First update on the Fostex MR-8

Okay, I’ve played with it for two days now. I think it’s going to fit the bill for what I want to accomplish. That is if I can learn how to use it properly. There are so many knobs, switches, levers, faders, buttons, menus, sub-menus, bells and whistles that it can make your head spin. And then there’s the manual. Fostex is notorious for publishing terrible operating manuals for all of their equipment and this one is no exception. It’s clearly (poorly) translated from Japanese. And I’m finding out that in addition to learning how to operate the thing using all the visibly labeled bells and whistles, there are different combinations of buttons to press at the same time that you have to memorize; they’re not labeled as such. Kind of like a secret code.

I knew it would be somewhat complicated and compared to learning to use my DAW software and hardware, this is a breeze. But to me it’s a daunting task. When I was at my technical peak in my mid 30’s I couldn’t get enough of this stuff. I learned to program, repair, install and operate very high tech medical imaging equipment including CT scanners, MRI scanners, x-ray machines, etc. But that was then and this is now. My brain seems to be like a sponge and the older I get and the more knowledge I acquire, the sponge keeps filling up until there’s not much room left for any new stuff. Heck, I struggle with operating my cell phone. I let Sophia mess around with it and she just started pressing all the right buttons and asking me what settings I would like. And she’s EIGHT years old. Talk about a generational gap!

So although this is a struggle for me, I’m determined to keep plugging away at it until I can comfortably use it to record, transfer the data to my computer, edit it on the computer and store it on my hard drive. At least there are a lot of functions I will not have to learn because I will be using the computer for editing and that is a steep learning curve on the MR-8.

So with all that being said, here is what I’ve learned so far:
I can record up to four tracks
I can operate the click track
I can play back what I’ve recorded
I can scratch a track and record over it if I mess it up the first time
I can set the Locate A and Locate B points

I recorded a test song on four tracks this morning. It’s just something I made up on the spot to be used as a message on my cell phone when I don’t answer it. It’s actually kind of cute so if and when I get it onto the computer, I’ll put a link to it here so you can hear it. And that’s my next task: to learn how to transfer the data onto my computer. The manual us really vague in this area and at the same time makes it look very complicated with tons of steps to do. Go figure, it seems like such an easy thing to do since the data is stored on a CompactFlash card in the MR-8 and not on a HD. It says something about having to transfer all the mono tracks to track 7/8 for a stereo pair before you can send it to the computer. Then you have to drill way down in the folders of the CompactFlash card to find a certain sub-folder because that’s where your data is stored. At least I think that what it’s trying to say. Who knows?

Like I said, it’s pretty complicated and a bit daunting for me. I’ll just take baby steps like I’m already doing and eventually I’ll figure it out.

UPDATE (the next day)

I fiddled around this morning and I think I was able to get the cellphone message onto my computer. I say "I think" because there were so many steps involved including some hidden button pushes that my head is reeling. I used the manual and did one step at a time. Anyway, I was able to get the data onto my editing program where I cleaned it up. I tried listening to it with a little reverb, but you know, I think it sounds better dry so that's how I left it. Here is a link to it:

http://www.archive.org/download/CellphoneMessage/CellphoneMessage.mp3