Akai DPS16

Extreemly easy to record with. The Patch utility is well organized and simple to route any input to any other channel. I have my entire studio wired through the DPS-16. I wanted something Physical to get my hands onto, not that I don't admire computer based virtual recording, but the Akai offers something that can quickly record.
Manual is ok, but I found myself re-reading chapters as I needed them. For some reason, I found the signal routing portion to be complicated as well as the effects routing, but eventually got the hang of it. My system is at the last software revision. Note that Akai does not support any additional software updates. Ther version I have is 3.02 I believe and is very stable. I've never had an issue with anything other that there appears to be a project cap of about 178 or so. This is a problem especially if there is still room left on the hard-disk and you wish to keep everything as I do.

Sound Quality is excellent. Akai was one of the first multitrack's at the time to integrate 24 bit 96khz sampling recording. I've never had to use it, but doing so limits the number of tracks you can record on, so I've normally used 24 bit at 48khz to be able to record 8 channels at once. More can be obtained by simple integrating a digital mixer through the Channel 9&10's digital in.
Effects are good, although I tend to use the effects on my outboard mixer since it has a built in effects processor.
I am recording with the Akai with many sound emulators such as the PodXT, V-drums, and direct Keyboards.

This unit is Rock Solid. It uses standard IDE hard- drives which are very inexpensive now. The newer hard drives are a bit smaller and don't contain the elevation underneath to provide clearance of the housing cover below, but all that is needed is a few thick washers to elevate it and the door closes fine.
The unit itself is a little noisy because of the fan, but can be clearly overlooked if the unit is setup a bit further away from the environment. Also, it may be worth trying to find a quiet fan at any computer supply and it should be no problem replacing the original.

I've delt with Akai early on when I purchased it in 2000. That was six years ago. Unfortately there is no easy way to upgrade the software except with a SCSI drive. I had to use a ZIP SCSI drive on hand to perform the function. I've haven't delt with it since and operating system is rock solid. The software appears to be loaded into hard memory and not on the Hard drive itself. (I know this since I added two additional drives in the last few years). I save all of my drives.

If you are mastering with this unit, my recommendation is to get a good CD Recorder that supports RCA type digital in. I master in real time to an inexpensive Sony CD Recorder and I have received excellent results.

I found the unit to be great for recording and mixdown the sound is good quality.
The computer aspects of the unit are easy to follow, patch editing tools are readily available. The manual is a little hard to follow. Take the instructions literally. My unit has not been upgraded which is why I initially started this search for an ins. manual for the unit. The only problem I have found w/ this unit is "MASTERING" I am not getting enough compression to feel really full compression upon mastering my songs.

I am using the unit to record full vocal and electronic music tracks. It runs moderately noisy after warming up. The effects on the unit are average. The stero chorus is a good effect. Most of the other effects are not very strongly felt in the mixdown.

I have never had a problem w/ reliability very dependable unit. As a general rule I always use a back-up for gigs but this is a unit I would trust without a back-up

Not had to use the company. I am now looking for upgrades.

I play mostly Hip-Hop. The DPS 16 has been a good match. I've been playing for over ten years and am now pre-producing acts using this unit. I also use the Reason's software. If the unit were lost I would get something else only because technology changes so rapidly and my musical curiousity would drive me to try something else. I love the ease of use, my favorite feature is 16 track playback, I hate the amount of compression for mastering. It is an over-all good value for the money I paid.
It really helps me make music!

I have come from the analog world and found computer based systems to be difficult to learn. Using a daw seemed to be the best answer. It is a fairly easy unit to get results quickly on. I know most folks with a recording background can get up and running almost immediately, but I wanted to learn the unit as best I could before committing something to memory. I read the manual (which is long,and dry) before starting. My patience was well rewarded. After immersing myself for two or three days I found manuvering through the unit to be easy. It's a fairly intuitive piece of equipment. I say that because I've never seen anything involving computers to be user friendly. This unit is the natural transition to the digital world that those of us who were tape lovers needed.

I have a home based studio that runs many instruments through this machine. Acoustic Guitars, Electric Guitars, Bass, Keyboards, Drums,etc. I wish the cooling fan were a bit quieter. You really have to watch mic positions to ensure that you don't pick it up. Additionally setting levels can be a little frustrating, especially if your recording wide ranges in dynamics. Digital Distortion has ruined more than on take. They suggest using the imput overage light and backing off a touch to set the level, but i've found that that doesn't always work. I use outboard mic pre's and set the level at it's lowest. I also like to add outboard compression and limiting to avoid overage. The effects are useful but not fantastic. The reverbs has some digital tails that can sound artificial. The delays and chorusing are nice. The onboard compressor is much better than the competition. Makes the Korgs look silly. The exciter is useful in mix down to tweak parts to stand out. When recording guitar amps or pods I prefer the effects to be recorded from the outboard amp and not the machine because I feel like you have a little more control as long as you gate the effects. Pod's seem to translate really well. I am not always able to achieve the sound I hear in my head but that's not the machines fault, I'm just not technically adept at making that happen. I'm sure that if I had more knowledge there is no sound that this machine won't make happen. I play contemporary folk and the acoustic instruments sound absolutely awesome through this recorder.

When I first purchased this machine the SCSI drive I had broke. It was not the easiest thing to find. Even though Akai sent me a preferred list the drives on that list were few and far between. I went to Ebay and found several though and bought two to have a backup. They were reasonably priced and I suggest buying a back up to start with. You won't regret it at all. The initial Harddrive broke within two weeks of receiving the unit. It was replaced under warrenty and the replacement has run flawlessly for two years. The folks at akai were very helpful. As I said earlier this is a harddrive based system which mean things can happen. I haven't let that bother me too much. Stuff happened all the time with tape machines and I don't remember freaking out then, so why start now.

The Folks at akai don't have the best website for customer support but after a few phone calls I was able to get what I needed. The tech folks were afable and responded quickly. They provided me with the correct answers and had a good knowledge base. I have no complaints except that they no longer make this unit so I'm worried they may not have as good a support base over the next few years. I will say that I found an authorized repair man here in my hometown and he says these units are terrific. He said they rarely break and when they do it's generally as a result of user error and not mechanical failure. I trust him a great deal and so far he has been right. The Akai people were very engaged when I had any issue and they were patient and forthcoming with information.

I've used Rolands and Korg's before buying the Akai. I will keep my eyes peeled for another resonably priced unit, because if this broke permanantly I'd want another one. The unit is light years better than both the Roland vs 880 and the Korg d 16. I've been recording for 30 years and if you are a small home project person this unit is great. Small footprint and user friendly. I wish it had better mic pre's but at this price that's impossible. After having recorded other projects in multitrack studios before, I'm extremely happy with the results of this unit. My newest CD has been nominated for "Best Folk CD" by the local media against 400 other releases this year. My secret is the Akai. It provides extremely professional results that are moderately easy to achieve. My suggestion is that if you want to do everything, write, record, mix and master by yourself dont' go any farther, go buy one of these machines. My only suggestion is to by the Alesis masterlink, run digital out for your two track master, Master it on decent monitors and believe me people will ask you where you recorded. When I tell them it was an Akai DAW they look at me like I'm crazy. If saving an enormous amount of money for a great product is crazy well then yes I am. I'm crazy about this unit.

Think of a tune, plug in an instrument, arm a track, hit record... it could get easier, but somehow i doubt it... I had a DPS12 before i got this and AKAI ironed out any niggles from that machine when creating this one, it really is a doddle to use. The only times I've ever opened the manual were when I assumed that what i wanted to do would be hard and need a long explaination, I was usually wrong.

Sound quality is exceptional, in fact, the only noise I've ever noticed has always been down to outboard effects or noisy guitars. The hard drive is pretty noisy, but so long as you don't try recording quiet vocals with the mic next to the DPS then you won't notice, and if you're prone to that kind of recording techinique then you deserve all the noise you get!

had mine for 3 years or so, never had a problem with it yet, I backup all projects to an external SCSI hard drive just in case the worst should happen but i've never needed to reload any due to data loss.
If my DPS16 ever died I'd sell my car and go buy another, I'd rather walk than do without my 16 track baby.

never needed to use them, which is a credit to the machine itself

The DPS isn't exactly built like a tank, but it's a home recording studio and shouldn't need to be. Yes, it's plastic, yes, the print on my play and record buttons is wearing thin... but if it were steel cased and had embossed buttons we'd be all complaining about the price. As it is it's suspiciously cheap for what you get. One of the major selling points for me was the fact that I had a DPS12 for a year before i bought this and the DPS16 is fully compatible with the DP~S12 backup project files, it even used the same SCSI CD drive to load them from, class stuff... Almost all my recording have been made on the DPS16 and can be heard here www.iddod.co.uk any lack of talent is a failing of myself and not the DPS16

We have found the DPS-16 to be very easy to use. We have two of them in the studio. We have both of them upgraded with Internal CDRW drives and they work great. If you want yours done with Internal CDRW just contact me and we will help you out. (Nomad1@LocalNet.Com) We have brought both machine up to v3.02 and also found that very easy to do as well. The manuals are good help and the DPS-16 itself makes learning easy to do.

Sounds great. No doubt about it. The FX,s are ok and do the job. We also use some outboard FX's sometimes where needed. We have found that by doing the Internal CDRW drive upgrade I do here has made the drive noise become somewhat less due to the fact that the drive has to be relocated in the case and we can pad the drive some at it's new locaton. There is some noise in these units but never heard any of it in the mix.

We have never used the DPS-16's outside the studio as we have other recorders we use for that. We bought the two DPS-16's new here for the studio and have used them alot over the years and never had any problems with them. The only thing that bothered us the most was the fact that the CDRW was External and we have changed all that.

The only time I ever called AKAI was when I was interested in making the CDRW become Internal. AKAI told me that it could not be done. However it is done and works just fine. I will say that they were very nice to me when I called them. Every upgrade I got from them installed very smoothly and AKAI is a very good company with many great products.

We record most any style of music here and weclome any new ideas. I have been a musician all my life and have been to school for electronics and love to put the two together all the time. Overall the DPS-16 was a good choice back then and still would be for anyone today too. It's great machine and the only thing it should of had in it's making was an Internal CDRW and both of mine do now.

The DPS16 does not memorize its recording status, so you have to switch channels to record mode each time you switch the device on. Some of the editing action could be easier. But overall it's fairly simple to use. In contrary to the other opinions posted below I do need the manual when it comes to routing input and output buses - this one seems quite complicated to me.

The buttons will give you an uncomfortable plastic user experience, it takes quite a pressure on these little things. The knobs' values are difficult to read because the indicators are just too small (especially annoying when adjusting and controlling INPUT GAIN). Leveling the input signal could be easier since the input meter display does not have many steps.

Having reached 2005, 24bit/96kHz is a home recording standard, so there may be better sounding machines around - but I didn't feel the need to upgrade to any of them. I bought the DPS16 new in 2001 and use it now for almost 5 years. Fantastic sound. Using 24Bit/44.1KHz most of the time using all 16 channels. 24/96 would steal eight channels.

Sometimes it hangs itself up, about once a month on daily use. But I never lost any data. Sometimes you might encounter the VU output meter showing some arbitrary level although playback was stopped.

Got a quick answer - just two hours later - that was not satisfying though (question was about the internal hard disk, but they would refer to external SCSI devices - I gave up after the third attempt...)
The German support by NOSE AG was quite busy, too but they had to admit they didn't know the answer.

The question was:
What maximum size of hard disk can I use with the DPS16, sin ce the AKAI drive compatibility list was hopelessly outdated.

Here's what I found out:
I fitted a Hitachi Desk Star 120GB into the DPS16 after the original HD went broken and it works just fine - no noise, no "DISK BUSY" indicating at all. I created three partitions of 38GB each, because NOSE gave me the advice not to use larger partitions than 45GB.

Step 1: FULL FORMAT the whole disk first (takes almost 3 hours!)
Step 2: do FORMAT>ERASE.
Do the partitioning in step 2! It wouldn't work the other way round. If the disk search does not finish on power-on, press SKIP to ignore this. The disk search may only be successful after completing step 2.

Would always buy it again !!!

Well to be honest, Initially I disagreed with a lot of the ' it's dead easy to use, you won't need a manual' type praise, then I realised where I was going wrong..I had a VS880ex and learnt the 'menu' system for recording, the 'menu' system for effects application and the 'menu' system for mixing.....BIG MISTAKE....I now realise I was tripping over the obvious.....there are virtually NO menu's...DOH!....forget the menus....it's all there in front of you, it was a case of re-learning to be simple minded....you want to adjust the eq?....forget tapping into a menu driven eq system...it's there on the damn screen!!...just tweak a knob!....so I now wholly apologise for the negative intro....it was all down to MR Roland clouding my brain with menus...and MR AKAI taking them away and making it easy-peasy.....nice one Akai...

Pathes...what a dream...dig the simple screen with the routes on it....click away until the routes goes from input to track....easy...again...I was working on Roland Time....not Akai time....It was all there if you just look...I was expecting it to be difficult and 'menu' driven....its not...it's all laid out...

Effects...well,,to be fair. Roland had the edge, nice guitar mulit effects and some killer verbs, but I have traded them all in for a really awesome recorder.....what's the point of 3584789 effects if you take hours to set them up?....far better to have less and record MORE!!!...
I dont'use an amp ...I DI my nylon git into the XLR and take it from there, my gits do go thru a Behringer Vamp floor pedal thing for #59 ....excellent and more than enough for my dubious talents..I dont do vocals so I guess I dont qualify for a word on this subject...

I aim to sound like Earl Klugh, The Rippingons, Marc Antoine, Peter White, and with a little mic placement it's a pretty darn close one....I use a real cheap Audio Technica and I had an email from Torcuato Mariano who thought my hobby demo was a full band ready to go into a studio and lay an album down...it's just me...a #100 guitar, a Roland R5 drum machine and a Korg N364 synth....and my Akai...say no more...this thing rocks....the clarity is utterly glitchless and sonically pure.....sure its got a noisy hrd drive but the recordings themselves are pristine, even in 16bit...it's a different league than the 880......and one i'm proud to be part of...

Sound Quality?.......what a daft question.....absolutely perfect.
Sure I dont know how good a VS1680 or above may sound like or a Tascam 2488 etc but for me?...a hobby player who tries to be a smooth jazz pioneer in his own bathtime?.....it's a bloody marvel....sometimes I soend ages just listenig to the same guitar part over and over because it just sounds so damn clean and clear...what a saddo.....

It's third hand and I got it for #450 8 months ago....and it's working fine...it's got a noisy hard drive ( 10gig) but the build quality is very good, and the faders, inputs, outs, buttons are all fine, some of them need a little heavy figer work...but heck at least you sort of know your not pressing the wrong button...dig?...I wouldn't take it out of the house pal.....daft really as I dont know where it's been with it's previous owners but it's come to a good home with friendly neighbors.....dare say I'll open the door in 15 years time and some spotty recording will accuse my Akai of fathering it in the back of some dodgy club.....but it's now safe and clean on my desk at home....

never called 'em.....can't comment..

I play smooth Jazz and the occasional Mike Oldfieldish stuff...it's a damn good match as it's all centred around a quiet nylon semi that needs a quiet clean recording base.....
Been playing for 18 years but that's with crappy continuity...technically it's been about 6 years to proper musicians..
I'm not sure I'd buy it again, I like the Tascam 2488, but that's only because it's got 24 tracks and as you know, us Oldfield fans like a lot of over dubs......
I love the simplicity, the unbelievable clarity, the patching is a right handy tool for dubbing gits and harmonising parts with minimal fuss etc....you know what im saying.....fave feature is the tiny japanese girl that tells me to press any button to continue....she makes me fell I have done it right when really ive just deleted an entire song by accident......nice......only kidding...I love the LACK OF MENUS!!!!!!!!!I REPEAT ROLAND.....LACK OF MENUS!!!!
I wish it had better reverbs,,,,,give it it's due the VS880ex had some beatiful verbs....and good guitar effects too.......
It's helped me make some excellent grooves......
No..ive got nothing else to share...it's just a great device, Akai should feel very proud....
9/10 because the fx could do with an update..etc,,, btu for #450?...what do I want?......

Very easy to use, I had a dsp12 before and the dsp16 is a lot easier.

Sound quality is super, when I use the 96khz 24 bit it sometimes makes a click sound,But I try to use the other options, because the
96khz only gives 8 tracks anyway.The effects are great no need for other effect units.I record acoustic and synth.

Yes can rely on it havce had one for 3 years and no problems done around 75 songs on it 10 hours each plus live recording of around 24 hours.a couple of the buttons are a bit hard to push down.although
does not interfere with recording probably just a little dirty.

Has a dsp12 problem but that was just a hard drive and the retailer
fixed it.

I have been recording since the 1970s and am real happy with the dsp16 would probably get a dsp24 although a little expensive in NZ.
And akai don't do a lot down here.
REal easy to make good music on. quickly!

The Akai sounds great with no experience at all, but there is so much to learn every day about the potintial of this machine i've got to give it an eight (in a good way, you dig!?)

Untouchable sound quality compared to similar Rolland, Yamaha, Korg, and Tascam (i've heard and tried 'em all). Put simply, I love this thing. Mostly because there are virtually NO ARTIFACTS when i am recording. The signal is pure.

It's a computer based system, so i get frustrated when my hardrive gets so full that I can't edit any further, but this can easily be solved by defragmenting the disc, which takes up to two hours. Occasionally it will freeze like a computer, but very rarely, and never at crucial times...yet.

Their phone service is awesome with skilled people to answer my thousands of bizzare questions to get the max of this baby. Never failed me yet.

I have been using the Akai to produce and record local bands and my weakest link is definately not the Akai. My recordings sound amazing with the acception of the drums, they sound average, but i need some better drum mics. Vocals, accoustic and electric guitars, bass, and piano have all sounded nothing short of professional. Once I get some Audix drum mics i will be able to comfortablly charge the local going rate for studio projects. I would recommend this to anyone, plus its portability pushes it into a dimension that computer only programs wouldn't dare touch. If you want to sample a sound in the middle of the desert you just need the akai, a decent mic and mic pre, and a power generator. Amazing.

This machine is very straightforward to use. If you have any basic experience with recording machines then you will just switch it on & start recording without opening a page of the manual. I know people who have seriously struggled with the Rolands & Yamahas, but this thing is a piece of cake.

Using the DPS on it's own produces a pretty good sound. I use mine with good quality preamps (Dbx 386 & Joemeek Twin Qcs) & mics - the results are nothing short of "professional". Just had a phone call from a client telling me how astonished he was with the quality of the sound for a piece of music that I haven't even mastered yet! You guessed it - I'm using this machine for part time pro work & in a month the machine has paid for itself. I'm a very satisfied customer.

I have used this for a few months & I've had no problems. It's been out on the road several times & it's as reliable as ever. I also have a DPS 12i which has run for over a year without a murmur - even when I cut out the power TWICE while machine was accessing the drive! It just carried on where we left off. I know many others who have had good experiences with this machine.

I've only dealt once with Akai in England. I had a German manual which needed swapping for an English one. Akai posted me a manual that day & I received it a day later.

This is a great machine if you want easy operation & a dedicated reliable/stable recording platform. I have to dock one point for the reverbs, but to be honest there are plenty of other useful effects - especially the multi-band compressor & vocal pitch corrector which is great. You can get the reverbs to sound better with some tweaking, but that's all part of the fun isn't it?