Thursday 14 April 2011

Digital Recording Workstation

I have a Yamaha AW4416 Digital Audio Workstation. It is described as "take(s) the all-in-one portable recording workstation to new heights, marrying a fully featured digital mixer with a 16-track hard disk recorder and sampling facilities. The published feature list promises a breathtaking specification at a highly competitive price, offering 16 tracks of uncompressed 24-bit audio, with a further 114 virtual tracks, along with comprehensive I/O and backup options, including an optional built-in SCSI CD writer. The mixer section is closely derived from that of Yamaha's existing 'O-series' digital mixers, and includes a large display with dedicated metering, two effects processors and full moving-fader automation. The built-in polyphonic sampler really is the icing on the cake." It was originally $4000 so I saw one used and grabbed it at $450. I have 7 channels in my system, two for audio and five for instruments. The nice thing for me is to be able to play back my 7 channels into my amps and, theoretically, it should sound just like me playing. I should be able to go into the audience area and check out and adjust my amp volumes. Also, I will use this to produce my CDs and to create the song samples for my website http://www.blackboxband.ca/.

I am going to try and upgrade the hard drive. I read that it will take up to a 64 gig drive so I should be able to get a 60 gig fairly cheaply. Apparently, it will format the drive for you once it is inserted. There are also optional cards that you can get for more inputs but they are very expensive and I think I can do without. They are also not that plentiful. I am looking forward to messing around with this thing. I plan on building a box for it with a flip top and fold down legs. I will position it behind my seat so that I can reach the controls. I want to record live performances as well and I was thinking of recording the ambient noise to track 8. Then, I might decide to mix that in if I want to release "live" tracks because eventually, I want to produce some recordings.

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