DAW just bit the dust. Now what?

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Zeppelin4Life
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DAW just bit the dust. Now what?

Post by Zeppelin4Life » Mon Aug 03, 2009 12:42 pm

Hi all. I had a yamaha AW16G I got when I was in high school, like 7 years ago I'd say. It recently died. Learned everything on it, learning used it with very high end outboards too (Lexicon, TC, Universal Audio, manley, studer reels, etc)...anyway.. The hard drive has stopped functioning propertly. I am now in college and have been saving money for a while, but now I don't know what to do. I am thinking about going protools LE, but possibly another daw (AW2400 maybe?) Can someone make me a suggestion for what I should do? I can afford maybe $2000 right now. I have 2 universal audio preamps, a few PCM effects units, and other outboard gear I want to patch in. I assume i need some sort of i/o interface, but is LE powerful enough to keep up with 8+ multitracks at once? I know the HD is the best option, and I'd like to buy that with a real outboard controller, 192 i/os, etc, etc and everyhting, but I don't have $15000 right now... I think the AW2400 DAW looks really cool. I am not big fan of the DAWs per se, but the yamahas are really nice, and I cant afford a huge rig right now..Help!
?I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.?
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Jeff White
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Post by Jeff White » Mon Aug 03, 2009 1:55 pm

Do you have a computer? Is it a PC? Is it a recent computer with a good processor and a decent amount of RAM?

If you do not need to pick up a computer, then you should get an Echo interface and use Reaper.

If you have a mixing board (forgive me if you do not), the Alesis HD24 is a really nice stand-alone recorder.

It sounds that, like me, you have some outboard and are relying on a DAW for a lot of the processing. Reaper is a great application, and a non-commercial license is $60. It is much better on PC than Mac (still in Beta on Mac). The Stillwell plug-ins are a must have for anyone who can run VST or AU, and they come with Reaper.

Everyone on here has a ton of praise for the Echo firewire interfaces.

If I was starting out and running a PC, Echo and Reaper. Great system, great bang for the buck, easy.

Jeff
I record, mix, and master in my Philly-based home studio, the Spacement. https://linktr.ee/ipressrecord

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apropos of nothing
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Post by apropos of nothing » Mon Aug 03, 2009 2:39 pm

New hard drive for the Yamaha would be the cheapest option.

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Z-Plane
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Post by Z-Plane » Mon Aug 03, 2009 2:43 pm

apropos of nothing wrote:New hard drive for the Yamaha would be the cheapest option.
+1. If the drive is a standard issue and is the only fault, you could probably find one on the bay for peanuts.

Zeppelin4Life
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Post by Zeppelin4Life » Mon Aug 03, 2009 3:02 pm

Yeah. I dont know if it is the drive tho. Its totally buggin' out, as it is actually moving files from other songs into the recorders other songs. I hear acoustic guitars from years ago on what I am working on! I will try to reformat the drive and whatnot and see if that works...anyway, I was looking at the AW4416. I can get it for less than $1000 used.
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Snarl 12/8
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Post by Snarl 12/8 » Mon Aug 03, 2009 5:15 pm

Is there some mondo reset feature on the Yamaha? Might be time to reset it to factory defaults?

After 7 years there could be some internal battery that's died, like on a computer. On computers those always cause some kinds of weird, inexplicable behavior.

Maybe time to dig up a service manual and run some diagnostics. I bet that thing has some arcane button combinations that yield error codes that can be looked up.

Just shooting from the hip here.
Carl Keil

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