customer reviews
48 People rated this product :
6 out of 10
5 People wrote reviews
7 out of 10
"Nice unit but could have used a bit more thought in the design"
Feature:
My biggest disappointment is that, in this age of 4, 8 and even 16GB Compact Flash cards at reasonable prices, this puppy only will format in FAT16, which enforces a 2GB limit to the size you get, even if you put in a larger card. Also, only WAV recording is supported, no compressed formats such as MP3, OGG-Vorbis or one of the lossless compressions. Also, although you can record "stereo," it doesn't directly make a stereo wave file; you have to perform another operation to merge the two mono wave files into a single stereo one.
Quality:
For the price, I feel like the external hardware quality is quite good. I like the pushbuttons with a positive feel, and the small sliders have a smooth feel to me. It's not my 24 channel Mackie board, but it has a good feel, to me.
Value:
In spite of my complaints, I feel this unit is a reasonable value. It has a lot of features for musicians looking to do their own mixes at a price less than a month's rent (at least anywhere around here).
Desirability:
Thank god they dropped the bright red on this MkII version! I'll be using it a lot to record the output of a board that's mainly used for sound reinforcement of live performances, and I don't want something too flashy.
Sound:
I don't claim a golden ear, so this is based more on technical: the specified distortion performance is decent but certainly far from state-of-the-art, and you can only record at 44.1 or 22.05 ks/s, and at 16 bit depth.
Ease of Use:
It has taken a bit of getting used to, but the human interface is OK. Something I long for: a bit smarter entry of song names (my simple cell phone has much easier text entry). The back-lit (red for recording-related, green for playback and general) pushbuttons give good visual cues about what state things are in, and the feel of the controls is better than I expected for a low-end unit. A confusing bit: when I'm recording two channels, the remaining-time display shows the total mono track time available, which is confusing. I have to divide by two to get the remaining stereo time.
Support:
A few days ago (after a few days of use) I emailed support asking about software upgrades: is there a way to do it from a computer or a flash card file? Do they have plans to support larger cards fully? Haven't heard a peep out of them yet.
Overall:
I'm giving it a 7 for what it does, not for what I really want. So far, my searches have not turned up what I _really_ want: a unit about this size for recording stereo, or even better, 4-track or more, files to large memory cards; ability to do compressed files a plus. Ability to do timed (start and duration) recordings a plus. I don't need all the mixing capability the Fostex has, but I would like large, light-emitting level metering like I have on my large board. The M-Audio microtracker is too small; I want some weight and controls I can more easily use with one hand.
Submitted: 3/22/2008
Style of Music: Many--mainly classical and Celtic--and whatever is performed on our stage
7 out of 10
"Excellent value, fun unit, useful, easy to use"
Feature:
It doesn't have many features, but Fostex seem to have left us the useable ones. You're always going to find things this unit doesn't do... but come on, how much did you pay for it? It's not it's big brother. I find the feature set quite useable.
Quality:
Big clunky red piece of plastic. Everything's plastic. Hey, it's light! It runs on batteries... but yeah, it's glossy plastic.
Value:
This is the unit I suggested to a singer/songwriter looking to get into recording her own stuff. She's familiar enough with her computer to get the files off the MR8 and make CDs, but wanted something vastly simpler than a full-blown DAW to record on, and just rented a new apartment, bought new furniture, didn't have much to spend. Her talent's gonna make up for any lack of gear, and I predict she falls in love with this thing.
Desirability:
Hahaha, it was sexy to me! Those sleek rounded red angles...
Come on, it's a box of bitmangling ICs.
Sound:
It's CD quality sound. One very important thing to realize is that the headphone amps are noisy as hell. Your actual audio is pretty clean.
The limitations I ran into as far as sound quality had far more to do with the microphones than with the inherent sound quality of the MR8.
No complaints here.
Ease of Use:
Most everything is easy to use. Basic transport and record controls are all right up front. For deeper stuff, if you're at all used to navigating nested menus, you'll have no trouble here... but that's not necessarily a good thing, it's just a pain some are used to. Not saying I have a better solution, just saying I end up squinting and cursing a bit while paging through menus trying to change the tempo of the click track...
Support:
never had to deal with 'em.
Overall:
I'll keep it around, cause it's good at what it does. I sometimes use it with a little stereo condenser to record live shows. Hey, it runs on batteries.
Submitted: 4/19/2007
Style of Music: country,electronica,rock,blues
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