVERALL OPINION

I long time and I've never had a problem. quality / price ratio excellent. I would do this choice.