Price paid: £ 150
Purchased from: eBay
Features: As you would expect, Yamaha have included what seems to be a huge amount of options for adding effects and EQ to your recorded product. With 16 tracks (each with 8 virtual tracks) it provides more than enough capability for most home recording projects and the ability to record 8 tracks simultaneously to it's 20GB hard drive (enough for around 60 hours of music) means you could even use it for recording a live band performance either during a rehearsal or at a gig. The LCD screen is a good size and all the controls are logically placed.
Another useful function is the Quick Loop Sampler, providing 4 tracks of stereo playback which can be used as an easy way to play around with new ideas as well as being a way to add these ideas as samples to whatever song you may be recording.
At the end of the day it was the budget model, so although the official description claims a large variety of features comparable with more expensive equipment that would indicate a good score in this area, once you start reading between the lines you realise that in order to keep the price down all those functions are very limited. // 6
Sound: Although I have my complaints about the lack of editing options available when using the predefined effects and equalisation, they actually provide a good way of quickly creating a useable version of whatever you're recording. The actual quality of sound is quite good and although I didn't create a final master version of anything I recorded using the AW16G, I have used the tracks recorded on it elsewhere without needing to add anything other than the preset effects that were added during the recording process. As the recorded tracks were of acceptable quality in their own right, I'm sure that if you were to delve deeply into the complex editing functions you could use the AW16G to create high quality mixes, unfortunately there are far easier ways to match the quality so no matter how good it could sound, most people will have given up long before they achieve the unit's potential.
Build Quality / Reliability:
This is definitely the strongest area for the AW16G. I presume Yamaha decided they'd better make it pretty strong as they knew people who bought it were likely to throw it against the wall to relieve their frustration. Unlike most of the competition, this is made of metal and not plastic. The one I had was almost 10 years old when I got it and had obviously been fairly well abused, there were all sorts of dents and scrapes on it, but almost everything still worked perfectly. The only part to be a bit dodgy was a couple of buttons that had presumeably taken a direct hit from whatever landed on them and fallen into the unit, but you can't blame Yamaha for that and they still worked if you were careful. 9 for Build Quality / Reliability. // 6
Ease of use: When you get started, the AW16G is easy to use. You simply plug in, select which input you're using, what track you want to record to and what instrument you're recording and you're ready to go.
However, although Yamaha squeezed a seemingly impressive amount of features into the AW16G, something had to give for them to stick within the budget. When you start trying to fine tune your recording, you quickly realise that this is where the money was saved. Editing options within the presets are very limited and if you followed the manual and utilised the pre-defined EQ or effect settings you're stuck with them. Once there, they can't be changed and anything you do after recording will be placed on top of the presets which you've already used, leaving you with little choice but to erase the track and start again from scratch. Even then, trying to find your way around the menus to fully utilise the effects isn't easy and the manual doesn't really help much, merely directing you to the preset options.
The same goes when creating your final master version. If you're happy with the presets it's relatively straightforward, although still not as straightforward as other multitrackers I've used. As soon as you start looking for something more, the AW16G's shortcomings rapidly become apparent and just like with recording individual tracks, the manual isn't helpful and merely directs you towards the presets. // 4
Impression: When you look at it, you get the impression that the AW16G could have been one of the best multitrackers on the market when it was released. As soon as you start using it in anger, you quickly realise that this impression was somewhat false. The AW16G comes across as being a token effort to attempt to compete with other lower priced 16 tracks, but aside from the number of tracks available it offers very few advantages over an 8 track which would cost half the price and be much more useable.
As a basic musical notepad for your ideas, this is a great piece of kit. Unfortunately when you try really using it as a home recording studio, it very quickly becomes frustrating. I'm a very patient person and have a lot of experience with multitrackers, but even so, after spending a couple of months trying to get to grips with the AW16G I gave up and decided to get something different.
Having said that, as these are now very cheap on the used market they could be an OK purchase for someone who wants a basic tool to aid their songwriting as the pre-defined settings provide a useable sound with virtually no input from the user. Unfortunately, once you've outgrown the presets and want to start creating your own sound, you'll need to look elsewhere. That's what happened to me, and I expect it would happen to most other people too. // 4
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