Korg D8

Once you have played around with it for a few days it becomes really easy to use. I wanted it for recording an acoustic guitar or two and then lots of vocal overdubs and it didn't take long to work out how best to achieve this. You have to read the manual at first as the buttons and functions are by no means obvious, but that is the case with any decent piece of kit. If you have got a half-decent microphone and a quiet room you can be recording your first song within hours of getting started.

First things first you need to put some distance between yourself and the D8 or else you will pick up the hard drive whirring noise which is annoying, a slab of insulation of some sort in front of the machine will dampen it down nicely though. I have been using a Behringer mixer and a compressor microphone for vocal recording as direct input into the D8 doesn't give decent fine tuning of the EQ or allow for upping the input level to reduce hiss (the trim sometimes needs to be cranked up giving you hiss). Guitars are always best miked up through through the mixer but for a quick recording direct input is fine. The effects are fairly decent and I have produced some really nice sounding demos nuasing the D8 only, however you are better off using the machine as a portable recorder and then mixing down onto your PC (via the optical output) using decent studio software as the effects will be far superior. Having said that the reverbs are pretty good which is probably what you'll use the most. You won't get a sound like the Beach Boys but hey, who can? You can achieve a similar sound to any of the lo-fi brigade (and much better) and if you are producing electronic music it will sound as good as the input equipment.

I have only ever had one malfunction in 5 years constant use and that was when it totally crashed on me. I couldn't retrieve any data (lots of songs!!!) and had to get a new hard drive which was not easy to locate. no idea what went wrong but it was pretty drastic. However, compared to PCs or other electronic gadgetry it stands up really well and can withstand being moved around (to different recording environments, this is its main advantage) without breaking down.

Couldn't get any help when my hard drive crashed other than 'you probably need a new hard drive' which was probably true. I bought it secondhand so there was no guarantee and they told me it would be cheaper to buy a new hard drive than to send it in for thier engineers to look at. They were fairly prompt on the email responses but couldn't tell me where i could get a replacement hard drive from! I had to find that out for myself.

I am currently selling this cheaply to a friend of mine as his first foray into digital recording because I think it is good for that purpose. I won't be buying a new one as you can get a 12 track for the same money these days, i am considering moving to PC only studio but the portability factorr is quite important to me so another 8 or 12 track digital recorder is probably required. For simple, acoustic music which is what I play/produce it is certainly a useful tool, you can get a really good sounding demo out of it and you can take it anywhere. Obviously it is greatly affected by the quality of the gear you use with it like mics etc but that is true anywhere. The lack of a backlit screen is painfully annoying when recording in dingy light at 3 in the morning but hey, get a lamp i suppose.

hard to use with mic and acoustic guitar (pick up on guitar)...I only managed to get a warm, full sound when I fed both through an old Peavey Mixer/Amp - I could manually / easily control all levels + use the Reverb on the PA to obtain a good result.
I still dont really know how to control Effects on the D8...too complicated and the Manual drove me nuts....
Can anyone advise me on an cheap alternative to using a PA for a 'pre-amp'...
I now have a BOSS BR1180 - knocks spots off the old D8...(+ burns cds..!)

Accoustic guitars + mandolins + violins - all a headache...
Effects sound synthetic and nurdy..
ALL I WANT IS A GOOD REVERB EFFECT + DELAY...!!

SEEMS FAIRLY ROBUST FOR THE PRICE..

I really do need advice on what kind of Pre Amp I could use with the D8....(for accoustic guitars and Mics....
thanks !

Here is an e-mail address where you can download a replica manual in pdf. file.
I have just bought one on E Bay and am waiting for its arrival.

www.korg.com/service/downloadinfo.asp?DID=741

I saw someone was looking for this. Thank goodness for Google!

It's pretty easy to use once you get the hang of it. I taught my girlfriend how to use it in a night and now she uses it and I use my DAW. There is a whole problem solving element to it, especially now that the manual is an endangered species. (That's right. Korg no longer supports it. They dropped it like a red- headed stepchild). Anyway, compared to the DAW I'm working with now it was like working with stone tools, but for the time and my needs it was pretty good.

THe real reason I'm posting again is because there used to be a manual online at www.bogartz.com/d8 and now the whole site is down. Did ANYONE download the manual from there before it died? BOgartz, are you out there? PLEASE oh PLEASE send me the manual and I'll host it to make it available for others!!

I used it with acoustics, electrics, acoustic electrics, basses, a Roland Groove Box 303, and a Roger Linn Adrenalinn 1. It did a pretty good job with all of them (good, not great).

If you use a mic, it can hear its own hard drive spinning, and that gets on your recording. You might build some sort of sound isolation booth around it and that would be cool.

Put it this way, no serious professional recording engineers are going to switch to Korg D8 for their next records, but your mom and girlfriend will think it sounds "very nice"...

Yep. It's pretty solid.

KEEP THE MANUAL!! Scan it in to digital form and SEND IT TO ME!!!!

F@&K Korg. They are incredibly bad with support on this thing.

This is a good way to get into digital recording, especially if you don't want to use a computer. Nowadays, it makes more sense to just set up a computer recording system, but not everybody wants to do that I guess. Besides, these are REALLY cheap on ebay right now, so why not get into one?

once you understand the basics it works like a multitrack taperecorder
but easier. I dont use the automated part a lot, just for punch ins.
If i do i have to look it up. It not a menu structure that you easily remember.

I use almost every source and most of the rble and noise comes from old amps and bad wiring.. The D 8 records it all very faithfully...
The effects are OK and can make your track sound completely different. Very nice to experiment with. Mostly i use other efectsprocessors but specially the compressor is very useful.

I only use it at home and mix it down to MD or CD for use in theatre performances. Played back on superior soundsystem the sound is crispy and clear. I certainly can rely on it.
Only the backup and editing should have a computer interface.
I now back up on scsi jazdisk but they are very expensive and getting rare. Is there an PC or even Atari editing or storage programme via scsi, midi, optical or such that anyone knows of???????

Lousy!

This is a bit an outdated machine but if you use the D8 as midi master you can synchronise external multitrack sequencers and workstations and record (with midi clock) thesequencer's mix on two tracks. Each new sequence can be recorded synchronised from the same in point on each of the next tracks. This is amazingly simple and creates a lot of extra space for effects of vocals.
I have worked very fast with this machine and it's very intuitive, e real musicians instrument: you have to listen very well!

Ease of use: about 5 - 6, because the little display is a bit titchy and not backlit.
I wish manufacturers wouldn't use these rather hopeless little screens.
You have to 'drill down deep' (into menus) a bit too much for really quick working with this little unit. Naming a track, for instance, is a chore.

Sound-wise, well, this was my first proper recorder after having tape machines, -where I hated all that noise! :(, so it was such a blessing.
The manual is not easy, in fact it's tiresome really. How come the makers of units can't get this aspect right? Can it be so very difficult to produce helpful, easy to read stuff? Which planet do they live on?
I haven't upgraded my machine, but it came with a bigger h/drive than the tech-spec stated, so I guess it was a later model.

I have a small home studio set up, and it's great for this, esp as a first recorder, -I couldn't afford the Fostex and Roland "V" machines and didn't want compression via minidisc, so chose this unit.

I thrilled at the fx and got inspired to make new songs... so that's good! Due to my own incompetence/tiredness I didn't really master some of the tech processes of the D8 and made some blunders. I did find that I could get the (basic) drums recorded onto a track, by patching them into the machine, from one port to another, (They were there just as guidelines, originally, I think).

The fx were great to my somewhat amateur ears!
But I did most of my songs on this unit via rather cheap headphones... (Due to neighbour respect...)
A mistake! 'Cos when I heard them back through speakers, there was too much bass and muffled tones... We live and learn!
Also I should have used a better quality mic.

I only uses it at home really, so yes, I can depend on it, no problem. The (naff!!) manual is really strong on not turning off the unit when the h/disc is running (shown by a little red LED), -or not knocking the unit when on either. Fair comment!

I have given it 4 here, only because (unforgivably?) within 6 months one of the pots on the front (inputs) went 'scratchy' on me. Is that not really silly? -Make a nice unit then put sub-standard pots on it?
And no, the unit had not been in the least abused, nor even very much used by then!

I also own a (s/hand) Korg AX10 guitar fx pedal. It looks really beaten up (by the original owner), but still works really well. The manual for that isn't too bad... so; top marks there Korg!

I phoned 'em (in Milton Keynes, UK) to ask a simple question or two about the machine, I can't say they were really overly helpful, a bit 'stuffy' I thought at the time...
Maybe it was just 'the wrong time of the month' for 'em? I dunno.

The 12 month guarantee ran out before I could get it to the shop to fix the pot, so I have had to live with it! (I didn't send it to repair as I had a load of great songs recorded to it, and didn't want to risk losing them in the factory.
Poverty and shortage of time/pressure of work had precluded me from being able to back these up elesewhere at that stage!)

I make lotsa different types of music. At the time, when I bought the D8, a few years back, I was making songs using a Roland workstation for... Everything! (except drum tracks) and singing in, at the same time...
It worked, just about! I developed 20 pairs of hands when also getting drum track sounds out of the PC (swapped about on the fly from a software drum machine), plus operating the Roland keyboard, PLUS the D8, plus a clockwork timer device, plus the wine glass...

In retrospect, maybe the glass of wine was not such a good idea? ;)
Nor for that matter was the clockwork timer... One of my songs has the ticking of this thing in the backround, which, actually, is rather a nice noise! But I don't recommmend this as general practice!

I wouldn't think of getting another D8, -nor anything else with complex menus. I'm a bit fed up with menu depths... I like to be able to just *MAKE MUSIC*, not take a degree in physics each time I get a new piece of kit!
My present synth now has lotsa knobs... I work quicker that way, doing stuff on the fly and playing it all by ear... not peering at titchy screens and pressing anonymous little multi-function knobs, whilst puzzling over hexa-decimal code (or whatever) and balacing an unhelpful (badly written!!!!) manual on my head at the same time!

Wake up manufacturers! Let 'artists' (musicians) design the interfacing parts, and keep the (very skilled!) -(but dry-as-dust) engineers away from manual writing or interfacing decisions?
They are very technically proficient, but do they *LIVE* music?
Can they swing? Do they ever get their (sober, charcoal-grey) rocks off?
I actually know some engineers... Really brilliant, skilled people; but artists' souls they do not have! --They wear clean shirts and ties, to work in their Lab, and black shiny shoes... And that's when they are letting their hair down!! :)
Each to their own -(skills).

Let 'muzos' into your buttoned-down world, - Ye Makers of Lovely Hi Tech Gear! Let *them* (the crazed musicians) tell you when it's "Intuitive" or not, -not the guys in white coats and neat haircuts! They don't have 'intuitive' heads, -for the most part. They have micrometer-measured souls, and the noise of 'FANS' they are used to are those from the air-ducts and whirring test equipment, not of the 'screaming, wet-pants' variety!!!! :))

And want to innovate a little? How about making some gear (like synths, for instance) which is hands-free or otherwise controlled? - Like voice controlled? Or maybe that too far out to consider, I wonder?

-Just a thought!

Ooh... Synchronicity: I was just about to send this review, but went downstairs first to check my post. There sat a copy of Korg's freebie bi-annual (?) magazine, (with CD of sample noises and adverts). It's apparently Korg's 40th birthday.
There are sounds here by the 'dancey' Electribe and Kaoss pad, plus pianos, Triton, amps and stuff... Not too bad Korg, -there's life in the old gal yet! (And keep up the generally good work guys, -we'd be stuffed without the likes of you!!).

Mine was a V-11.1. It kind of crashed when I tried to upgrade it myself. But I got it fixed...

It's easy to use. Just press some buttons and the your off. But read the manual first. Especially if your thinking to use a zip as backup. It's very easy to reboot the system and loose all your songs.

The memory stinks. 1,4 gb is nothing(You can record about 5 songs (3-4 minutes) if you're using all 8 channels). Keep that in mind if you buy it. I bought a Jazdrive as back up and that worked just fine.

The recording sound is ok. It's a bit noicy sometimes but not too much. The guitareffects are in my opinon useless and so are the rest off the effect patches for vocals, bass and drums. So use your v-amp, pod or whatever you have.

Well, it crashed. It was probably my fault but still...

Well, I've only been in contact with the Swedish retailer and they were great. But just look at Korgs website... Not much help there huh.

Well I used it to record my on songs and it was my first digital recorder. Compared to a 4-track taperecorder it's like heaven. It's a great first time machine. I didn't know much about it when I bought it and after 6 months I sold it and bought a Mrs-1266 instead. It just didn't messure my needs...

I think this machine is relatively easy to use if you have a manual in hand. There are a lot of functions I haven't even touched yet, and I've had the machine for 4 years. Make sure you keep the manual!!!!

The sound quality is exceptional. I record live drums...from a mixer in stereo to the 2 inputs. I would like to have at least four channels, but I can get by with two. Make sure your levels are where you want them!!! I don't record anything direct, unless it's a keyboard part. Everything else is miked up and into a Tascam mixer before it reaches the D8. I think the effects are very good, but my biggest beef with this machine is that you can only use 2 effects at a time. It really limits your ability for mixdown. I do not like the guitar sounds...to me they sound way too direct.

As I stated before, I've had this machine for 4 years, and have never had a problem except for it freezing up once in a while. I have no idea why, but sometimes it does.

I've not dealt with Korg, so I don't know yet. I did just contact them via e-mail to ask if I can link two of them together via midi. We'll see how that goes.

I play mostly classic rock style music, and do everything myself, so to me, this is a great handy little item. Not perfect by any stretch, but still very good.

THere is definitely a learning curve with this machine. I moved up to it from an analog 4 track, and I was able to lay down some tracks and listen to them (as if it were a 4 track) but for anything more complicated, you really need to hang on to the manual. Lots of the buttons do different things depending which mode you're in-- you really need to keep the manual nearby.

It sounds pretty good- a lot better than analog. It's no professional studio but you can definitely make some nice sounding tracks. Very little problem with stray noise. The effects are surprisingly good, although I don;t think you can combine them as much as I'd like to. They just have preset styles that you can modify. Still, there's a lot of them and they sound really nice.

Yep-- seems to hold out pretty good.

Crap. I've had an extremely hard time getting any kind of support for it from Korg. However, there's a decent number of users on the web that have put up some good materials and FAQ's about it.

Overall, it's a great working man's way to get great sounding home recordings for a very little cash. The undo/redo function is great. I am currently struggling to find a cheap & easy way to hook it up to my PC so I can edit tracks and burn CDs. It's a lot cheaper than most other digital recorders out there and it doesn't compress the data like MiniDisc drives do, which is great for sound quality.
Real good

the display is small, not lit, and very difficult to read under some conditions. it needs a red led under the level meter to show which channels are in record mode. also it lack channel solo and channel mute buttons.
also it is contrained by the lack of busses and its possible to record only 2 channels per pass.

it also has only one effects unit so there is one effect per pass; so the mixdown takes too long. eventually we dumped all the tracks on to a pc via an optical interface and did the final with sonic studio version 5.

there have been times recording 2 channels and playing back 4 or 5 when the machine had disk underruns because it could not support the data rate of 6 simultaneous operations

the current revision of the s/w is 11.1
the software is eprom resident and has to be carried out by the manufacturer. backup the disk before sending it in!

its a physically small device and most functions wind up routed to the control wheel. there are 3 settable marks per track as well as start and end points but it all takes a while to become proficient.

the machine cost 600 euros us550 in france

it produced a good demo so we accomplished our goals on it

do not trust the little internal drive. you can back up via the optical interfact to a pc or plug in a scsi external device

backup frequently if you care about your data!!!

do not vibrate or shock the d8

minimal support from korg

best bet is the news groups

i am the engineer. the style is alternative

the d16 solves a lot of the d8 issues


we have a digital studio to produce ddd cds or dvds for under us4000
how bad can it be?