as you know there are many nice affordable units out there which include a CD burner.

I use a Yamaha AW2816 which is the same as the AW4416 with a few less bells and whistles..it uses the Yamaha OS2 operating system which can be a tad steep on the learning curve .

The Boss products are in my opinion very easy to use and learn, such as the BR1600. Effects are very good and the results you can get out of the box so to speak is very very good.

I did many projects on an older Boss BR8 which uses a zip drive..I loved it.

I would lean Boss for price vs value...

It's really amazing what they can cram into a 10" by 10" plastic case these days..

If you spend a few minutes editing a few of the pathces specifically for the Steel, Tele , LP , Bass etc..and save them all in the patch bank you can call them up as needed.

These little plastic boxes are really amazing..

t

[This message was edited by Tony Prior on 09 February 2005 at 02:18 AM.]

With a computer system it is mostly software up grade and integration,
it can all be transfered to a new computer easily whaen you upgrade.

The 1180 is very easy to use and keep in mind it is intended for a single ( not as opposed to married )musician who builds songs 1 or 2 tracks at a time.

Simple to use, quality patches and effects, excellent 16 bit ( here we go with that BIT RATE thing again) results.

Some folks as mentioned are firm believers in PC recording..but they are two different worlds. You can't bring your PC over to your pals house for a jam session..you pal must come to your house.

There are enough features on these workstations for a musician to use and make quality recordings without actually loosing touch with playing the music. These Boss machines are about making it easy to capture the music from the musician rather than the technical doo dads that may be available on other machines or PC based systems.

I personally like both the PC format and the workstation format but prefer the workstation format as it is separate from my other PC life which is typing endlessly on forums..

I don't think you can go wrong with the 1180 CD..

t

[This message was edited by Tony Prior on 09 February 2005 at 12:23 PM.]

I also did my recordings on a Tascam 4-track for 15 years. Very recently bought
a Boss 1600 CD Harddisc Recorder and man,
it is an amazing experience. Go for it!

Roland

Here is a link to my samples using the above rig:
http://dvanet.net/timharr_audio.html

------------------
Tim Harr
Carter D-10 8p & 9k w/ BL-705s, Hilton pedal, PODxt, Webb 6-14E Amplifier

http://groups.msn.com/TimHarrWebPage/yourwebpage.msnw

The Motu interfaces are good and
also the Metric Halo is very good too.

both are 8 chan I/O with Motu with 2 mics In's built in with 8 line.

As to mixing on your computer monitors. gadzouks!
I can only say garbage in garbage out.
With out a passable reference, you will NEVER mix well for the outside world.

Get the best small speakers and subwoofer combination
that makes your 5 favorite varied style CD's sound best over all for you,
at a price you can get it.
Choose things with a variety of sounds.

I test with :
Gloria Estephan MiTiara, the tile song... impecably recorded. If I had only one song to test a room with this would be it.

David Grisman Jerry Garcia bluegrass album or Bela Fleck Drive, good acoustic picking well recorded

Any large orchestra recorded in the Concertgebaw Amsterdam The BEST orchestralclarity and range

Alan Jackson greatest hits. Hey it's a country rock kind a thing and ya heard it every where right?

Lloyd Green Revisited we IS steelers and this is a classic and great recording

Village Vangard Jazz Orchestra Don;t forget some REAL brass playing,

If all of them sound cool, then the speakers work for me.
A similar set of musical types will give a good ear reference.

If you CAN'T HEAR THE BASSPLAYER EVENLY...
you will never mix your low end right.

I like the small iInfiniti MK II's with a small sub wooofer for a buget system.
But let your EARS be the judge.

Just try it, it won't cost you a thing.

Les

------------------
Strat,Tele
Dekley S-10

Even with the SB Audigy 2 EX, I can only record two tracks at a time, which I find is insufficient for most recording. You really need at a minimum 8 tracks/channels interface. Many of the "low price/entry level" PC's won't really do the job (e.g. the cheapies that companies such as Dell sell (e.g. the 2400's and 3000 models).

I do my own recordings plus I do a lot for local singers and even one semi-retired Nashville songwriter, that did some record producing (he produced one of Mel Street's albums).

The only "joke" in the Fostex VF160 is the built in CD recorder. It will only record one song/program on a CD, not the entire "session". Otherwise it works well and is not really too hard to learn, compared to some other hard drive recorders.