New MRS-1608 and MRS-1608CD Digital Recorders from Zoom

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New at NAMM, Zoom's MRS-1608 is a 16 track digital audio workstation that records to a 40 GB internal hard drive, and features the power of seamless digital editing and Zoom's signal processing, while offering programmable drum and bass sections with a complete bank of touch-sensitive pads.

The 1608 has 16 physical tracks, each with 10 virtual tracks. The new machine also has 8 XLR/phone combination input jacks, with four of them being able to provide phantom power for condenser microphones, with the capability of recording up to eight simultaneous tracks at once, that's two tracks more then the latest 1266, as well as having the ability to insert compression and EQ on all eight of those input channels.

Like all Zoom multi-tracks you get the drum and bass sections with 12 touch sensitive and backlighted playable pads. The 1608 now includes a sampler function that allows you to assign part of V-takes or WAV/AIFF flies to those drum pads. With over 100 different drum and bass sounds, the 1608 has 40 real sampled drum kits as well as 20 real sampled bass sounds, giving you real drum and bass recordings that you can program into your project, with 500 user programmable patterns available per song.

Pre-recorded drum beats and samples phrases can also be imported using the CD-R/RW drive. Up to 100 samples can be stored per project, and by cutting and pasting, loops can be created and dropped in and out or songs quickly and easily. Like the other MRS Series recorders, the 1608 has literally hundreds of customizable digital effects for mics and instruments, as well as Zoom's VAMS (Variable Architecture Modeling System) guitar amp modeling. With the 1608 you are now able to use up to seven simultaneous effects.

The 1608 has adjustable EQ and pan controls for each channel, as well as adjustable 24-bit mastering effects such as Reverb, Chorus, Modulation, Delay and Compression. Of course the MRS-1608CD model has an integrated CR-R/RW drive, so you can mix and master your project right down to CD without the use of external hardware.

The new MRS-1608 will have a list price of $1749.99, and the MRS-1608CD will have a list price of $2099.99

For more information, visit their web site at www.samsontech.com and www.zoom.co.jp.