The DijonStock Digital Home Recording Support Forum

Hi,

Well the first time I found myself thinking about this device was way back in 2008. I thought that it was a good looking machine and had the style of something that would be fun to use.

I spent the last few years making lots of music using hardware- but I never did find myself going through with getting a digital workstation multi track. I did a lot of hardware composed electronic music, but since before all that I was an avid computer composer, I would just use the PC as the tape deck to record my finished songs, if not multi-track them and mix them and add more in the DAW.

I have gone through some creative lulls and health problems that left me with little energy to go full into recording, and I sold off a lot of cool gear. Right now I have a simple MPC drum machine/sampler, a few guitars, but soon next week I'm getting an AW16K in the mail!

I had been going on ebay looking for deals on a bunch of stuff, but something made me remember the AW and I stumbled across an auction with one 99$ bid and less than an hour left...

As you know that is a great deal for one of these machines, well within my budget of about 250$.

I waited as the clocked ticked down, the bids started piling up... going upwards of 150$. My plan was to just place my one bid, my highest bid, at the last 10 seconds and just hope it was good enough.

As it turned out it worked, and I won the auction and got the machine for 202.50!!!

The guy who was selling said it was in excellent condition, only used twice, and that they started recording at a studio so they had no use for it.

I feel like it's sort of a miracle when someone doesn't price their items on ebay, and are just fine with having people bid for it...

I got very lucky. Yamaha AW1600 for about 220 bucks with shipping!

I'm super amped to wrap my brain around using this machine. I've managed to learn all sorts of gear inside and out so hopefully using the AW won't be too much of a challenge.

The thing about this adaptation to the machine is that I don't know exactly what I want to achieve.

I am happy to learn there's a metronome built in, plus MIDI synchronization, which would be good for making songs as I am used to in FL studio, where I can make loops and splice recorded audio to synch with a tempo... I wonder, does the AW tick away in seconds and minutes, or does it display measures and bars, based on the midi clock like a hardware sequencer does?

Either way, I believe it's going to be a luxury to just make recordings of any sort outside using the computer... but if I feel creatively frustrated with the editing capabilities of the machine I can always USB my tracks back to the computer.

I have a plan in my head to try and make recordings that are not fully quantized and synchronized with a sequencer or metronome, maybe almost sound collages, bouncing tracks and using lot's of FX.

The truth is I've been wielding powerful techniques and making complex music with computer that sometimes it's nice to have a musical object that is restrictive and makes you think beyond your normal freedoms.

I hope this is a machine I will enjoy using. At the very least I could spend time to learn the MIDI functions and get it to behave like FL studio to a degree, or just go freestyle and record with a microphone many layers of organic audio, and just have fun making a mix-down for further manipulation in a DAW, sequencer, or sampler.

Ok,

I hope you guys like reading a post like mine, It's helpful for me to write into the void sometimes

thanks

Check out my music at JDSY.bandcamp.com

PEACE!

Hi JD,

Congrats! I'm absolutely positive you'll like the machine.

You say you don't know exactly what to achieve. That's a good thing because there's nothing to restrict your creativity.

You'll have to get to know the machine, which is sometimes seen as a challenge. Believe me, I was intimidated a bit at first, but once you grasp the concept of the work flow, it'll all easily make sense. There's almost nothing you can not do with the machine.

If you run into any trouble, let us know.

Have fun!

_________________

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Don't judge the coffee by its cup.
The proof of the cheese is in the eating

I enjoyed reading your post as I sit here in a pizza joint somewhere just outside of Nashville, TN. Gratz on your purchase. The first thing I would do is reformat the unit and then make sure everything is working as should. If u don't get the manual, they are readily available online. Also download and print out the cliff notes version called recording 101. It's here on the site.

You should enjoy getting your hands on this excellent daw. I found it to be an exceptional unit for getting the most out of your music. Experiment around and have fun.

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GSMUSIC: Hey RZ, Im not no upper class american, the gear I own is what I have special to me. My car sucks, my house sucks, my nieghborhood sucks. Does yours RZ? Does it?

rz-land

Look forward to hearing your work on it..

Enjoy you purchase!

Congrats and good luck. As a newbie myself, I can tell you that the best thing to happen to me regarding the AW was to find this forum! I can't imagine how much time and head scratching it has spared me. I don't think there's anything regarding the AW machines that these guys can't get you through. And having the ability to search and explore previous posts is also extremely helpful.

Thanks for the replies everybuddy!

check out the description of the auction... I think I just got super lucky and hopefully there is nothing of issue with the AW:

“This 1600 is in excellent condition. Not a lot of use really. We did 2 demo songs on it I think, then switched to a local studio with Pro Tools because we didn't know what we were doing when it came to recording. I know our drummer paid a lot for it, but what can you do. Seems like a dream studio for home use and people who like to tweak sound to the limit. This has a lot, a whole lot of features which would be powerful in the hand of someone who knows and understands how to use it. Works great as new, no issues funcionally or cosmetically. Yamaha Power supply included. No manual included, but PDF version is available online. Good luck. Shipping is to LOWER 48 STATES USA ONLY. No international shipping, sorry.”

I am thinking of buying a printed copy of the manual.... or going to FED EX office and having a spiral bound print of the manual... although it is 232 pages or something like that! could be sort of expensive.

I have some questions about the machine but hopefully learning it when it arrives will answer most of them.

I am excited about using FX, and bouncing to a blank track.... And in general excited about making tunes like so much of recorded music of the past, on a multi-track almost like tape.

I'm also excited about making textured rhythm parts, then bouncing to my MPC... or DAW, and then USB to MPC.

I've owned an AKAI s5000 for a while now but I think that the AW will take it's place as a scratch pad quite nicely. The s5k has 256mb of ram so you can record your basic parts in silence, then bounce them to PC. Now I'll have the AW for making this type of function work for me.

!!!!

J

Hiya JD,

I don't think you need a printed copy of the manual. And if you do, someone with a laser printer can work miracles for you. Give him/her a tenner and all printing expenses are covered.

As Ron said, start with the "recording 101" that can be found here. It was originally written for the AW16G but the work flow is practically the same.

The manual is here.

This and more can be found on the docs page.

_________________

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Don't judge the coffee by its cup.
The proof of the cheese is in the eating