A review of the Fostex MR8

[Hook]

So here is my review of my new to me Fostex MR8

This is of course an 12 year old product  but is quite available on ebay at very affordable prices & it's not a bad recorder at all. Lets start with the cons:
        The effects are, for the most part, rubbish. The distortion is virtually unusable and the reverb isn't close to the quality of the boss or zoom machines. I do like the delay effect alot & have used the reverb on very low settings & was pleased with the results, especially on instruments. You can only use the effects on your mono tracks, one effect for all tracks at a time, each track has it's own knob to control the amount of effect. this isn't much of a problem since if you're recording stereo you probably have effects from another source. It would be nice to be able to have delay on one track & reverb on another but you can't have everything.
         No Phantom power! I don't need it at the moment but it sucks to know I can't use my condenser mics.

         The panning knobs are so very extreme. I can do slight panning to the right or left but if I go more than the 1st dot (11 o'clock or one o'clock respectively) it seems to jump super far. No gradualness at all, & I like to pan gradually. ( Boss units have great panning control in my opinion.)
          I can't say I understand the level display. Once I record on a track the level is the same no matter where I have the fader. If it's all the way down I still see the level at the same place as if it's up. So my mixing has been done solely by ear, which I don't really mind.
       
          The usb connection is an old giant plug  kind. I think I have one in a box I just haven't searched for it. I've been assuming I have the newest software/firmware update but I can't check it without the cord so I do plan on digging it out. Since I have a card reader in my computer I have no other need to plug it in through usb.

            No virtual tracks but that's not as limiting as I would have thought.
         
            No EQ at all but I like to record the sound I want anyhow and not mess with EQ, my ears aren't that sensitive.

That's it on the cons I think, let's look at the pros:

           
             Very easy to use, intuitive & much like the tape deck studios of my past.Hardly opened the manual.
             8 tracks- 4 mono 2 stereo with 2 track simultaneous recording.
             Easy to arm/disarm tracks
             Decent faders, I love me some faders
             2 headphone jacks and a volume control!!!!
             Obvious peak lights to control clipping.
             2 gig compact flash card & yes I'm getting both gigs as far as I can tell, about 380 min of record time in the normal setting (16 bit 44.1kHz)when card is empty. I haven't used any of my old cards yet but I'm not foreseeing any problems
             Excellent Wav. converter software, can't export stereo tracks but with audacity to finish the tunes that's not much of an issue.
             Very Easy to bounce & the "powerful" mastering effect is pretty good!
             Has the option for a foot pedal for punch ins which I like alot. I used in the car the first time and seemed to get a click on the punch in but when I used it at home I didn't notice any noise...jury still out on this feature.
             I seem to get pretty good life out of rechargable batteries, about 3 hours. I do wish it had a battery level icon on the screen, apparently it has a battery low warning but I must have missed it when they ran dead. It also has the option to run without the screens back light which saves the batteries.
             I haven't had any drive busy type errors in fact no errors at all. No matter how many times I record over the same track it doesn't seem to corrupt like the boss machines do. 
             On board mic isn't great but it does serve my purposes.
             Easy to use/see light up buttons.
             Only need to use the menu for a few functions, new/delete song or track, metronome, editing, etc. very easy to maneuver around the menu options.
             Easy to move tracks. This allows me to fill my tracks1-4 & 5/6 then bounce to 7/8. Export 1-6 to computer and move 7/8 to 5/6 for more tracking. Not quite as easy as a BR800's virtual tracks but it does allow me the essence of unlimited tracks as long as I can get to a computer to export.

All in all I'm quite pleased with the MR8, for someone looking to get a a cheap desktop/portable unit I wouldn't hesitate to suggest this machine as long as you have other options for effects. It's no BR900 (or 800) but it only ran me $64 (that's with shipping) so for the $$$ I'm very happy (not content but happy). Using this in conjunction with the MBR & ps02 works well & the having 4 tracks after each bounce is really nice after using the MBR for the last year.

There you have for what it's worth...
Rock On!

         

[64Guitars]

Great review, Hook. Thanks for taking the time to write it.

Has the option for a foot pedal for punch ins which I like alot.

I assume that's a standard electrical foot switch rather than the weird air-operated things for my Fostex X15. They were optional accessories for the X15 and I never bought them. But I always thought it was a strange idea to make them air-operated. An electrical switch seems much simpler. And the X15 needed two of those things - one to punch-in and one to punch out.

[AndyR]

The punch-in pedal on my old Yamaha MT2X 4-track cassette recorder was a "hold down for on, let go for off" (this has a name for the type of switch that I cannot recall! "non-latching" or something?)

Years later, when I got a keyboard, I discovered I was able to use the punch-in pedal as a sustain pedal on the keyboard until I got a decent sized one!

Never come across anything like that Fostex puffer thing!

========

Yep, cool review...

Interesting what you say about no virtual tracks - I was thinking about this the other day, we've got used to them, but they're not essential, especially if you've got 6 or more tracks in the first place.

I use virtuals for two main things:
1. Alternative takes - keep the old take because it might be "the one". But I only do this for replacing stuff like the guide bass. Doing a solo, for example, I nearly always record over the previous one (the alternative is ending up with 3 or 4 versions that I can't decide on!).
2. Keeping the individual tracks after bouncing a submix (or after editing the performance), in case I want to go back and do it better... But I so rarely do this anyway...

Sometimes, I have to use the virtuals just to get the submix done. Eg, mix the electric guitars onto the same track that an acoustic guitar submix is on (so the acoustics are hiding on a virtual for that track while I'm doing it). But all that really means is that I can record more instruments before I have to bounce.

So, I don't want you to take them away from me, but I could live without virtual tracks...

And it's a cute red, btw... that probably improves the recordings?

[Hook]

64-That's one crazy ass, stupid idea idea of a punch in pedal! In fact I can't believe anyone thinking that was a good idea, in any point on the timeline!

Andy- Concerning virtual tracks, if I had 16 it probably wouldn't matter. I start my tunes and then just build upon each bounce I have to make. I seldom go back and change a previous bounce. When I had the BR900 I seldom had more than 2 bounces since I had 6 mono & 1 stereo but with the MBR I just bounced & bounced & bounced ... especially if I was using stereo tracks. I would love to have them on the MR8! Right now If I fill 1-4 & 5/6 I can only bounce & then wait until I get to a computer to export the tracks. I actually had this issue with "Sunday Morning" & had time to record more but didn't have the space, without erasing a track.  I want to add a mini laptop into my studio so i can accomplish everything, from starting on MR8 to finishing in audacity, in a portable studio. Just another want!