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MGR/String Breaker « Yamaha MD4 »
Published on 03/11/02 at 15:00I purchased this unit from the Christchurch Rockshop for $1400 NZ
When I bought this I had just completed a course in Audio engineering, was at music college, and was rearing to go. With the MD4's ease of use, and portability, I was able to make many recordings, experiment with many different ways of recording, and I learned a hell of a lot about music, recording techniques, and as a by-product of that, my songwriting improved tenfold. The MD4 uses minidisk compression, so you don't actually get the truest recorded sound, but then again, you don't have to buy a compressor.
The MD4 doesn't use standard minidisks, they use things called Data Disks that are expensive, and hard to find. Fortunatly they are infinately re-recordable until the disks become physically damaged, and - lets face it - everything wears out eventually. Also the machine doesn't automatically save the data to the disk, you have to tell it to - and if you forget then you lose a whole sessions work (insert profanity here).
Many other users I've spoken to have had many problems with their machines, and getting them serviced in New Zealand is a bit of a problem, but my machine has never let me down. It's been dropped, beaten, had champagne sprayed all over it, been left in a closed car on a hot day while I walked 4 miles to a garage, been thrown around and used extensivly over the last 4 years, and (with the excpetion of the afore mentioned disks) has worked perfectly every time.
I got a hell of a lot of use from my MD4, and it served me well. These days I'm using the computer for most of my recording projects, but the MD4 is sitting here doing it's duty as a handy little mixer. There are better recording devices, but you could do much much worse than to buy one.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com
When I bought this I had just completed a course in Audio engineering, was at music college, and was rearing to go. With the MD4's ease of use, and portability, I was able to make many recordings, experiment with many different ways of recording, and I learned a hell of a lot about music, recording techniques, and as a by-product of that, my songwriting improved tenfold. The MD4 uses minidisk compression, so you don't actually get the truest recorded sound, but then again, you don't have to buy a compressor.
The MD4 doesn't use standard minidisks, they use things called Data Disks that are expensive, and hard to find. Fortunatly they are infinately re-recordable until the disks become physically damaged, and - lets face it - everything wears out eventually. Also the machine doesn't automatically save the data to the disk, you have to tell it to - and if you forget then you lose a whole sessions work (insert profanity here).
Many other users I've spoken to have had many problems with their machines, and getting them serviced in New Zealand is a bit of a problem, but my machine has never let me down. It's been dropped, beaten, had champagne sprayed all over it, been left in a closed car on a hot day while I walked 4 miles to a garage, been thrown around and used extensivly over the last 4 years, and (with the excpetion of the afore mentioned disks) has worked perfectly every time.
I got a hell of a lot of use from my MD4, and it served me well. These days I'm using the computer for most of my recording projects, but the MD4 is sitting here doing it's duty as a handy little mixer. There are better recording devices, but you could do much much worse than to buy one.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com