Yamaha AW16G

Once you get into it, it's pretty good although there is a lot to remember so the manual is essential da.The fact that you have to access every parameter before making an adjustment can get old but you know that when you buy itand you do get used to it.

I use an sr16 drum machine, Rockman Bass direct in, micked jcm800. Strat. Rode NTK through a focusrite platinum pre.I have Yamaha NS20 three way monitors with subs.The mic still does'nt do anything for me, whether it's the mic or the awg who can tell.I suspect it is the $2 pre's in the AW16g. I don't use the effects,I use external ones.The guitar simulators and boxes are crap. Basically I use it as a recorder only. The quality of all these cheap home units is pretty ordinary considering the companies use of words like "Pristine" to describle the sound quality. This is simply a lie. For starters it's only 16 bit. Need I say more.The pre amps are cheap as well. Let's face it, the whole thing is cheap.Cheap cheap cheap. You get what you pay for.These new age digital recorders are miles better that the old home tape multi track machines it's just that the promo for this stuff makes your expectations very unreasonable.All knowledge must be paid for I suppose.

Mine has a tendency to reboot itself occasionally and when that happens anything that has not been saved is lost.A real joy I can tell you. It does'nt do it often so rather that be without it for god knows how long I have just put up with it.I make sure I save every thing straight away.With vocals I save every time I stop recording. That can be every line sometimes especially when doing harmonies.Korg makes a machine that saves automatically, why don't they all?

Would not try my luck getting this problem fixed.Too time consuming. I might just put it out on the road one day and wait for the first truck to come along.

I've been playiong for 30 odd years and recording in both pro and home studios all the while.I do enjoy the editing features,IMHO the only good thing about it.What pisses me off the most is that I thought I was buying a 16 track machine but found out to my horror that I had infact bought 8 mono channels and the other 8 are perminately what they called "paired" In language that we all understand, that means the last 8 channels are 4 stereo channels that can't be unpaired. I feel totally ripped off over this as had I have known, I would not have gone near this thing.I seem to be the only one I know that finds this an issue. You are kidding mate. I use 5 mono tracks for the drums.One for Bass One for lead vocal.That takes care of my mono tracks and I still need to do guitars and backing vocals and all I have left is 4 stereo tracks.What a joke. For those thinking of buying a unit like this whatever the brand, If you see that the channel slider has more that one number, that means it is "permenantely" paired. So unlike me who was not told this by the con artist salesman (someone I have known for many years)you now know of this drawbach and will be more informed than I was.I give this a rating of 5 only because of the editing ficilities.The rest gets a zilch.I know this sounds like a scathing review but I genuinely feel aggrieved at not being told about the paired tracks.All in all, apart from that its pretty good I suppose but what I should have bought was a Digi 001 24 track 24 bit computer recording setup.Too late now that I have blown all my hard earned.

I don't know whether it's just through previous experience or just intuition, but I found it really easy to use. There's been a couple of occasions where I ot a bit baffled (such as how to record an instrument to a pad), but when you look at the manual its blindly obvious.
I think the manual is great, and the downloads are pretty useful. The dvd on the other hand was a bit lame, and would serve better a a promotional tool rather than instructional.

My setup:
Ibanez 5 string bass
Peavey 4 string thru-neck
Ibanez blazer, usa fender strat, vox thru neck guitars,
Alesis qs6.2 synth,
Korg electribe er-1
Boss dr5
Boss gt6b bass effects and digitech guitar effects
Samson qmic, shuresm58 x 3, samson drum set
Trace elliot bass amp, peavey, trace elliot, marshall and torres guitar amps

With the above, I have managed to get some excellent recordings. I think too many people expect too much from whats really e relatively low priced piece of equipment(low compared to a studio, or high end multitrack).
You have to put some effort in yourselves, and not just hope it'll do everything for you. A bit of time spent on recording/mixing is a good investment.
I wouldn't say the sound is quite 'pro quality' when compared to a commercial release, but compared to many so called 'professional' studios, the quality is far superior.
Am I the only person who doesn'tt have a problem with the pre-amps? OK, for a bit of tone, maybe a better mic pre would be a good idea, but the built in ones really arent that bad. Too many people comment on them not amplifying, but mine does..admirably.
On effects, maybe they are a bit of a letdown, but only when left as presets. The only real disappointment was the amp simulate feature. I cant get a really good sound from it. Its not too bad for basic demo's, but thats what guitarists have amps and effects for isn't it?

So far I haven't had a single problem with it. I haven't used the cd drive a great deal, but havent encountered any problems, and I'm only using cheap media. Its got a solid feel to it, though I'm still very careful with it, just in case :o)

Can't really comment too much as I've never really had to deal with them. I contacted yamaha-kemble UK with a genral enquiry and got a quick reply, and the authorised dealer was very helpful. I think the website's useful just because you can download the manuals and other related articles for free.

I play a mixture of music, ranging from drum'n'bass to metal, and have mnaged to get a decent sounding rough mix for an ep. With a bit of work it will sound great.
My band plays a heavyish weird rock(mixture of tool, staind, ozric tentacles, deftones, and we are int eh process of recording a demo, with good results so far. People may disregard what I say because of the 'untalented' genre of music I play but when it comes to production, I do have a fairly good idea of what I'm on about.

A few things I would like to be a little different. (1) I wish there could be a couple more xlr inputs with phantom power, not a great problem, just a minor annoyance.
(2) It would be nice to be able to record more than 8 at a time, though looking at it's competitors, these don't seem to be any better.
(3)Although not a big deal, i would prefer to have 16 mono tracks, rather than 8 mono & 4 stereo, although I do usually end up using about 4 stereo sources. Then again, I said the same thing with my old roland 8 track. I wanted more than 4 mono and 2 stereo. I guess its true what they say. Whatever you've got, you always want more.
Overall, an excellent unit.

I read all the reviews here before I got this thing and everyone talked about a learning curve. I'm not that experienced in digital recording and honestly learning how to work the 16G wasn't that hard to me.

I have a Boss DR-202, Roland JV-1010, and a Korg N1r and everything I put into the 16G sounds great and when I tweak the sounds with the effects inside the 16G I can get some nice results.

I think the reliability is pretty solid. I don't have any complaints. Everything works fine to me.

I haven't dealt with them. I haven't had a reason to.

I do mostly Hip Hop and I record my melodies from the other devices into my 202 and have that hooked up with a MIDI cable to my 16G so when I press record on the G it starts the 202 and record right in sync with it. It's a pretty good setup for me. I researched pretty much all the digital recorders around this price range and none actually stood out like the G. I very satisfied with what the AW16G can do. If it was lost or stolen yes I'd buy another one.

It's quite difficult to use. But there again, professional recordings are not likely to be made by people opening an AW16G box as their first mixer, so this product is probably aimed at the amateur. If you don't quite know what a patch is, then it's going to be hard work. If you make all your recordings according to the Yamaha manual you'll have no problems. However, no real recording follows such a receipe, and the manual is likely to be out the window in frustration within ten minutes.

I have three synth's as line inputs to the small number of available channels (3 stereo). The added effects are good but tend to make it all into a soup. The pre-amps don't amp (see other reviews). The source synth's are better left to make their own effects before delivering to the AW16G.

Never stops. However CD writer abysmal. This is the achilles heel of this thing. You can't get stuff in or out of it without the CD. The machine I have would be worthless the way it is if you make priceless recordings. The CD has never written CD's reliably, irrespective of brand or speed. I see from reviews that this is not unusual.

Waiting to find out about CD problems.

It's a good solid piece of kit (doorstop I saw it called). Unless the CD problem is fixed I wouldn't buy another. It's also incredible that in this day and age you have to transfer stuff to and from it using a CD.

Well...coming from Cubase SX into the world of the DAW was a bit daunting. From a 21-inch monitor to a 2.5" X 1" LCD pretty much sucked. HOWEVER, the ability to take this anywhere and get nice 16/44.1 audio on the go is a plus. It did take some work to coax the AW16G into "meshing" all the tracks, particularly the Vocals. I've been using the AW16G for just over one year now and Overall, once you get this puppy figured out, very easy to use....figuring it out, tough, as the manual is 200 pages and not that great.

I use a custom built PC(3.2 GHz, 1GB ram, 160GB hard-drive)with Cubase SX and Reason connected to a Tascam US-428 audio interface for my main computer-based system(and for most of my studio work) Les Paul Standard, Hohner B-bass professional, Octava MKL2500 and MK012-01 and a stereo pair orAudio-Technica 3035 Condenser Mics. With the AW16G, I use a Yamaha MC1602 Analog Mixing Console's Direct outs into the unit...this allows the use of 16 extra preamps and inputs...as well as my outboard insert and send FX. The pre-amps on the AW16G are thin and prone to noise and distortion, as well as RF(which I solved with a ground-lift adaptor)...Using the MC1602, which in 1980 was top-of-the-line($3000 for 16, $5000 for 32, etc...)I have the advantage of a MUCH nicer input path AND the high-headroom associated with good analogue equipment. The trade off(minimised by SHORT legnths of Monster Cable)is a slight deteriation of the signal path, although this is RARLEY noticed in rock music, usually in acoustic/quiet passages. The onboard FX, compression/expander/gate, AWESOME EQ SECTION, and internal routing possibilities is why I use it. I mean, you've probably said to yourself, "he could have just plugged straight in to the computer"....and you're right, although then I'm in a completly "native" environment...without the added benifit of analog warmth and great preamps(from the MC1602) OR the benifits of DSP, taking a burden off of my computer.... Now, in reality, I usually don't run into the brick wall of "processor overloads" and so forth...but my system must be as flexible as possible, sometimes I run 42 or more channels,all with EQ, reverb, compression, delay, gate, etc....some form of DSP/VST effect of process...The AW16G has allowed me(for example) to COMPLETLY route a 7-piece drum kit, with 4 overheads(as 2 stereo channels) through it, and as a stereo channel into the computer, complete with FX, Dynamics adjustment, and EQ in one fell swoop!!!...IN DIGITAL... BOOM, stereo mixdown of the drums...(if I change my mind later, I just run them in again dry, since they're on the internal hard-drive.)....Great versitility, awesome product...probably my biggest complaint is lack of direct analog outs....that makes it difficult to integrate once in a while.

Very dependable...Although I run a studio, I'm also a musician and play in a band...On stage, I use the AW16G to trigger the occasional sample...(very useful for that HUGE deep bass trigger). I've never had the unit 'crash' on me, and didn't know that it actually could, until I read another review on this site stating that it had crashed for that user. MY unit is EXTREMELY reliable and VERY well constructed of STEEL instead of cheap, breakable plastic.

Never needed customer support....ALTHOUGH, I can tell you that Yamaha is pretty good, because I've had my MC1602 in for overhaul. CAN THIS PRODUCT BE UPGRADED???(software or hardware?)

Overall, an awesome product for the project studio/Band/Musician market. I am a Drummer/Pianist/Bassist that has been playing for 16 years. I earned my degree in Sound Recording Technology(minor in Performance Percussion) from DePaul University in Chicago. Most of my important gear is listed above, except for my INCREDIBE Yamaha P-250 Digital Grand Piano...If this were stolen(Id KILL 'em!) or lost, I'd see my way to getting the AW2816 or AW4416...not because I'm not happy, quite the contrary!...I'd like more of the same! I love the versitility, the price, the quality in a small package and corresponding portability...I hate the restriction to 16-bit/44.1kHz audio...as I often(almost always)work at 24/96 in CubaseSX(with 32-bit floating point processing), I hate the lack of direct analog outs, and the shoddy pre-amps....THOSE(pre-amps) need SERIOUS fixing, yamaha! I looked into the Tascam FW1884, and comparable models by Roland, Korg, and Fostex....They were either out of my price range at the time, or cheap looking or sounding. Ive got a great relationship with my local music/equipment retailer....They let me take my time and try anything I want in any way I want...and for that, I ALWAYS spend my money there first. I WISH IT WERE EXPANDABLE!!! The AW16G is a very versitile tool for me...not only helping me make music, but is involved in my live performances and production choices as well.

This is the first recorder I have ever owned and at first I was tearing out my hair and crying! However after much trial and error it has become very intuitive and easy to use the basic functions.Compression and eq is something else Im not sure Ill ever understand so I just use the presets which are ok.Having to dial in effect parameters is a pain in the arse as it takes forever sometimes eg if your going for a 1000ms delay from a 250ms delay. A small keyboard area with numbers wouls have been alot better.The manual has been a lifesaver. Editing is relatively simple although If I cant figure out how to move something if it doesnt drop in right on the beat.If it does I just look at the wave form and go from there.

Preamps are very weak.Effects are good.Ill have to buy a preamp to get better signal from my mic. Still working on emulating my favorite artists.

It has crashed on me several times. A couple of days it kept crashing every twenty minutes but then miraculously it hasnt been doing that since. I dont think I would use it on a gig.

There are a few places you can take for repairs fortunately I havent been yet. The website dedicated is good although can be frustrating because too many people give too many differing views and oppinions which can confuse an amateur.

I play funky house disco. which it is quite good for. Its been a good learning curve but I think Id buy something else next time. I dont like the fact that you cannot seperate tracks 9-16. Hate dialing in effect params.I chose because of the website.

It has a bit of a learning curve, but I am fairly experienced with digital recording so I just had to learn which buttons did what. The manual is essential though! All in all, easy to use when you learn how it works- very intuitive really. Feature-packed recorder for someone with some experience.

The recorded sound quality is good to excellent. It has built-in effects processors that sound great but takes a bit of work to get the parameters right. The mic pre's can be just a little hissy if turned all the way up. I do believe that if a person could use this recorder with some good quality gear in a sound treated studio environment (which I don't have) that this recorder could capture some truly professional sounds.

Seems solid, time will tell. I've always been very happy with Yamaha gear though.

I got a great deal on it, I love it, and I hope to be using it for a long time to come. I do not believe that anyone new at recording should drop a grand on this one before learning some technique on a portastudio, IMHO.

AS s follow up to a previous posting I still think this machine has huge potential,which, unfortuneatly, requires a bit of a learning curve. After a year I can work t his thing like good typist works a keyboard.

This section, I suppose, is where my follow up should be.
First, I did buy an inexpensive, but very good mic pre (Presonus TubePRE) that has made a huge difference in the texture of whatever is going through the mic. SO that was an immediate improvement.

I also previously stated that the vocals never really sat well in the mix with them being either too up front of too weak....just not "not right." Well, with some experimenting I've come up with some mastering and remastering techniques where I've been able to get really well blended vocals. The trick, for me anyway, was to conduct a series of stereo mastering. The first master should include track compression where needed as well as overall mastering compression but not too much as this adds noise and creates pumping. Likewise with effects. Once the mix is mastered to a stereo track copy it back to an empty paired-stereo track and then remaster it adding a touch of the copied original master track, and, adding a tiny bit more compression. The vocals on the copied track really thickens and compliments the dedicated vocal track allowing you to ease up on the vocal level while maintaining good a blend and loudness. Since this is digital you can do this as many times as you want without degrading or muddying the sound too much. The more you do it the better vocals blend into the mix. However, you will need to experiment with proper amounts of compression and EQ while "hedging" on effects to make shure you don't run into phase or overcompression problems. ?
Using this technique has given me a whole new appreciation for this machine. I really think that the gap between the sound you can get with this machine and the mega-buck studio sounds you get from store-bought CDs, at least to my ears, is very small. Good understanding and creative thinking in the msatering area is what made the difference for me.

No problems yet. I thought I had a problem when I used the pitch shift feature and it took over two minutes to execute the command but it finally executed. It Just takes a while for a long track.

Never needed it.

Awesome machine. nuff said.

I've had this product for several months and I promised a second review. This thing is not a piece of cake for most musicians. Refer to yamahas site and download "recording 101" and you'll be burning stuff pretty fast. However, I've been on web forums and found many baffled users. My opinion is that it takes some serious getting use to for newbies and intermediates, especially if you use all the features

Very, very pleased with the quality, anemic preamps though. I had to buy a good quality preamp to juice up my condenser mikes. Very decent effect processor built in. Good built in compressor. Noisy CDRW drive, does not effect recording though. Pristine quality!

Have not heard many complaints about this product.

No dealings, hope to keep it that way.

If lost or stolen, I'd buy another. Korg units in the same price range looked like toys next to the AW16. Lots of sturdy connectors in the back. Been playing 25 years. Some 4 track cassette experience. I have not figured out what I could possibly use the sound pads for. Small LCD (about like competitors), you have to kind of lean over it. Best to use angled mixer rack to help with this. Wish it had more XLR jacks and larger screen. Nice metal construction. No doubt a pro quality unit. I still feel it only has 12 tracks though *(4 stereo and 8 mono). However 12 fits my needs.

ive had this thing for about a month, and i can already get good sounding tunes from it. its easy to pick up the basics. i still cant figure out how to get a good sound with vocals, but that has nothing to do with the machine, but with my own inexperience. as with everything in the world, though, it gets harder to pick up once you move along. still, there are so many damn things you can do with this impressive machine that they COULDNT have made it any easier.

the aw16g records anything and makes it sound good. i use a shitty ass ten year old distortion pedal, and for some reason the thing sounds decent on it. once i touch up my final mixes, im dancing around to my own stuff. this thing sounds great.

ive had this for about a month...so far, yes, very reliable, hasnt screwed with me yet, but you cant tell much from a month. however, i also use the yamaha motif, and that thing is like god's gift. i trust yamaha.

okay, this i gotta leave a good mark for. i mean, the manual could be written a little easier to follow, but ive never seen ANY manual in ANY audio department that wasnt written in some mystical dead language. The costomer support, however, is great. the first aw16g i got was busted, but i didnt know if it was just me doing something wrong. I called for support, and they got back to me less than an hour later. Not only that, but the person on the other end was VERY understanding to my newbie idiocy and walked me right through the process. then, he laughed and said i was doing everything okay but there was a defect in the machine. superb.

i cant complain. im still trying to learn the more "hidden" features, and by that i mean the stuff that isnt in your face, but if you do it once, you know how to do it forever. decent learning curve, great sound, small enough to fit in my postage-stamp sized excuse for a music room. and the thing is practically free.