Purpose is everything... I use Sonar on the PC but don't want to drag the PC around to record, live or demo's, obviously.
Primary purpose..
To get outboard individually recorded song tracks into a format that is compatible with ANY DAW. Such as 5 drum tracks. Well that's easy as pie, record, save,then USB them over to the PC or directly into Sonar as wave files ! Each R16 song is a project file and inside that project are the individual wav files, take one or take em' all, man that was easy.
I have been looking at new workstations for over a year now, considering my Yamaha AW2816 is still fine performing unit, but it has no PC connectivity, it can save two wav files at a time ( stereo or mono) to a CD..so transferring takes a long time if I am doing more than two tracks..out goes the old, in comes the new. I labored over which unit to drag home but the primary feature was indvidual wav files within a song, of which the R16 and the new R24 offer as the standard feature set.
Ok now, on it's own, 8 inputs, 16 track recording, ( records 8 at a time ) 2 phantom power in's , HI Z in, 3 effects per channel, in, out or off...all the typical stuff, EQ's, pan, bounce , track swap, tuner ,metronome, 16 bit,24 bit...individual track level meters rather than small and can't see em on the LCD display.
Considering I have only fooled with it for about an hour, it's fairly easy to use, but you need to be somewhat intuitive and previous recording/workstation experience will really help in getting things sorted out. I recorded a few short tracks , swapped tracks( that's how you overdub) added a few effects then transferred the files to the PC. A Jog wheel , 4 position pointer buttons, enter button and exit button are the command points. I think they can be a bit strange in the menu's but once the routine is understood it's fairly simple. Considering my Yamaha AW2816 has a half million buttons( exaggeration) this is really no different, but certainly less inherent features.
This morning I also registered on the ZOOM forum and that is a library of info from fanatics ! Well worth reading that forum.
What else,? Portable, runs on batteries or AC power,two on board mics, SD card, no more hard drive ( thank god ) up to 32 gig SD card...and the price...
I paid $331 new , found it on the net and then went local and they matched the price.
What else ? Small, very light, now the R16 product is a year old and has whatever updates from the initial release..Users rave about it so it must be doing well. It's a small lite weight plastic case so don't drop it !
I had considered at least half a dozen different workstations to use along with Sonar , this one just seemed to be the exact right one...Price was not really the issue, the file structure was...after that everything else just fell in line. And yes, it can mix and master a total song, it is after all a standalone 16 track workstation and much more.
Oh yeh, it has those input connectors that take mics or 1/4 phono plugs, that's also big.
It also serves as a PC 16 channel DAW Interface / Controller compatible with pretty much all DAW platforms, I guess, so they say...
Why the R16 rather than the new R24 for $100 more ? The R24 is basically the same unit, same architecture, same effects, but it does have 24 record tracks,( 8 at a time ) 6 Phantom Power in's and it has on board drum loops and pads. I don't need or want any more drums, 16 tracks will serve me quite well and I don't really need more than 2 phantom power in's, if I need more I'll use preamps.
More at some other time..nice unit ,I can see it has long term value, maybe even take it to a gig and use 4 mics..or 6 ..or 8 ...or NONE ! ( two on board condensers)
Down Side..
The only thing I can come up with right now is that it only comes with a 1 gig SD card. I think 8 or more is probably required for full 16 track projects.
t
