Yamaha AW16G

I'd say you need some experience of different machines to think this is an easy one to use. The manual is a bit confusing unless you know the basics, and perhaps a bit more, about recording. I have too little knowledge about this, but I persist, so in the end I get the results I want (near enough), and that's all one can ask for. My manual is in Swedish, and I can only imagine there would be lots of flaws in it, considering it's probably interpreted from English, wich is interpreted from Japanese...Go figure...

I play my guitars, and bass simulator, from a Boss GT-6 straight into the machine, and sometimes my Line6 Spider straight in. Sounds great, so I haven't really used the onboard guitar stuff, but I use the effects to add some colour to the sound. Most stuff I've used sounds pretty damned good, but it is a bit hard to tweak the effects, compared to an external unit like the GT-6, wich isnt't all that odd I suppose. For vocals I use a Shure SM-58 straight in, and it does seem a bit weak, but it works.
I saw someone said what you put in is what you get, and I think that sounds pretty fair, so one shouldn't expect miracles from what you have laying around the house.

I have only used it at home as of yet, but I'll haul it down to the rehearsing room soon, so I'm hoping for the best. Seems very reliable though, and I'm not worried. I've had other recording gear down there, and this will stand it's ground no doubt

No idea, I bought mine at an auctioner, and have owned it for about a year-no complaints so far!

I play metal mostly, also some softer stuff(only at home in the safety of my basement...). At the moment I'm playing in a cover band, so a few different types of music obviously. Been playing for about 20 years now, so I've been around a while. Compared to other portables I've used it might be a bit trickier to get your head around, but well worth it, since the sound you can get out of it easily outweights the troubles you may encounter. Only thing one could ask for would be a USB port to make it easier to put your stuff on the PC for further fun and games, but it can be done via CD, so Ican live with that.

I don't know how some people are complaining that the AW16G is hard to use....Welcome to professional recording equipment people! It all takes some time and patience to figure out, and if you expect a masterpiece to suddenly pop out of any studio workstation after a days work, you need to find a new hobby...Otherwise the AW16G takes about a week to get used to, it's not overly complicated, but you'll want to keep your manual beside you and the computer on to perhaps look up certain details...theres plenty of great forums and online help! Once you figure out the mapping and layout of the AW16G, it's smooth sailing. I was pretty dissappointed working in the EDIT screen as it just isn't as smooth editing/cutting/copying tracks. Also, having no direct P/C connectivity is kind of alarming and can be a pain (having to import and export everything via CD). The Yamaha has some quirks, but I've always been able to find my way around them and get my projects done how I wanted them done, so I'll give the AW16G a 7.

The sound quality overall, is very manageable on all spectrums. I would point out that the PreAmps are somewhat noisy, and the on-board Guitar/Bass Hi-Z are pretty worthless in my opinion, however I don't know if anybody regularly uses that feature anyway. The effects are decent and would get you by, might want to invest in a good external effects processor though. You can def. get some professional sounding demos out of this machine with some tweaking.

I've never had any problems with any Yamaha product. This sucker fires up every time and has never crashed on me.

N/A

The Yamaha AW16G is one of the best portable workstations in its price range, and nowadays can be found for super cheap used. I do wish there were more stereo tracks available, this pairing mono tracks and the such just seems like Yamaha beat around the bush. Also, the fact that there is no direct P/C connectivity might concern some, depending on the styles of music you are dealing with. Overall, its a great machine to have around if you are an aspiring singer/songwriter/acoustic artist, or are looking for an easy way to get some quality demos done. I'd def. recommend one to fellow musicians, if a portable workstation is what they're looking for.

The unit is relatively easy of use, as long as you have the manual with you. It takes some time before you really get to know your machine and pump the best out of it. For example the tempo volume is in another menu than the tempo signature. Why ?

If you are new to recording, it is a fantastic machine, you mixes will be good, it will sound good. You have the needed effects in the machine and they can all be tweaked precisely just like in high end equipment they sound ok, they do the job. But if you are more experienced, you might want to get a better preamp, and use higher quality external effects. I found that the aw16g preamps is not good at capturing high frequencies. All my takes with it were a bit dull, and you cant boost a frequency that is not there.......Using an external preamp I was able to squeeze in a wider spectrum of frequency. I upgraded my external equipment, and I can say that for the moment my aw16g still meet my requirements. I am always amazed at what i can do with it. I learned a lot about audio using this machine, and still learning. another tip i found out, instead of making a mixdown with the machine, make a mixdown running it throught a VHS tape recorder. you will get a natural, warm compression. Feel free to try everything with this machine....its portable !

Very reliable, never had any problems. I bring it to live shows, its made of metal, its heavy. Just be carefull and use a good road case. It never freezes, never bugs. The only problem i had was with burning cds. There are some settings to make that if you forget you will think your cd burner is not working. Plenty of support on the web available.

never dealt with yamaha, but manual and tips still available from the company. Support still available. Unlike many companies, Yamaha still gives support for their older products.

I play mostly soft pop and world music. Occasionaly Blues and heavy rock. I find it great to record live music, or individual tracking.
I find it is not good to use as a monitor mixer, as when you create a track, you have to reset the recording settings, the inputs, and outputs, wich can be a pain if you dont know your machine well. I also record at home throught my computer, and still i prefer to use the aw16g. I cant manipulate waves easily edit parts correct errors, but for panning, sliding, adjusting effects, it feels like the good old days.

Having used the Yamaha AW16G for around 3 years now, I felt duty bound to impart what i sincerely feel about this machine to those who are likely to be buying it at a discount price now in 2007. First up the AW16G IS NOT 16 stereo tracks, what you get for your money is actually 8 track TRUE stereo( plus 8 mono tracks !) but no worries though by simply recording on two of the,"NON-PAIRED", mono tracks at once, these can be panned later left and right for stereo effect. BUT! you still only have 12 track stereo max on the AW16G. One can of course start the bouncing and ping-pong m,larky, to gain more stereo tracks, if this is the case why buy a 16 channel affair when you need 24 or more? nuff said. THE MANUAL at some 282 (i think) pages is a REAL SIT DOWN AND THINK brain numbing epistle. Whoever obviously first wrote it in Japanese Im sure had a good idea what he/she was on about,BUT the translator to the English version in my view has an at best VAGUE idea of what MAKES SENSE in Blighty.
For example I still after 3 years can,t import the on-board drum loops or pad track sound effects to my stereo track mixdowns.As for the EDITING! I advise users to treat it as you would an analogue tape machine for cleaning up noises post, pre, and during songs,DON,T give yourself a coronary thrombosis straining to work out what they meant, because I,m telling you THEY ARE NOT SURE THEMSELVES. When you do grasp the basics of recording, mixing and mastering with this aesthetic beauty, sound quality is VERY GOOD for the money.Like me some of you will also receive the supposedly helpful demo DVD, if you do it is worth watching FOR CHUCKLE VALUE ONLY!the guy who is actually frightened to touch the AW16G, yep the guy dancing around to the karaoke backing track, telling you how great EVERYTHING IS! and they,ve even got some other guy in the foreground miming with a saxophone/whatever,MEN BEHAVING BADLY!?

You will NOT get the sound of your favourite artists, my favourite artists are CHIC(mostly now dead)and STING(ageing like me)so there!.
I do not play(nor does anyone else)guitar like NILE RODGERS, nor do I write songs and sing half as good as STING,so best decide in your heart what you do best and BE ORIGINAL! if it sounds good? IT IS.
If you are genuinely talented the AW16G is MORE THAN capable of capturing a decent performance.The on board EFFECTS are at best OK, I particularly like the MYSTIC CHORD weird but wonderful, but as with the PAD TRACK mysteries, unless you are a codecracker you will not be able to add the effects at the mixdown stage! so I would advise anyone to send the effects during performance, believe me this will save you another coronary.Onboard pre-amps are brill in my view so no real need to go and buy better ones unless you,ve got lots of dosh to experiment with. The EQ in my view is rather too basic for a good sounding unit as this IS, so go for getting the RIGHT sound going in at PERFORMANCE,most EQ ing tends to degrade badly the original signal, so tread carefully. Generally i D.I. everything except acoustic guitars, which I also stereo mic plus D.I. the signal, although this uses a full 3 tracks the sound is huge, detailed, and professional sounding. In my use the onboard pre-amps are also very quiet TO MY EARS.

As with most YAMAHA gear it is as reliable as DEATH and TAXES, mind you I am not a computer expert, and neither am I a producer like BOB CLEARMOUNTAIN or QUINCY JONES,though I do believe like MOST of this digital recording m,larky the AW16G is prone to a smidgen of latency from time to time,especially when one is using it to full capacity during a 6 or 7 hour stint. Oh yes and our Japanese heart specialist threw in SAVING THE CURRENT SONG! this is something YOU MUST DO every time you turnthe AW16G ON or OFF! and during switching different sections of the beast during recording sections, ANNOYING!!. No I dont recommend taking this to a gig, although it,s a very compact machine and easy enough to carry, when its all lit up believe me the neds up here in Glasgow and the Yobbos down south that frequent pubs and social clubs wont be able to keep their grubby mits off it! So if like me YOU ARE NOT playing at the POLICE COMMISSIONERS retirement do! KEEP IT SAFE AT HOME.

Never had to deal with YAMAHA in my 30 years of buying and owning various YAMAHA musical gear, this in itself speaks volumes in itself so intend to give them another TEN, I must be getting soft in my old age.

Have been into guitars and music for 30 years now, cant envisage not being totally immersed in music, to me it is like breathing. A songwriter of some(but not all) styles of music, plus some airplay on the U.K. radiowaves and possibly abroad.If the Yamaha was stolen I think I would seriously take a look at their 24 channel digital recorder instead,there was no competition for the AW16G back in 2004, anywhere near its price plus it had the built in burner for CDs!Yes I wish it had an operators manual translated by the late great John Peel. No complicated gobbledegook ever aided the creation of popular music by laymen musicians,this is best left to the anoraks in Japan/Worldwide too.

I got this solely for home demos and recording my band. Other than using a dedicated computer system, this is my first all-in-one digital recorder. I have mainly used analog systems in the past - mostly Tascam units for home demos, but I've got a fair amount of studio experience as well.

There is a definite learning curve - in fact, I find that if I don't use it quite often I *forget* how to do things on it. It's not intuitive to me. One button serves multiple functions, etc. Nice for keeping it compact, but not as obvious as older style boards.

That said, the manual is quite good and as long as I keep it near by I'm good to go.

For a home demo the sound is outstanding. The effects aren't my favorites, but I still find some useful. I primarily use the compression and reverb or delay. I'm pretty much old school, so I keep things simple - I really don't take advantage of many of the built in features like the sounds and whatnot. I treat it like a Tascam 4-track - record my tracks and mix them down. Maybe add a little effects for mixdown. Nothing too tricky for me. I dump the stereo mix to CD, but I do all the finalizing and CD creation parts on the computer because I find that easier and more flexible.

For recording I pretty much use a pair of mikes in (usually an EV 357 and Shure SM-57s). Sometimes I'll record guitar and keys direct with a preamp. I mostly use drum loops for demos, so that simplifies that aspect. The mike pres may not be top-notch pro quality, but they're perfectly fine for my demos.

So far so good. I've had it quite a while at this point. Maybe a year and a half or so? I've probably used it about 100-150 hours. Not all that much, but it's still going great.

Never had to deal with them.

I love it. 16 tracks with 8 at a time possible works great for me. It's a great value imo, especially when Yamaha came out with the more deluxe model and the price of this unit dropped.

If it were lost, stolen or damaged I'd probably see what else is out there because technology changes too fast. I'd see if there's anything a little more intuitive out there, but I'd definitely look into Yamaha's offerings. I've had good experiences with their equipment.

Depends on your level of experience with digital recording equipment. If you ask someone who's just learning to read what they think of Vladimir Nabakov, versus someone who knows how to read fairly well, the real answer is, "Wow. Great stuff."
If a newcomer spends a little time with the manual it'll come pretty easily. Be a little patient, and once you get the mojo of it, it's pretty darn intuitive. It's not meant to be a remedial toy. It's a piece of recording gear.

Excellent sound quality. It picks up what you lay down. Some reviews say the sound quality isn't great. Trust me, try a different mic, or singer, or amp, etc. It picks up what you're doing accurately. So if you don't like the sound, you just need to adjust what's going in. Use a good mic-preamp, a good mic, a dry room, etc. Instead of asking "sound quality" this question should actually ask "sound accuracy". The AW16 is accurate.

Very dependable, from my experience. This is recording gear....not a Shure SM57 that can get knocked around and survive. I always look at bringing recording gear out, as similar to bringing a carton of eggs to a party. Just be careful. You can't "slap yo bitch" and expect her to love you for very long. Be seeennnnnsssiiitttiiivvveeee.

This unit is reliable, so no contact from an "it's broken" standpoint. I have had questions about various scenarios that I needed help on. I sent them an e-mail and they responded with solutions that have always worked. They even followed up to ask how it worked and if I had any more questions.
By the way, whenever they sent me an answer, after I tried it I always slapped my head and said, "Of course. That makes sense."

Put it this way.....this unit can do more than most of the gear Hendrix, Beatles, Stones, Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, Doors, etc etc had when they recorded most of their early catalogs. If you'd asked the average bear what they thought of the 4-track recording equipment from the mid-60's, they'd probably have said, "I can't work with this, it's too limited." But if you asked George Martin what he thought, he'd say, "Hmm, I think I might be able to do something with this."

Hardest piece of equipment in the history of music .

Great sound quality reallyis very good had no expeireince of getting it on the cd because its very difficult fot a non-tech to use lots of jargon.

Wouldn't risk a wembly gig with it but should be fine for a pub .

I bought there product and then they didnt want anything to do with me .

Good for getting ideas down but u can do that for a lot cheaper .
Bad piece of kit for the average musican would need extensive tuition to get anything more out of the machine .

To be fair, this unit requires a bit of trial and error before it all makes sense. The manual is a bit longwinded but hey it has a lot of facilities onboard.

I have owned this unit for a year or so now, I am now very comfortable with the G's functions.

Great sound quality, I have recorded my band live, made demos at home and in both instances the results are astounding.

What I cannot stress enough is that with so many FX parameters, you should always try several fx before assigning a patch to a track. You will be pleasantly surprised by what's on offer.

Built like a tank!!!

If you want a good recording set up at home on a budget, look no further. It has to be said that the signals have to be good, you can't use cheap mics, guitars etcetera and expect the G to make it all sound wonderful.

You will also need some good monitors. I use powered speakers with built in amp for monitoring.


I made the mistake with previous projects where I would use hi-fi speakers for monitoring. That is a silly and costly mistake. I would mix down and get 'THE sound' ONLY TO FIND THAT WHEN CDS WERE PLAYED BACK THEY SOUNDED AWFUL.

I use flat response and now the sound I hear at mixdown is pretty much the same as the disc through a hi-fi.

My attention was drawn to the G after recording with the AW4416 at a mate's studio. The G has many of the 4416's features thrown in, also if I back up data, I can take it to my mates studio and hey presto it's ready to be enhanced in minutes.

Once you get into the G you're fine, however buying one and expecting to just take it home and plug a guitar into it and "voila" ain't gonna happen. The Manual is a bit large but there is a quick start guide on the net that is perfect for beginners.

My setup is as follows:
American Deluxe Strat
Lite Ash Tele
Epiphone Beatle bass
Line 6 PodXT live
SM 58 and 57 microphones
Takamime acoustic
Yamaha Electric Keyboard
Tube Mic Preamp

I have made some great recordings by using the above gear with my aw16
however the vocals don't get enough "umph" with the pre's on the G.

I've never had a problem with this - It's worked every time and well.

Not really applicable as I've never had a need.

This is a great unit. I've made several recordings with it and I've really amazed friends with the sound quality produced by it. Mixing is the most complicated part I'd say and I would recommend to anybody to line the G into an amp with some monitors instead of trying to mix down with just headphones.

If it were stolen or lost I'd replace it in a minute.

If you know nothing about using a multitrack recorder, or are coming from analog recorders, you should read the PDF's available online for starting and really refer to the manual before starting.

I spend 2 days reading the manual, and had few problems with operation because of it.

After you get to know it, it's easy enough to work things, so I'd say it was well designed.

The only gripe I have with it is it is hard to backup and restore your songs. More on that later.

If you have a clean signal going it, it's what you expect going digital.

I found the rounting for external effects to be a pain (only on Mixdown, comeone) and the Pads have to be used on mixdown as well.

Sound if fine. Like someone else said, use an external preamp. As for the internal effects, their junk. You can notice your sound get worse as you use them. There may be an occasional effect you can get away with, But I'd use external compressors, reverb units, etc if you want to get realistic effects.

It is reliable up until the point you want to backup and restore your stuff.

Want to save with AW16G's format? Can't port it to the computer. You have to use 2816's format. OK, you do that, unlock the wavs on you computer.

You want to restore? Not with the 2816 disc you made. Oh, and you can only do it 1 song at a time. So you'd have to make 2 backups to get the job done of porting wav files and restoring a song back the the AW16G. Oh, you have more than 700MB, not going to work. Oh, it will prompt you for disc 2, but I've never seen a multiple disc port work on this thing. Unless I have the rarest bug on the market.

You want to save as WAV files then? You can, except your stereo mixdowns. Sorry. Oh, and if you want to port the WAV's back, you can only do it WON-AHT-UH-TIMEH.

The AW1600 solves this, so buy up and let this model rest in piece.

I'd give reliablity more, but the fundamental ability to backup and restore your music should NOT have been problematical.

Never contacted them. Can't say. No rating given.

I do lots of styles. Folk, Rock, Pop, Funk, Classical. It's better than working with the PC. A lot less frustrating and enough buttons to not work menu's all day. So that's a plus.

If you can live with the buggy backups, then buy it used. If you're gonig new, buy up to the newest model.

The lack of USB is unforgivable. Many other cheaper products on the market offer USB ports for upgrading the OS and moving sound files. I think they intentionally left it out so they could reap a new models profits. They certainly don't look ahead. I hear Roland does. Check them all out before you buy.

It's quite easy to get a decent sound out of it. The more complex operations will take some more time to master. The manual is not a big help to get you started, but once you played a bit with the machine and get to know its philosophy it is fine. Make sure to download and follow the instructions of recording 101, it'll save a lot of time getting to know the machine.

The sound quality is great. Make sure to use external preamps. The internal preamps are clearly the weakest link - they are noisy. Still I was able to get a clean sound without preamps using a large diaphragm condensator mic. An external preamp is the way to go if you don't succeed to do that. Once you put a clean signal into the "G" it will handle it brilliantly. The effects are better than I expected. It will take some time to get to know how it works and how the result is, but this learning curve is fun.

It always works. At home or on the road, it works just fine. The metal casing is clearly overdimensioned, which I need because I can be clumsy at times. I would definitely use it for gigging. One tip on advice... don't record a complete gig as ONE song. Break it into segments of about half an hour or so, it'll make the editing a lot easier.

Contacted them once about optimizing (getting rid of the undo info that should save disc space). Very friendly and correct, but they could not help. There are couple of user support fora: http://www.aw16g.com and http://forum.dijonstock.com. The latter is a replacement for the first, which is down every now and then. A lot of valuable info over there, expertise by the users.

I'm a one man band, a hobbyist. I play several instruments on a basic level. The machine suits me well, it has everything I need on board. It was my first multitracker so I had to get to know a lot about recording, it was all new to me. So far I made a couple of very nice recordings.

Once you decipher the fairly cryptic button categories and their organizational/navigational logic: not bad. Until then, pretty tough. World's most disorganized and non-helpful manual. Sorting things out the old fashioned way ("What does this button do?") is the best tutorial.

Totally great with condenser mics or with external preamps. Do NOT expect the pres to power a dynamic mic. You will have an unacceptable noise floor. All the plug-ins sound amazing and the EQ is particularly non-distorting and transparent. The compressor is great and very easy to work with. The manual's description of these features is confusing, at best.

This is the gig recorder, so - yes.

I've talked the Yamaha guys numerous times and they really know this box. They will also admit that the manual could be a little less "Japanified".

This machine is not easy. Hard disk recording is a mechanically complicated process. If you can 't make it work, BLAME IT ON YOURSELF and give up any fantasies of recording music. If you need some recording done, hire an experienced professional. Do not endlessly annoy your dealer or tech support because you have no ability in this area. Being able to plunk down the dough is no guarantee that you will suddenly become not-a-moron.

As standalone units go, this is quite simple to use and obtain excellent results.

You got to read the manual! Unlike driving, where you could hop into a BWM from a Pinto & get comfortable with it in no time; the AW16G is actually more like flying an Airbus Jet vs going into a Boeing, although the flying concept is the same but there are some re-learnings about its instrumentation, features, etc. In general the controls are fairly straight forward once you've read the manual.

Many had complained about its "cheap preamp" but there is actually two gain settings you could change during recording: one being the control knob on board, and the other is controlled through the LCD/Data Dial. At times I prefer using external tube preamps to add warmth, mostly AKG C414s, Oktavas, but I never had to use preamps to compensate low gains. I love the preset libraries, where you could apply professionally tuned EQ & Dynamics for vocals, strings, & drums on each channel, and tweak them to create fairly decent tunes. Lastly, the downmix volume tends to be a bit lower than the actual level displayed on the VU.

The device is very sensitive to group-loop problem. Most of the time while setting up for live recording I was challenged by resolving the ground loop buzz everytime using the AW16G. The buzz dirt does not splash into the tracks (unless you are using an external pre-amp) but it is quite bothersome. You need to save your song before turning off the power - otherwise you may lose it. One time during live recording it froze on me... I had to recycle power to continue.

I work with mostly gospel music for over 20 years and I found this instrument highly useful in home studio or recording live. I own the following sound modules (or multi-timbral keyboards): Proteus XR/ Motif Rack ES / QY700 / Kurtzweil PC88 / Roland V-Drums / Yamaha TX81Z / Korg M1

My wish list for AW16G:
(1) More XLR inputs with Phantom Power.
(2) Make CD-R drive write faster than 8x.
(3) Grounded power supply w/ ground lift switch.
(4) No data interface such as USB, CF, SDIO, your only choices are exporting to CD-RW, or download via optical out, two tracks at a time.
(5) Touch screen would be nice.
(6) More optical / SPDIF port for input. Recording through its optical port is quite cumbersome.

While the unit itself is very straightforward, the manual tells you absolutely nothing of value and presumes we're all qualified sound engineers. I was given about six language versions and i reckon I would have been able to understand the Japanese one as easy as the english!! I have little or no previous recording experience having left that to the qualified ones in professional studios. After a few weeks now though I can achieve as good sound quality as the studios our band used in the 90's (which cost about $45 per hour!. I bought the AW16G because I heard Damien Rice's album '0' which he recorded on a similar 16 track DAW. Pick up a copy and see how good it can sound.

As others have said the pre-amps are poor. For the first while I kept getting 'pops' in the recording from treble overload and had to pad the input to cut it out making the recorded volume low but using the excellent compressor for lift.

I use Jack & Danny guitars and basses(excellent quality for ridiculously low prices), Fender Tele and Precision bass. I direct inject the bass and use a small behringer pre-amp for guitars which works fine. I also have a Takamine acoustic which sounds great and a Sonor Kit. The 8 simultaneous tracks is ideal for miking the kit and mixes to almost commercial quality.

For Vocals I use Shure SM58 and 57 mics which take a lot of mastering to get a decent sound.Beware though of headphone mixes which give a false levels of reverb. I find that the car stereo is the most accurate.

No problems with the AW16G but take care to save regularly to stop accidental loss of data.

No need for CS as yet. WWW.Yamaha.com was far more informative than the useless manual and i also recommend downloading the recording PDF file from Yamaha.

I'm a huge fan of Teenage Fanclub/Byrds/Buffalo Springfield and the AW16G is ideal for those styles of guitar-based music. I haven't used it for keyboard/electronic music so I can't say what it's like.

The AW16G offers great value for money with so much packed into this small, sturdy little box. Previous to this I used PC based recording progs which sounded flat but were a little easier.Those who have listened to rough mixes of our recordings have remarked on the studio-like quality and depth of sound. Its as simple to begin using as a guitar amp and tape deck which I'm sure most of us started on!Every day that i use it I learn something new to improve the sound.

Overall I think its an excellent workstation and would recommend anyone to get one. In the right hands I reckon that it can sound just as good as the 'professional' recording studios.

One more thing, for those who are complete beginners, do a search for 'Studio Buddy'. This is a great beginners guide for recording and gives tips on how to record every instrument or check oput www.homerecording.com.

Never used any recording equipment before, but with time and patience I have learned to make some pretty good recordings. We bought this to do "demo" recordings for our band, which didn't take long to accomplish. We feel the quality is great and the more time I spend with the "G" the better I get at mixing down the recordings. Good quality mikes and getting everyone set up properly is key, too.

full band, keyboard, bass, drums, guitar, all miked. 4 vocalists
We pre-amp with our powered fender mixer that we use when we perform live. It was made for studio use and works well with the G. We don't tend to use too many effects yet, but as we work on our cd of original music we may experiment more. Right now we have been basically working for a realistic sound to show club owners, etc...what we sound like in person.

Not one problem that wasn't user based......we are using it on a gig this weekend, no worries

no need so far

We play country and classic rock with some blues and even a few bluegrass from time to time. We love the "G"! Some of us have played for 20 plus years and some for less. We all have tons of gear and sound equipment and if I listed it, it would be wrong as of tomorrow, one of us is always buying a new instrument. Would want the same machine if it was lost. I love the quality and features, I hate that I am slow to try all the great tricks it can do! Yes I compared to all equipment in the same price range, the "G" seemed by far to have the best features for the money, and reviews were great, along with a great forum to get help and learn from...(sadly gone now) I think it has helped us a lot, even tho' playing live is our main focus, we spend lots of time in our studio with the "G" in the winter months. We love the sound we get on the cds and haven't had a bit of problem with it.

I've had this machine for almost two years now so for me the learning curve is almost gone. I still need to learn more about scene operations (the manual is very poor in this area) but as far as getting great sounding recordings in and out are concerned, it's just a standard process that's learned through repetition, barring, of course the experience and artisic elements required for mixing and mastering.

I've been recording for about 20 years and the quality that this machine can produce is so close to that of store-bought CD's only sound engineers and musician's can tell the difference. And as for untrained people, they can't tell at all. My friend Anthony, the consumate, untrained musical know-it-all that will find fault with everything (we all know at least one person like this, don't we?) was unable to tell that a recording I had him listen to was done in my basement. I told him I bought it at a store and he believed me without flinching. Of course, if you're not very experienced in recording then you will obviously be limited as to what you can produce on any format, but having said that, great recording technique and experience can go a very long way with this machine.

No problems except you must secure the power cord to the anchor on the back of the machine or the slightest jog will disconnect it, making the machine "mysteriously" reboot for no apparent reason.
That'll kill your afternoon.

Never needed it

It's tough to learn for a novice but once you do learn it, the possiblities are really awesome.
If it were stolen I would buy another.
What I wish it had was the ability to separate the paired stereo tracks. But, again, for the money I can deal with this limitation.
Needs better preamps.

Hmm...after reading a couple of the reviews already posted here, it seems that a few people think this unit is difficult to use...and (in some ways) it can take a little getting used to, but nothing more difficult than that. Don't expect this to be like a software based point-and-click DAW and you'll be fine. Maybe I have an advantage as I've been recording my own music since I was 14 (I'm now 32), but it is possible for you to get your head around the AW quite quickly if you've had any experience. The manual is okay (the support documents at http://www.yamaha.com will help ANYONE get started quickly and simply), but may seem a little complex to the novice user (especially those who are a little lazy and don't want to learn anything new for the fear that (in the words of Homer Simpson) "every time they learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out their brain". Like most things in life, the effort YOU put into it goes towards the results YOU get out of it!

The quality of this machine is fantastic! Okay, it's not 24bit/96k (or 192!), but you have to remember the price point on this product, and for that, it really is good value for money, especially for those who know how to set it up and get good results going to the drive before you even start thinking about mixing. The mic inputs could be better, but with the addition of an external mic pre or channel strip, this can be fixed (and as a work around, you can always use insert effects as you track to try and warm up the sound a little). The internal effects are okay, but I feel they are a little on the safe side when put next to software based plugins or a dedicated multi effects units (a great unit to compliment this machine would be something like a Boss VF-1, which would add some of the more extreme effects the Yamaha seems to lack).

I've not had a problem with it so far, it's OS (verion 1.03) seems to work fine and hasn't let me down yet!

I do quite a lot of remixes as well as my own original tracks and have to say I don't find this machine gets in the way of the production process. I've used quite a lot of DAW's (both hardware and software based) and I'm finding this unit very productive once you discovered where all of the functions are located in the various menu screens. I know a lot of people who are looking to Roland/Boss as the top producer of this kind of product at the moment (and the VS-series are excellent units), but after checking the AW16G side by side with a Boss BR-1180/1600 and one of the new Fostex VF'EX' series, I thought the Yamaha to be the better product all-round, much more solid (unlike the plastic feel of the Boss and the naff 'toy-town' feel of the Fostex). The built-in sampler, larger screen and panel layout of the Yamaha really won me over. Okay, the effects are maybe not as good as the Boss, but with a little imagination they can still be programmed to get some great results. For the money (#699 UK Pounds at the time I wrote this review), it's amazing value for money compared to other units (especially the Fostex, which I didn't feel was good value at all), where you'd pay the price of the AW16G just for the machine and then have to pay out extra cash to add the optional CD-RW burner! It would have been nice to have been able to split the fixed stereo tracks into mono, but then I guess Yamaha have to keep some features to tempt people into buying the AW2816, don't they?!? All in all, this is a great buy and I would recomend it (so long as you're not expecting it to do all the hard work for you...if you are then I'm sure you'll soon be whinging that you've been conned and are going to throw it out of the nearest window!). I look forward to seeing what Yamaha will release in the future when the AW line gets a revamp!

If you are a trained sound engineer, probably pretty easy to use. If you're Joe Blow guitar hobbyist, forget it. It is so convoluted and painstaking and just plain friggin' complicated, you'd be better off with PC based recording. I can't find a book written for common Earthlings that walks you through a simple, typical setup procedure.

I think it is probably capable of making some very good recordings, if you can ever figure out how to set up the seeminly countless number of editing screens.

It has never failed to fire up and confuse the hell out of me, very reliable.

I will be lucky to get rid of this and get some of my money back so I can get something "normal" people can use. There is no basic walk through for a standard session of something basic like a guitar track.

It is not anything like user friendly as Yamaha or the sellers would have you believe, if you're a newby to digital hdd recording, stay clear until you know what you're getting into, I wished I had.

I must be thick, I have been using a Fostex DMT8 for the last 7 years and then to "upgrade" to this ! If this is easy to use then I hope I never find a difficult one. Every action you take you have to make a choice in a pop up box and then confirm if you want to make that choice. The manual is crap, I can't figure out how I can load song data from a dat machine, it sort of half tells you, it tells you how to record samples and quick clips, but doesn't tell what you can do with it after. I'm used to flicking a switch turning a knob and recording. This is like everything else these days, overcomplicated ! I wish I had listened to my gut instinct and bought the Fostex 16 track instead, and saved myself money !

I don't think the sound is that good

have only had it 4 days, depends whether I chuck it out the window or not.

I think I'll carry on recording with my knackered Fostex and then just transfer it onto this Yamaha for final mix. Even that is a pain as on the Foatex there is a phono out for every channel which is 8 and on the Yamaha there are only 6 jack sockets and then 2 xlr so I have to codge up 2 more leads, why can't they put 2 more jack sockets as well as the xlrs ?
A right Load of crap and like the other guy said you haven't got 16 channels you've got only 12! BEEN CONNED haven't we

if you've got any recording/engineering experience at all then this things is really a piece of piss....sure the manuals a bit convoluted but thats ok..there are no mysteries in application.editing a doddle...standard OS..seems fine.editing a doodle....

not absolutely Pro quality,but a bit of judicial tweaking at tracking stage can get damn close...yeah preamps hissy if pushed..prob recommend getting dedicated preamp..altho again it IS possible to get OK vocals/Mic sounds to disk..FX fine, maybe not Lexicon but pretty good...shouldnt stop any work getting done...as with all these machines maxim applies:Garbage In =Garbage OUT..a bit of patience goes a long way...OK it aint fidelity levels of dedicated 20Grand Systems BUT if you consider the Technology you're getting, for the price, compared to 5-10 years back who can Reaaly complain eh?...poss alot of moaners about this rig is user errors i rek..generally using guitars(elec+acoustic/bass)/keyboards(kurzweillk1200/Korg wavestation),vocals and MIDI sequences Yammie RMIX....Never had any probs...results most pleassing...

never freaked out yet tho i aint giiged or recorded outside with it....seems stable..no crashes or issues.......yet..lol

never dealt with them tho ive owned Yammie kit for years...never had to which is a testament to reliabilty of Yammie kit i rek...

seems fine for most styles...wouldnt faze me if i had to produce tracks for Techno freaks or Mongolian Throat singers...and allpoints in between....playng 30 odd years..lotsa kit/instruments...if lost id buy again yeah....love the fact it just works only gripe is preamps could be tad less noisy but at this price and for what you get i aint got any real beefs at all.....fav feature UNDO!...lol...chosen for its integration with Yammie sequencer and portability...considered Roland/Korg/fostex/Zoom etc...this just seemd the canines gametes in comparison....
hmmmmm wish it had more XLR inputs but not a major prob....def helps make music, absolutely...not a hindrance..i repeat if one considers what was available in terms of Bang for Buck 5 or 10 years back can we really complain tooo much??..i think not..its amazing kit for the price..only barriers to quality results are in the users domain not the machine.

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.