RENEGADE rockers have never had it so good. While the global recording industry continues to crumble under the weight of its own greed-driven excesses, independent musicians spurned by profit-hungry mainstream labels now have the attractive alternative of recording their music at home and releasing it without having to pawn their instruments or sell their souls.
Who do they have to thank for this DIY option?
The R&D engineers of major electronic instrument firms who've been tirelessly tinkering with technology to encase the power of a normal-sized recording studio in a machine as compact as a laptop, like Korg's D1200 Digital Recording Studio.
A recent arrival in a market that's getting more and more crowded, this fabulous studio-in-a-box lets you record, mix and burn your own CD practically anywhere you can find a power source.
The D1200 is basically an updated version of the D12, one of the world's first self-contained small wonders to offer uncompressed 16-bit/12-track or 24-bit/six-track recording. It may have been retooled to appeal to guitarist and songwriters, but it's powerful enough to let you record and store a couple of albums once you've figured out how to maximise its phenomenal potential.
Power to the people
The D1200 is slightly larger than the D12 and has undergone a design revamp, though many of the features from the old machine are retained.
Where the D12 had its input/output section on the front panel, the D1200's I/O connections (two XLR and four 1/4" line inputs, and Aux Out, footswitch and expression pedal outputs) are found at the top on the left. And the XLR inputs now come with individual phantom power, while the preamps for the analogue inputs are balanced.
There's a dedicated guitar input, a headphone output with volume control and an internal 8x CD-RW drive on the front panel.
The rear panel has a pair of S/PDIF I/O sockets (32kHz and 48kHz data is automatically converted to 44.1kHz), MIDI in and out, RCA master and monitor outs, a USB connector, a tiny monitor level control and phantom power switches.
MIDI functions encompass mixer control, effects control, MMC/MTC transmission and reception, and MIDI Clock transmission.
The 16-channel, four buss digital mixer section offers three-band input/playback EQ for every channel strip (high and low shelving EQ, and a mid-range peaking EQ with adjustable center frequency). The fader, EQ, pan and effect settings can be stored in 100 mixer scene memories per song.
There's a master fader and nine 45mm channel faders -- six for the mono tracks and three for the stereo ones which cannot be separated for mono function.
The recorder offers the option of laying down up to four tracks simultaneously in 16- or 24-bit at 44.1kHz and can play back all 12 tracks (six in 24-bit) at once. Each track also provides eight virtual tracks, and up to 96 virtual tracks are available for every song.
On the right of the top panel is a backlit 240 x 64 pixel blue LCD display that's smaller than the D12's but now offers the convenience of angle adjustment.
Directly below are three modelling knobs that control the REMS effects strip. When activated, the modelling section (special icons provide visual cues on the LCD) automatically gives you direct control over guitar, bass and microphone REMS parameters. It will also set up the first two tracks for recording.
Up to eight effects, which utilise super-clean 44-bit internal processing, can be assigned to individual channels at a time, along with two master effects and one final effect.
With a total of 192 presets (128 insert, 32 master and 32 final effects) featuring everything from a multitude of reverb selections to compression effects, you don't have to worry about getting outboard processors for your final mixes. And there's a built-in auto chromatic tuner as well, in case you need to keep a wayward guitar or bass in perfect pitch.
Like the D12, the D1200 features 96 metronome and 215 non-editable PCM-generated rhythm patterns (everything from rock, pop, hip-hop and funk to jazz, samba and bossa nova).
The editing section features buttons that allow you to perform an array of tasks, including copying, deleting, inserting, normalising, fading, auto punch, trigger, time compression/expansion and location storage.
There're also the standard Play, Rec, Stop, FF and REW buttons, and a task-easing jog dial.
The 48GB hard drive offers a total 122 hours of recording time at 16-bit on a single track. The USB drive, which runs on Windows 2000/XP (a special download is required for Windows 98) or Mac OS 9.0.4 or later, takes up 2GB of space and allows direct connection to a PC for saving/restoring song data, and importing/exporting .WAV files.
The CD-RW drive is capable of burning finished songs in both "Track At Once" and "Disc At Once" modes, backing up/restoring song data, and importing/exporting .WAV files. You can also make copies of you favourite CDs.
The A/D conversion (64x oversampling) and D/A conversion (128x oversampling) have been upgraded to 24-bit from the D12's 20-bit. Frequency response is specified at 10Hz to 20Khz.
The unit is powered by an external AC/DC pack that, unlike that of the D12, doesn't come with an on/off switch.
Loads of power you can use
The control surface of the D1200 is so neatly laid out that most home-recording buffs wouldn't even need to refer to the 160-page manual to get started.
It's just a matter of connecting a microphone or an instrument, setting the trim, fader and master levels, and hitting the 'Record' button.
Only once you've filled up all the tracks (six in 24-bit and 12 in 16-bit) do things start getting trickier. But the generously-illustrated manual does a fairly good job of guiding you step by step through the various editing functions.
Having logged hundreds of hours on Korg's D1600 (a 16-track version of the the D1200) and D12, it was a cinch for me to put the D1200 through its paces during some location recording projects.
The robustly-built machine's manageable size means you can stuff it in one of the bigger laptop bags or a medium-sized backpack and take it anywhere without suffering from severe muscle ache.
And the onboard CD-RW drive lets you burn roughly mixed stereo copies of whatever you've recorded on the spot.
The non-destructive editing features are easy to access and allow you to perform some really cool tasks -- everything from swapping or reversing tracks to organising imported .WAV data.
Mixing and bouncing on the D1200 are also fairly straightforward operations that don't require constant manual dips, though a bit of ear-training would be useful if you want to achieve pristine mixes.
The extensive menu of high-grade effects, 11 of which are available at a time, lets you add a final polish to your finished mixes before your commit your masterpieces to CD. And if you need rhythm guides for song sketches, just dial through the 215 rhythm patterns and choose an appropriate beat.
The audio quality, both in 16-bit and 24-bit, may not be mind-blowing, but depending on the kinds of microphones and external pre-amps you use, the results can be exceptional.
Of course, 24-bit offers more headroom, definition and clarity but cuts down memory by half. But you don't have to worry too much about that as the 40GB hard drive (machines in this price range from Akai, Fostex, Roland and Zoom come with drives with capacities of only 20GB or less) gives you enough room to store a whole album's worth of songs even at that higher rate.
The three fixed stereo-paired tracks (7/8, 9/10, 11/12) may be a bummer, but there's a way of getting around