Fostex D160

Pioneered by Fostex, the concept of the 'personal' digital multitrack — a stand‑alone digital recorder with a simple, cassette multitracker‑like interface — has been around for two years now. But the new D160 is the first of the bunch to offer 16‑track capabilities.

Fostex have had more than their fair share of recording firsts, including the world's first quarter‑inch 8‑track analogue tape machine, the first half‑inch 16‑track machine and the first hard disk multitracker designed as a direct replacement for its cassette‑based counterpart. While Fostex can hardly claim the credit for inventing hard disk audio recording, their DMT8, D80, D90 and now the D160 have done much to democratise the process, not only by keeping the hardware affordable, but also by making it relatively simple to operate. If you're looking for a tapeless equivalent to a 16‑track tape machine that doesn't have a learning curve like climbing the north face of the Eiger in oven gloves while someone pours chip fat on you from above, the D160 seems ideal. My task, should I choose to accept it, is to see whether or not the reality lives up to the promise.

If I had to describe the D160 in just one sentence, I'd say it's about as close as you can get to a tapeless 16‑track tape recorder. It doesn't process sounds, it doesn't mix sounds and it doesn't double as a MIDI sequencer or cappuccino maker — it simply provides 16 tracks of audio recording with some basic cut, copy and paste editing facilities thrown in. It comes well equipped with sync functions for use with a MIDI sequencer or to run alongside a digital multitrack equipped with an MTC output, but further sync options are available for those who need to integrate the machine into a professional video environment.

The D160 is in many ways similar to the 8‑track D90 reviewed back in August 1997, and if you compare front panels you'll notice that, apart from a few differences in the display, the layout is identical. Even so, the D160 is a little more than just a 16‑track version of the D90, as it incorporates a number of new features, both in its standard form and as options, including the provision of a SCSI2 interface in the basic model. Hard drives of up to 3.2Gb can be housed in a removable disk caddy, and up to 38 minutes of 16‑track recording (all tracks recorded), is possible from a single 3.2Gb drive using the latest Fostex FDMS3 disk management system. FDMS3 is a great improvement over the systems used in earlier machines that gave the same maximum recording time, regardless of how many tracks were used. Now the disk space is managed in an intelligent fashion, which means that if you only use half the tracks, the unused disk space is available for use in other songs.

In addition to the basic 16 tracks, a further eight 'ghost' tracks may be recorded to store alternative versions of takes (some people call these virtual tracks — see the separate box for more on these). For AV users, the optional 8345 module enables the D160 to generate, or chase and lock to LTC (Linear SMPTE Time Code), with provision for video or wordclock sync. A further expansion option (5041) is available to provide fully balanced inputs and outputs at +4dBu on standard 'D' connectors; as supplied, the D160's ins and outs are on unbalanced, ‑10dBV phonos. A similar balancing option is now available for the D90.

Though this is a 16‑track recorder, users who don't have access to equipment with the ADAT optical digital interface will only be able to record a maximum of eight tracks at any one time. To save on cost, there are only eight sets of input converters, but by using an ADAT interface, eight digital inputs plus the eight analogue inputs can be recorded together, or alternatively, 16 channels of digital inputs can be recorded in one shot, providing the two digital sources are sync'ed together. Multiple D160s, or combinations of D160s, D90s, D80s and DMT8s, may also be locked together when more tracks are needed.

Like its 8‑track counterpart, the D160 has comprehensive MIDI options, including integral MTC generation for sync'ing MIDI sequencers. The input converters are 18‑bit, 64x oversampling delta‑sigma types with 20‑bit, 128x oversampling converters on the output, and the data recorded to disk is 16‑bit at either 44.1kHz or 48kHz (ADATs are usually run at 48kHz), with no data compression. Varispeed of up to plus or minus 6% is available.

Though this is a 16‑track recorder, users who don't have access to equipment with the ADAT optical digital interface will only be able to record a maximum of eight tracks at any one time.

The D160 Package

The D160 uses the same basic 3U packaging as the D90 and only weighs half a kilogram more. The storage medium is an EIDE hard drive fitted into a removable caddy, and further caddies are available, allowing drives to be swapped when there's a need to switch projects. The caddy bay is located on the front panel of the main unit, but under normal operating conditions it's hidden by the control panel. However, because hard drives are not entirely silent, Fostex have included the provision to remotely mount the front panel using either one or two 5‑metre extension cables, and as the front panel also contains the metering, the bulk of the hardware can be mounted well out of the way.

Unbalanced phono inputs (8) and outputs (16) are fitted as standard, along with two sets of ADAT optical ins and outs. MIDI In, Out and Thru sockets are located to the right of the 25‑way SCSI2 'D' connector. On the review model, there were three balanced 25‑way 'D' connectors providing access to the 5041 balancing option. Also pre‑fitted to the review model was the 8345 timecode board, which has XLRs for timecode in and out, as well as BNC connectors for wordclock in and out and video input and thru. Both the wordclock and video inputs have switchable 75Ω termination.

Fostex D160 rear connections.

System Overview

Though it can still be thought of as a virtual tape machine, the new disk handling system doesn't waste space if tracks or parts of tracks are left unrecorded, so the overall recording time could be longer than you expect. According to the needs of the user, the recording time can be divided into up to 99 separate 'projects' (the D90 has a maximum of nine), where a project would normally be used to record one song. Each project contains a certain amount of setup data, including tempo map details, song name, sync reference, MTC format and so on, and there's also a protect facility to prevent the accidental erasure or modification of individual projects. Also in the setup menu is the master/slave status of the machine, the device ID number, record sample frequency, IDE/SCSI drive selection, and so on.

As with the D90, the D160's manual is a perfect example of how an extremely long‑winded script combined with a poor Japanese‑to‑English translation can make a relatively simple machine seem very daunting. There's around 190 pages of appallingly convoluted waffle to wade through, and you often have to read the same paragraph 10 times to figure out what it really means. If you plan reading more than one page at a time, have plenty of black coffee ready. For example, I noticed that the machine has only eight Record Ready buttons labelled 1/9, 2/10, 3/11 and so on, so it's obvious that there must be some way to switch between the lower bank of eight and the upper bank. Try as I might to find this information, I couldn't get far enough into the text to find the answer without my eyes glazing over. Fortunately, pressing the Shift button to the right of the Record Track buttons switches from tracks 1‑8 to tracks 9‑16, allowing the eight analogue inputs to be recorded to the desired tracks, and it's possible to select tracks from both banks at the same time. Putting the machine into Input Monitor mode for armed tracks involves pressing Record twice.

Unfortunately, there's even less physical correlation between the positions of the 16 plasma level meters on the display and the Record Track buttons than there was on the D90, so you really do have to ensure that the correct track's red Record Ready square is illuminated before you hit Record. I feel much happier when the record arm buttons are directly below the meter they refer to. Punching in manually is simple; you just hold down Play and hit Record at the appropriate moment. To punch out, you hit Play again, but once you've done that, you have to stop the machine before you can do another punch‑in. This is rather silly, as it's common practice when patching up a vocal track to leave the recorder rolling as the singer runs through again, then manually punch in and out as you come to the phrases that need replacing. Having to stop after every punch‑in rather ruins the flow of the process, and what's worse, this limitation applies to footswitch punch‑in/out too.

Once again, the Fostex documentation makes claims about non‑destructive cut and paste editing, and once again, this isn't entirely the case. When data is cut, copied or moved, you can only undo the last step you did — this isn't a playlist system that lets you go back to square one if things don't work out. Material being copied or moved is handled by a clipboard system, and Undo just cancels the last edit. Redo cancels Undo, just in case you can't decide which version was best!

The actual editing functions are very basic by digital standards, but in the machine's favour, cut, copy and paste provides plenty of scope for copying your one good chorus or 'comping' up one good guitar solo out of six average ones without things getting too complicated. Copy and paste, move and paste, or cut and erase operations may be referred to absolute time, MTC or MIDI bar and beat positions, depending on which time frame you've selected to work in for the current project. If you want to work in bars and beats, you need to create a tempo map, which can have up to 64 tempo changes. There's no way to automatically load in a tempo map from your sequencer, so this has to be done manually, but it's still the best way to work when editing music.

I/O Silver Lining

No hard disk recorder is devoid of data backup problems, but the D160 gives you plenty of options. If you don't need to archive long‑term, you can simply swap hard drives, but if you need to keep more things on the go, you could hook up a Jaz drive to the SCSI port and back up to that, providing files are no bigger than 1Gb. Backups normally comprise individual projects, so file size shouldn't be a problem. However, a cheaper alternative is to back up to DAT or ADAT tape, and both options are provided for. Data may be stored to any DAT machine with an optical digital interface (or an S/PDIF interface used with a Fostex COP1 optical‑to‑S/PDIF converter), or to any ADAT via the optical interface. This is pretty slow, but it's a lot cheaper than putting hard drives or Jaz cartridges on the shelf.

Control Interface

The D160's control panel is identical to that used on the D90, though the display has a larger area given over to metering, and less space for text messages and other data. The now familiar jog/shuttle dial is a practical way to locate and cue specific points within songs; the sprung shuttle part of the dial provides up to 20 times play speed cueing in seven speed steps. Digital scrubbing is handled by the jog dial, which also doubles up for parameter recall and data entry. The quality of the display text is a great improvement over that of the D90, with a large, clear time/location readout at the top of the screen.

Fostex have tried hard to make this machine 'feel' like a tape machine, so rather than providing instant 'rewind', the D160 behaves as though it is fast‑winding at 30 times normal play speed. Pressing both Play and wind/rewind accesses a five times play speed cueing facility for quickly getting about within a song.

One area in which many computer‑based systems fall down badly is that of punching in and out. There's no problem here though (other than having to stop before you can punch in again), as once again, the tape metaphor has been adopted, with punching in either from the tape‑like transport controls or the rear‑panel footswitch jack (pedal optional). Punching in and out is gapless, and a 10ms crossfade ensures all transitions are smooth and free from clicks.

Both ADAT and optical S/PDIF data can be recorded and played back at either 44.1kHz or 48kHz sampling rates using the same optical ports for both S/PDIF and ADAT data. Digital I/O type is selected in the setup menu, as are most other project‑related variables. Prior to recording, it is necessary to select a program to record into, and if the source is digital, the user must set the sample rate of the D160 to correspond with that of the source. Different programs can be recorded at different sample rates, but as you'd expect, you can't mix sample rates within a program.

With the increase in the number of digital mixers supporting the ADAT interface protocol, having an ADAT interface is becoming very important, and the D160 provides separate ADAT ports for track I/O 1 to 8 and 9 to 16. Because of the sync capabilities of this machine, song data can be recorded from an ADAT, edited, and then returned to the ADAT in perfect sync, but this requires an MTC source from the ADAT, so a BRC or Datasync type of unit is needed.

If a digital S/PDIF source is being recorded, the left and right channels can each be routed to any of the 16 channels. When S/PDIF is being used to provide an output, the tracks are arranged on odd/even pairs and any one pair may be selected.

In The Driving Seat

Before you can record, the hard drive must be formatted, though this would normally be done before purchase, unless you've specified a different drive. If no recording has taken place before, the default program is 01, but other than the concept of programs to hold individual songs, the operation is remarkably tape‑machine like. I was also very impressed by how quiet the machine is — there's no fan and the internal drive is reasonably well isolated, so recording most things in the same room shouldn't be a major concern, providing you use an extension cable to keep the hard drive section away from the mic.

Though the essential track select, record, punch‑in and transport modes are almost identical to those you'd find on a multitrack tape machine, I find the routine for storing in and out locator points for the auto punch‑in mode involves too many button presses. I've commented on this in my reviews of the earlier Fostex machines; if the punch in and out points are very close together, the adopted system may be far too long‑winded to accomplish the task in the available time. Exactly the same is true when selecting start and end points for editing, though at least you can do this at your own pace. Other tape machine‑like functions include auto looping, adjustable pre‑roll, and rehearsal mode, where you can hear how your punch‑in will sound before you go ahead and do it.

Though a few buttons have dual functions, they are clearly labelled, and on the whole the dedicated nature of the control buttons is to be commended. Unlike most digital tape machines, MTC output is provided without the need for extra hardware, so sync'ing a sequencer is as easy as plugging in a MIDI lead and setting the correct MTC parameters.

As with its predecessors, the recording quality is excellent, and for all intents and purposes, it's comparable with ADAT, DAT or DA88. I could detect no glitches at punch‑in or ‑out points — a clear advantage over analogue tape — and of course there's absolutely no wow and flutter or significant speed drift. Some of the sync modes necessitate a visit to the manual, where, for the most part, things are explained about as badly as they could be; it's as though the copy was written by a dyslexic lawyer! Once you've picked your way through the Japanese English, the information is actually there if you persevere, but staying awake as you do it can be quite a challenge!

Sync tests using two ADATs plus a BRC demonstrated that the D160 locked up flawlessly and quickly to both MTC and SMPTE, and I found the chase lock LED on the front panel (which confirms that the sync is solid) very reassuring. I also piped a short section of 16 tracks of ADAT across to the machine in one hit, again with no difficulty.

Summary

A D160 complete with a 3.2Gb drive will set you back a little under £3000, which, even at today's low digital multitrack prices, works out a little cheaper than buying a pair of digital tape machines. True, the media costs are higher than tape, but a lot depends on how many projects you have on the go at once, and on how much time you can afford for making DAT backups. The built‑in MTC support is great news for sequencer users, while the optional video sync capabilities and master and slave sync operation should win over a number of pro AV or video post‑production users, although I know that some people will look on the back panel and mumble about the D160 not having a Sony 9‑pin connector. Certainly the ability to sync MIDI sequencers, previous Fostex hard disk machines, D160s and ADATs in the same system is very handy (you need an MTC interface for the ADATs, of course), and with the few exceptions I've already mentioned, operating the machine couldn't be easier.

Don't let the dreadful manual put you off, as you can figure out the majority of what you need to know in half an hour without even opening it. If you're moving up from tape machines, and want to dip a toe in the waters of digital audio without risking your whole leg, the D160 is a very attractive way to go.