Talk:Hard disk recorder

Flash Memory recorder
Could use a new topic ... any volunteers ?

Include Yepp, iRiver, iPod, Marantz PMD-660, Zoom H4 Handy Recorder, Zoom H2 Handy Recorder, Creative ZEN, e.Digital Corporation, HHB FlashMic ?

Link field recording.

--195.137.93.171 (talk) 09:55, 8 March 2011 (UTC)


 * We seem to have three articles covering this topic area: Digital recording, Hard disk recorder and Digital audio workstation. I have no immediate objection to someone starting a new article to cover flash-based devices but eventually we'll want at look at improving organization and potential consolidation. ~Kvng (talk) 15:37, 6 November 2017 (UTC)

Unsourced, Out of Context, and Just Plain Wrong
What is it about human nature that prevents people from uttering the word "Synclavier" without putting the word "Fairlight" in the same sentence? Anything that the Synclavier did and the Fairlight didn't do is always nonsensically attributed to the "Fairlight and Synclavier".

I'm late to the party here, I've been prosecuting this matter over on the DAW, Neve, AMS, and AMS Neve articles for years, and only just now noticed that there is a "Hard disk recorder" (Sic, don't titles have capitals?) article in addition to the DAW article.

This was stated so succinctly (by me) on the DAW page that I'll just paste it in here:

Some idiot has added more unsourced idiotic statements to this article, and this time top and center as the opening line:

Originated in the early 1980s, the term digital audio workstation (DAW) originally referred to a tape-less, computer-based system such as New England Digital's Synclavier and Fairlight that used hard drives for media storage.

No, let's review. The first system Fairlight Instruments put together but never really sold (Quasar) didn't have a hard drive. The second system (CMI Series I) didn't have a hard drive. The third system (CMI Series II) didn't have a hard drive. The fourth system (CMI Series IIx), manufactured through the end of 1985 didn't have a hard drive. The fifth system (CMI Series III) did have a hard drive, but still wasn't a disk recorder. The original 1985 brochures made no mention of disk recording (because their competitors were doing it and they weren't), and the 1986 brochure only said "...disk recording*...*Due mid 1987" Sure, they released some beta disk recording software and several pages of excuses ("instructions") about why it only did one track without editing or reference to anything such as time code and they laid off the latency on the ESDI drives of that era, but the company closed down, bankrupted, and was liquidated in 1988/1989 without ever coming out with a meaningful hard disk recorder. At least three other companies had hardware-based hard disk recorders by that time.

All this makes it laughable to attribute any part of "early 1980s" hard disk recording to Fairlight.

Back to this "Hard disk recorder" page, the History section makes this statement:

"During the 1980s and 90s, companies like New England Digital and Fairlight began to include hard disk recording capabilities in their high-end systems."

That is just a poorly written sentence. It refers to a twenty year time period, and no one ever "began to" do anything over twenty years. New England Digital didn't "began to include hard disk recording capabilities in their high-end systems" "During the 1980s and 90s", they INVENTED it and were shipping hard disk recording systems worldwide (with sample rate conversion, digital filters, etc., far more than just disk recording and playback) in very early 1982, and they went completely out of business in 1992 after having shipped hard disk recording systems for more than ten years! They didn't do much of anything in 7 of the 10 years of the 90s because they were dead and gone.

Therefore, "During the 1980s and 90s, companies like New England Digital and Fairlight began to include hard disk recording capabilities in their high-end systems." makes no sense.

It also says that Fairlight had a 24-track hard disk recorder in 1991. That is a flat lie, neither the hardware or the software for the system mentioned even EXISTED in 1991, and NO ONE had a 24-track hard disk recorder in 1991. In 1991, New England Digital still had a 16-track 100kHz system, just as they had for six years.

The umbilical cord between Fairlight and Synclavier needs to be cut because it doesn't exist.

All these statements are completely unsourced as well, being bolstered only by a fake source.--208.127.100.230 (talk) 09:37, 5 April 2011 (UTC)


 * I have removed the disputed 1991 Fairlight recorder claim. The other issues already seem to have been addressed. ~Kvng (talk) 15:47, 6 November 2017 (UTC)

Merge Direct-to-disk recording
I propose to merge Direct-to-disk recording here. I think Digital audio workstation should cover the specific audio application of this technology and we can continue to cover the general technology here. ~Kvng (talk) 15:25, 29 July 2016 (UTC)
 * ✅ 27 July 2017‎ ~Kvng (talk) 15:29, 6 November 2017 (UTC)