Korg Announces New Digital Recorder

D1600 Digital Recording Studio (Click for a close-up)

Building upon the success of their digital recording series, Korg has developed a new, enhanced mulititrack recorder, the D1600 Digital Recording Studio. Built on Korg's 16 track, 24 bit/44.1 kHz recording system design*, the D1600 adds a number of hardware advances for a truly professional portable recording package.

Providing one of the most flexible recording configurations available, the D1600's convenient cartridge/bay system allows for effortless installation of standard IDE hard drives, enabling the user to swap drives for different projects. A 20 GB internal hard drive is included, providing 31 total hours of 24 bit/44.1 kHz (62 hours with 16 bit/44.1 kHz) recording. With eight virtual tracks available for each physical track (for a total of up to 128 tracks), multiple takes can be easily recorded and assembled using the D1600's vast editing and track bouncing capabilities. Up to 100 songs may be recorded per drive, each with four assignable Locate Points and 100 nameable Mark Points. Standard copy, paste and erase functions are controlled by simply using Korg's TouchView waveform display to specify IN, OUT and TO locations, or to select studio-accurate audio scrubbing. The Time Expansion/Compression function allows the user to adjust tempos for beat matching or to simply fit a phrase into a specific time, and it can be used with the Normalize and Fade functions for seamless edits.

Another major feature of the D1600 is the CD-R/RW drive bay. This can be used with the CDRW-2 option (sold separately) or with a general-purpose ATAPI CD-R/RW drive, enabling the creation of audio CDs without the need for external devices. The installed drive can also be used to backup data, restore data created on Korg's D1600, D16 or D8, or to play back audio CDs for recording into the system.

The mixer section of the D1600 is a 24 channel, eight bus system utilizing balanced preamps, allowing a variety of audio sources to be connected. 1/4" TRS jacks are provided (including a dedicated guitar input), as well as four XLR inputs featuring phantom power and quality mic preamps. Each of the analog inputs and mixer channels also contain a separate 3 band EQ with a sweepable mid frequency. These separate EQs for the mixer and input sections allow the user to bypass the effects during playback/mixdown. EQ settings, along with fader position and panning, can be stored into one of the 100 scene memories allowed per song.

The effects section of the D1600 allows up to eight insert effects to be used with either mono or stereo inputs/outputs, two types of master effects for the channel sends, and a final effect to be applied to the master out. 192 effects programs are provided (128 insert, 64 master/final) along with space for 192 user-defined programs. An external expression pedal such as the EXP-2, XVP-10 or other external MIDI controller can be used to control effects in realtime. Korg has also employed their exclusive REMS (Resonance structure and Electronic circuit Modeling System) for direct-line guitar/mic recording, accurately replicating a vast array of classic guitar amp/speaker sounds, as well as simulations of several high-end recording microphones.

Korg's D1600 also supports several digital I/O and synchronization options for flexibility in building larger recording systems. MMC (MIDI Machine Control) as well as MTC (MIDI Time Code) are both supported for connection with computer-based systems, or for linking two D1600's together for a 32-channel system. Using a MIDI patch bay, three recorders may be hooked together for a complete 48-track system.

Further digital I/O options include 24-bit S/PDIF optical I/O and a 50 pin SCSI-2 connector. The S/PDIF interface has a built-in sample rate converter and can automatically convert to and from 48 kHz or 32 kHz sources. The SCSI port can be used to connect up to seven external devices with a maximum of 1000 GB of storage each. The D1600 can import WAV files from CD or DOS format (FAT 16) media for pasting into tracks, and it can be used to export data directly to a computer-based sequencer or to distribute music via the internet.

The comfortable size and logical layout of the D1600's control surface make it easy to operate, and they are enhanced by Korg's acclaimed TouchView display system. The large 240 X 64 pixel backlit display provides clear access to all the setup and editing operations, and can display graphic waveform images for clean and precise editing. A four-direction cursor key is also included for selecting parameters and settings. Sixteen, 60-mm stroke faders are provided, along with a Pairing function which allows for two adjacent channels to be grouped as a stereo pair for eight mono + four stereo operation. Further punch in/out control can be accessed using the optional PS-1 foot controller. An auto-chromatic tuner is also included, as well as a metronome featuring 96 different sounds and a PCM drum machine with 215 rhythm patterns. Both Master and Monitor outputs are provided with 1/4" connectors, along with an Aux send.

The D1600 will begin shipping in early March with a list price of $2000.00