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MGR/Derek Mok « Korg D12 »
Published on 11/16/03 at 15:00Bought at Sam Ash in New York City in 2001 for $899.
I had researched digital recorders for a substantial amount of time before deciding on this unit and I was very happy with my choice. At this price in 2001, you would usually get only an eight-track digital recorder, and the then-new Tascam 788 was a contender. But this Korg offers 12 tracks, the ability to bounce tracks, a streamlined cassis (just over half the size of the bulky 788), and very intuitive menu designs. With only analog 4-track experience, I was able to do most of my recording without referring the manual. Excellent sound quality, especially given my limited recording techniques and equipment. ($29.99 for two microphones!)
There is limited internal hard-drive storage and add-on drives are very expensive (Most recorders in this price range now offer at least 20GB of internal storage). The cursor button leaves much to be desired, trying to make one button do the work of four. Backup of your data to CDs is incredibly slow. One of my epic tracks (8:33 in length) takes over half a day to backup and often came up with a "drive error" 95% of the way through, requiring that you erase your CD-RW and start the backup again. That was horrible.
Also, the D12 came down in price in 2002 to $699, and then Korg discontinued it altogether in favour of the larger, more sophisticated D1200. Customer support for Korg is awful -- I contacted them four times with questions and only got an answer once.
Very high. The silver finish on the recorder is easily scratched, but it does look gorgeous. The faders are sensitive to the touch.
I love this recorder, but after recording one album's worth of material including alternate takes and outtake tracks, the recorder ran out of space. Research pointed me to a 73GB Glyph drive, but it costs several hundred dollars. This is a major minus to the recorder. Nonetheless, I still use the D12 a lot and my experience with it is predominantly positive. I've learned to accept its shortcomings the same way I would forgive the flaws on my favourite guitar.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com
I had researched digital recorders for a substantial amount of time before deciding on this unit and I was very happy with my choice. At this price in 2001, you would usually get only an eight-track digital recorder, and the then-new Tascam 788 was a contender. But this Korg offers 12 tracks, the ability to bounce tracks, a streamlined cassis (just over half the size of the bulky 788), and very intuitive menu designs. With only analog 4-track experience, I was able to do most of my recording without referring the manual. Excellent sound quality, especially given my limited recording techniques and equipment. ($29.99 for two microphones!)
There is limited internal hard-drive storage and add-on drives are very expensive (Most recorders in this price range now offer at least 20GB of internal storage). The cursor button leaves much to be desired, trying to make one button do the work of four. Backup of your data to CDs is incredibly slow. One of my epic tracks (8:33 in length) takes over half a day to backup and often came up with a "drive error" 95% of the way through, requiring that you erase your CD-RW and start the backup again. That was horrible.
Also, the D12 came down in price in 2002 to $699, and then Korg discontinued it altogether in favour of the larger, more sophisticated D1200. Customer support for Korg is awful -- I contacted them four times with questions and only got an answer once.
Very high. The silver finish on the recorder is easily scratched, but it does look gorgeous. The faders are sensitive to the touch.
I love this recorder, but after recording one album's worth of material including alternate takes and outtake tracks, the recorder ran out of space. Research pointed me to a 73GB Glyph drive, but it costs several hundred dollars. This is a major minus to the recorder. Nonetheless, I still use the D12 a lot and my experience with it is predominantly positive. I've learned to accept its shortcomings the same way I would forgive the flaws on my favourite guitar.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com