Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I spent a few hours recording with this at home and then took it to the car, picked up some friends and let them hear it through the car stereo... they couldn't believe I did everything on this little black box!
It's a remarkable device that comes somewhere between a pocket mp3 recorder and full DAW setup...
CONSTRUCTION: Absolutely rock solid - top quality product. Made in Japan. Doesn't look or feel cheap.
SIZE: Nice size for it's purpose - not too big - not too small - just right for the desktop, couch or car! 5.25" x 2.75" x 1"
CONTROLS: Large, positive controls, all well laid out, easy and intuitive to use.
SCREEN: Adequate size (1.75" diagonal), clear and bright. It's actually a TOUCH screen - initially you probably won't use this feature much but I'm sure it'll become very useful once you are more familiar with the device.
BOOT UP: Not exactly spontaneous - It takes about 20 secs to boot-up - then it'll take a few more seconds for you to setup a "New" recording. You can either click through all the previous recordings till you get to the end of the list (takes too long) or you can simply hold down the STOP key and press RECORD. Now you've got a new empty "song" file ready to be recorded.
RECORDING: For recording freestyle, the built in mics are very, very good... they pickup everything crystal clear.
TEMPO: Set the tempo by just tapping the tempo key and the device responds by displaying and setting the BPM's accordingly.
DRUMS: Next, you can select a drum beat - there are 50 - but there's only one or two that I like (there's no way to program or create your own) - so I always use mainly the same drum sound as a metronome while I record bass guitar... Each drum preset can be varied a little during playback by touching the (Rhythm) screen giving 4 variations, fills, hi-hats, etc...
SOUND ON SOUND: Having chosen a drum beat, a good tempo and a bassline, I can now start adding additional sounds (overdubs) - even vocals - and move on with the creative process.
UNDO: Let's say the song is 5 minutes long and you are recording each track live... for the whole 5 minutes... there's times when you make a mistake so you STOP - press the UNDO button and delete the last take in it's entirety - then try again... This starts to take up a considerable amount of time... hours can disappear while you are playing with just ONE song.
EFFECTS: The effects are phenominal - you can use them on the input of the recording... and on the Master output. Each effect has several parameters - so again, you could be spending many hours messing around with different ideas for each part (overdub) that you record.
BATTERIES: Two AA Batteries seem to last a very long time. I see no need to buy a power adapter.
POCKETABLE? It's a little too big to carry around in your pocket 24/7 for spontaneous recordings... I found another recorder just right for that - the Olympus Digital Voice Recorder DM-420
DILEMMA: You will probably spend as much time recording with this device as you would sitting down and recording with a proper DAW... but the DAW results will obviously be far superior... so why not just sit down at your DAW and record? Why do it once on this SR1 - and then probably have do it all again on a proper DAW? (with better Mic Pre's, EQ's etc).
CONCLUSION: The SR1 is a poor man's recording studio - or a rich man's toy studio. No doubt some kid who couldn't afford anything else will make a hit record with the SR1.
I REALLY LOVE THE KORG SR1 - I JUST HAD TO HAVE IT!!!!!!!
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