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From: chris@bullwinkle.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.music,net.audio,net.music.synth
Subject: Re: Fostek 4-track cassette recorder ... Should I buy one?
Message-ID: <2265@bullwinkle.cs.cornell.edu>
Date: Mon, 19-May-86 11:19:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: bullwink.2265
Posted: Mon May 19 11:19:43 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 24-May-86 17:29:41 EDT
References: <5452GIZ@PSUVM> <241@inuxj.UUCP> <1424@fisher.UUCP> <4975@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU>
Reply-To: chris@bullwinkle.cs.cornell.edu (Christopher F. Harrison)
Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept, Ithaca NY
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>What about the new Yamaha MT1X portable 4-track ?  It has features
>pretty similar to the MiniStudio, except can record on all 4 channels
>at once. Sells for about $450. Any comments/opinions ?

Sure. The MT1X is a sound engineer's nightmare. Aside from the obvious
fact that the controls and indicators are a jumbled, illogical mess(especially
if you happen to be a trained studio engineer and are used to various
brands of equipment at least attempting to exhibit some form of a standard
controls and indicators setup), the compensation for various forms of audio
inputs is very poor. 
    My experience relates from a weekend video, where most of our time was
wasted on trying to get our levels to compensate for various mic's. I'll admit
that the final out to the vcr was a little touchy, but we had very few problems
working around that. The dealer who rented this fresh-off-the-shelf garbage
assured me that it was very easy for an experienced engineer to setup and
record with it. We proceeded to spend the next 26 hours trying to reveal
the well-hidden secrets to recording with it. By Sunday afternoon we had
declared the project a flop, and all due to one simple compensation problem.
And yes, we did everything from preamping to line-mic diddling, with no 
avail.
    Of course, actual mileage varies with the engineer and conditions,
but in my opinion, you get what you pay for.