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MICROBOARDS, HOEI PRECISION “StartREC 400”

Digital audio recorder

Editor and CD Duplicator

By the time I had listened to Tall Paul’s remix of Wilchild’s “Renegade master” (which romps in at 8min59sec) I had duplicated The Chemical Brothers “Surrender” (59min 00sec) four times.

The StartREC 400 is housed in delightful four unit rackmountable box, weighs a ton and is very easy to get to grips with. The operating manual gets you started in around ten minutes, then the finer editing operations are easily understood within the hour, so here is the deal;

The StartREC400 has four 8x write speed CD recorder drives and three copying speeds: 1X, 4X and 8X. So if you are setting up a short-run duplicating business, this machine (at full 8x speed) will churn out four copies of an audio CD in under nine minutes, which translates into 26 copies an hour and 266 copies in ten hours; if you work it all day we are talking about a quick return on the price tag, which is around £2,600.

More sensibly it provides the opportunity to re-master and re-compile all the old Masters of your demo’s, enabling the ‘sentimental’ to revive past glories, and the ‘worthy’ to kick start renewed interest in their old material.

Get connected

Plugging in a DAT machine, cassette or even a couple of decks couldn’t be easier. The rear panel analogue inputs are; balanced XLR’s and unbalanced RCA phono sockets, and for digital transfer there’s the AES/EBU socket, SPDIF and an optical SPDIF using the unfortunately named TOSLINK connector. Plug in the relevant DAT etc, turn on the StartREC, and in goes your data, the hard-drive recognises silences of varying degrees, so you can leave the indexing in most cases to the machine, or (as with most functions on the StartREC) automated or manual are choices.

Production made easy.

Once in the hard drive, converting 32/48kHz files to CD standard 44.1kHz is managed internally and automatically so that you can play the completed CD-R’s on a standard CD system. Re-arranging and moving tracks about, duplicating your favourite album (excluding the tracks which you always felt ruined a masterpiece!) making compilations, protecting, fixing and verifying masters, are all editing functions which become childs-play with the StartREC 400 (as do the obligatory fade in fade out, combine, divide, indexing and sub-index editing functions, giving it the StartREC400 that ‘pro’ status).

In fact, the machine got better and better the more I used it, every new function was a joy to put into operation, and simple to execute thanks to the logical layout of menus and the friendliness of the manual.

The StartREC has a lovely professional feel to it, this kind of duplicating and recording facility used to be somebody else’s job! CD writers have been around for a while, but this kind of quality and speed with the multi drives all in one box, coupled with effortless operation makes the StartREC 400 a very desirable piece of equipment indeed.

Vital statistics

The hard drive holds 6.4GB of audio, divided into three 2GB ’blocks’ which translates into three 120minute ‘blocks’ of audio. Once the hard-drive contains your data, sound, old masters, live session or whatever, there are plenty of things you can do.

Primarily a duplicating device, copies can be made directly on to up to four CD-R’s, recorded ‘out’ onto another format (such as DAT or mini-disc) and also play-back all blocks simultaneously for live concerts, decks ‘n’ FX, radio shows, gigs and any other live thing you do.

Updates, formats and drawbacks.

The edit “window “ is easy on the eye and the switches, which are light to the touch, give a reassuring beep so you know where you are, however I would like to link it up to a computer, as with programs like MESA for the Akai sampler, where all the unit control and edit functions are done on the monitor, mouse and keyboard as opposed to the 1.5cm x 6cm LCD screen, this doesn’t seem to be a possibility for the StartREC 400.

The unit is up datable by CD’s which are easily loaded into the reader drive, instantly giving your machine a more current operating system, further edit functions and faster drive speeds, available as and when the mad inventors come up with them. This is a plus when shelling out for any bit of kit; knowing that it won’t be obsolete by the following month! The StartREC 400 when duplicating Data, supports, Windows, MAC and Multi-session disc formats (involving a physical close after piling program after program on to disc!) When duplicating audio; Redbook, CD extra or “Bluebook” and CD+G are the supported formats.

CD Factory.

What you really need to know however, is that the StartREC 400 is all you need to become a CD factory! Every blip, every mix, every late night conversation and every burst of song can be instantly ingrained on a top quality CD and quickly distributed. Self promotion with good CD’s to get gigs or keep the band informed of progress, and if your already selling your own material or mixes out of a car boot, DJ booth or website, the production can be maximised whilst the effort minimised! CDR’s are now cheaper than cassettes too.

Get together with people and buy one between you , your posse, your collective needs a StartREC 400!

The ‘audio verify’ capabilities set this machine apart, giving the user a top quality recording facility: for example, if you are simply copying an audio CD (for back up purposes) the verify function will compare the original and the duplicate to ensure you have an accurate and bit for bit perfect copy, no other machine does this for audio. Of course when recording someone else’s material or indeed your own, in order to respect copyright laws, the SCMS (serial code management system) function can be set to either to prohibit, which protects from further copies being made of your copy, or free which allows the possibility of more copies being made, by unscrupulous duplicators who might take time off from churning out Fat Boy Slim bootlegs with faded covers, to pirate your life’s work!

So there it is, the StartREC 400 in its lovely box, all in all a beneficial addition to anybody’s studio, or simply as a standalone unit for all your duplicating needs.

PRO’S:

CON’S:

PRICE: StartREC available with 2,3,or 4 drives prices range from £2,100 - £2,600.

Further information, pricing and technical details contact:

Microboards Technologies Ltd.

The Mansley Centre

Timothy’s Bridge Road

Stratford Upon Avon

Warwickshire

CV37 9NQ

UK

Tel: (0) 1789 415898/415848

Fax: (0) 1789 415575

Rick Lomas and Peter Blackett 1st September 2000