Akai DPS24 Digital Multi Track

Akai DPS24 Digital Multi Track
With its generous complement of dedicated keys and rotary encoders, changes are only an arm's length away. Hit the Q-STRIP keys and use the 12 encoders to adjust pan or effects sends, hit the Q-CHANNEL key and use the 12 encoders to adjust a channel's entire parameter set, hit the FX key and use the 6 Q-LINK encoders to adjust effects settings. Never before has such a tactile user interface been offered on a digital personal studio. Add to this a chunky set of transport keys, a dedicated multi-track jog wheel for 'reel-rocking' and you begin to get the feeling that it's you that's in charge, not the machine.

24-tracks of uncompressed 16/20/24-bit recording and playback at 44.1/48/96kHz for absolute audio quality and a 44-channel automated digital mixer with professional, long throw (100mm) touch sensitive motorised faders. The multi-function rotary encoders above the faders have a collar of LEDs around them so that you can see at a glance what their values are while the large LCD gives precise feedback about how your track is shaping up with a graphic representation of audio cues on a scrolling track sheet. Detailed audio editing with waveform display and 256 levels of undo/redo offers copy, cut, paste, insert, move, etc., to perfect your recordings while the DSP functions include stereo timestretch, pitch shift, BPM match and others. Move around your masterpiece with ease using the DPS24's advanced autolocator that provides up to 100 nameable locate positions per project or fast forward/rewind with 'tape chatter' for a familiar tape-like response.

Things like MAIN, NEARFIELD and MONO monitoring switchable from the front panel for reference checking a mix, a 2-channel talkback system with a built-in console mic, four configurable mono or stereo effects/aux sends that can either feed the internal 4-channel effects processor or external outboard effects (or, indeed, any combination), balanced XLRs and balanced TRS jacks on all inputs that allow 24 sound sources to remain connected to the DPS24 without re-patching, balanced insert points that also double as direct ADC inputs for use with external pre-amps of your preference, a stereo auxilliary input for use with sub-mixers and more.

Features: 24-track digital recording with CD burner. 16/20/24bit uncompressed recording. 32/44.1/48/88.2/96kHz sampling rates. 44-channel, 20 bus digital mixer with 8 subgroups and 4 stereo effects returns. 100mm motorized Q-Touch™ touch-sensitive faders controlling 5 fader banks. Built-in dynamic and scene automation. Q-Link™ Navigation. Q-Channel™ multi-function channel strip. USB port for ak.Sys. Control & Networking Software with TrackView display. 8 channel digital I/O plus 16 channel expansion option with ADAT™ sync. Footswitch port supports ADAT™ LRC remote. Built-in 5.25 drive bay with CDR support. 60 GB internal IDE HD. Timestretch, Pitch Shift, and BPM matching, Reverse and Normalize. 28 analog inputs (12 x XLR combo). Dynamics processor for each mixer channel including L/R master. Balanced inserts on inputs 1-4 allow direct ADC connection for external Mic Preamps. Talkback mic enables uninterrupted headphone / studio monitoring. ASCII keyboard input for track / project naming. 5.1 Surround Mixing. High impedance guitar input on front panel. Stereo TrackView in edit mode plus channel linking. Wordclock standard. Supports MIDI clock, MTC and with optional SMPTE LTC. 56 bit / 4 bus effects processor with real time vocal pitch corrector. Effects library stores custom effects parameters for instant recall. 3 expansion slots.

There is no specification information available for this product.

REVIEW SNAPSHOT®

by PowerReviews

AkaiDPS24 Digital Multi Track

5.0

(based on 1 review)

Reviewed by 1 customer

Displaying review 1

4/16/2002

5.0

excellent pro-quality recorder/workstation

By John Havlicek

from Undisclosed

Comments about Akai DPS24 Digital Multi Track:

"Akai DPS24 : Right out of the box, this thing screams quality. Everything is seemingly �military spec�, and while some might equivocate with the bright silver metallic faders (more on that later)�there is an air of solidity through and through. My unit came with OS 1.1 so an almost effortless OS upgrade was the first order of business�it just doesn�t get much easier. Download the OS, burn the CD, plop it in the DPS and a few screen prompts/keystrokes is all it takes. Input wise, there is plenty of flexibility. There are 24 analog ins, arranged in two selectable banks of 12. The top 12 are combination xlr/�� jacks, the bottom 12 are �� TRS. There are also s/pdif and multipurpose light pipe I/O (ADAT) as well as balanced inserts on the first four�allowing direct input of say, an external preamp and thus bypassing the onboard mic pres (a nice touch, even though the onboard pres are very good compared to the norm for such a package). The rest of the rear panel has a full complement of connectors. There�s a word clock I/O, 4 aux sends, midi I/O/T, a usb port for the soon-to-be-released OS that includes enhanced track view/metering on a host PC running ak.sys software (the big one with VST plugin support is also coming!). There�s also a keyboard input should you decide to go that route for naming (just about anything in there). There�s a balanced stereo aux in that�s freely patchable (as most everything else is also) as well as a 2-track in for bringing a mix in from another source (mastering deck?)�whatever you choose and it�s switch able from the front panel. There are also several expansion slots (one of which will take the coming firewire card for hosting system effects expansion (VST) on a pc/mac�which will be a boon since users will be able to expand their effects with many affordable (or not so affordable) plugs. Finally a footswitch connector�for hands free dropin/out of record. Enough of the dry connector-talk. The first thing the user will notice is the solid-smooth feel of all the controls. The rotary encoders above the channel faders have a very bright ring of leds indicating their current value that users in a dim environment will especially find useful. The faders are motorized AND touch sensitive 100mm long-throw beauties. They become active as soon as they are touched, so when doing automation runs�the user doesn�t have to wonder if small moves were recorded (by the way�when doing so, you just grab a fader and go�the previous data is automatically overwritten and that�s it). Besides the usual trim, phantom power, and assign switches (everything is pretty much patchable to anywhere, and the default patch scheme actually is really a great place to start). There is a �Q-channel� which is basically a full set of real knobs, assignable to any input channel so you can just grab a knob instead of scrolling through screen pages and clicking. There is also a �Q strip� which dedicates the rotary encoders to a particular function across the board and �Q knobs� next to the wonderful LCD screen that vary their associated function depending on the screen you call up. Heck, a lot of the time you don�t even have to look at the LCD to do your work. When you do, the thing is a bright crisp and clear, tiltable beauty. It�s obvious that the screen was not included as an afterthought (as it seems in other units)�anticipating that the user will just buy a monitor. Here, with the Q knobs�the screen is an integral part of the user interface, providing seemingly always the right information (and clearly) for whatever the task at hand is. The system comes with four effects processors (56 bit) that provide the usual array of reverbs and delays and chorus/flangers as well as some less usual ones�along with a rotary simulator and a pitch corrector. Also, a really quite useable multilane limiter/compressor is available for giving your mixes that polished, punchy sound. Mastering is done onboard via the included CDR/RW with all the tools you need for disc at once, dithering etc. As for sound, the thing just sounds great, if you can say a recorder �sounds� great. There is no data compression or even any type of proprietary encoding going on here and it sounds as you would expect. The unit supports 24 bit recording all the way to 96khz (at 12 tracks) and at up to 48khz for the full 25 tracks. Patching and automation are comprehensive and wonderfully simple, actually�the whole unit is surprisingly simple for such a deep piece. I was able to get pretty far without opening the manual, and I�m no bigtime engineer. As if all this weren�t enough, Akai has been absolutely wonderful as far as support is concerned. The few questions I had were answered promptly and clearly and OS upgrades have been coming at a pretty steady rate of about 1/month so far. They have thus far lived up to every one of their claims for OS/system expansion (and in some regards surpassed them). The (very) "

Displaying review 1

Akai DPS24 Digital Multi Track