Fostex PD606 First Impression
- From: AC <midasls@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:14:31 -0800 (PST)
Hi All,
Just received my PD606 this morning, and here are my thoughts after
first 10 hours with the machine. I hope as we go along, more PD606
users will chime in.
Outlook
On the first look, the chassis material seems the same to me, but the
fader, trim, and button material are not as good as the PD6. PD606
feel more plastic then the PD6. I sort of like the PD6 button more, it
feels like you are depressing on a button. PD606's knobs and buttons
have this "Nokia made in China" feel. There is a front panel plastic
cover that are secure by screws to cover the mixer front panel to
prevent bumps onto the meters,knobs and buttons, i think. Good news
for PD6 owner, you can keep your portabrace.
Metering & LCD
The leds are very bright, I did my first test recording with my PD606
in the car and exterior(Bright sunlight). No trouble viewing outdoor.
Although the metering scale and size are sort of stingy, tiny in IMHO.
I get used to it after awhile, it will be nice if Fostex can let the
users have a choice of having the meter on the LCD display, just the
stereo mix meter will do, maybe under some menu setting to turn the
function on, that will be nice. The LCD are very viewable in bright
sunlight, even with backlit on. I have this habit of turning on the
backlit of the LCD thru out.
Battery & Power Management
2 x 90Wh V-Batt were use thru out the 10hrs of testing, and the 2nd
battery still not flat yet. The switch to 2nd bat were seamless . I'm
using 3rd party batteries, so maybe thats why some status of the power
management are not showing up. I only manage to see the Voltage, not
the time left and amperage. I suspect maybe using the IDX batt will
have all these status reflected. I still have another 2 x 160Wh
batteries with me......that leads me thinking how long will these 2
beast last on the PD606, 14 hrs or more??
Battery eject button are hard to reach, especially on the 2nd batt
where the Eject button is on the underside, using IDX batt will solve
the problem since the battery itself have a eject mechanism build in.
Keeping the battery attach, will keep the TC, with the LCD glowing.
Plug it out and you will lost your code.
And can I also say that the 606 generate 50% lesser heat compare to
the PD6.
Input and Output
By now everyone here would have known what are the common I/O found on
the 606, nothing new except 7/8 (2 mix) are on the the AES input. I'm
accessing the 2 digital input thru the APOGEE MINI ME feeding from my
AD147. 5 pin out for balance camera send or it can be use for my AD147
mixer return for the 2 mix. Although one will suspect there is really
enough space for a camera return feed, why Fostex did not put it in.
Tri-level sync for the Denecke and Ambiente boxes. Word clock and
video are the norm. TC in out on XLR. 4 pin power and only 1 hirose DC
out.
Build-in Super Drive
Nothing new to all the Deva, Cantar users, its makes a soft swirl
sound when writing. 5 x write to ram and 8 x write to DVD-R. Do not
try to eject the disk like as if its on our PC or Mac, press the
"STOP" button first or the disk will not "EJECT"
Pre Amp
The 606 have hot hot pre amp, Japan might be offering a mod soon.
Plugging in a CS3e, with the trim at minimum (-34), with channel fader
at number 7 (Fostex detent center), I'm already getting pretty good
gain. This might be a something that will change down the road or in
the next production/shipment. Its not affecting me in the mean time.
Rick Cannata told me it was only affecting certain mics, impedance
matching or mismatch? I will try with AKG 460/CK68, Schoeps CMC5/MK41
and other mics at a later date.
Line level in from my Lectro Venue@0dbu are clean.
Mixer Function
Almost all the functions are at the front, limiter, phase, pan, pfl,
link, trim and fader. With certain functions needing the "SHIFT"
button to be on. Fader knobs are small, I wonder how many mixers will
like mixing on these knobs. Linking all the channel is possible and
the menu dial act as a master gain knob. I have a holophone gig next
month and this comes in handy.
Input select, mic powering, variable roll off and slope are on the top
panel.
Limiter
The limiters are smooth, setting the threshold@-6db with a ratio of
1:3 on all channels and also the ST master. Shouting into my CS3e and
tested these limiters. It kicks in nicely and smoothly. I like it.
Track Arming
This is the fun part and i think the biggest real improvment so far,
no hard patching no routing. Just arm whatever track you wanna record.
All channel will pass thru signal (armed or unarmed) to my AD147 for
my mono mix.
Number of tracks arm is equal to number of tracks in a single poly
file. Arm 3 tracks you get 3 tracks poly file, so on and so forth. I'm
loving this more and more.
Arming and recording the ST bus will push Track1-6 back, meaning track
7/8 will be 1/2 in the poly file.
DDR and backing up
Did not try any DD recording as I do not have any Ram disk with me,
writing to DVD-R are only for "FILE COPY". "DISK COPY" needs a DVD-
Ram. 300meg of audio in 3 mins on a 16x Imation DVD-R, its the
finalizing of the disk that takes a longer time.
Backing up to external medium are not implemented yet. I was told at a
later date. I'm cool with DVD-R so far.
Mounting the HD
Mounting the HD on my XP laptop is a breeze, the partitions mounted as
a DVD with reel number on my laptop. Drag and drop operation are
smooth. Finally...............
Not Implemented
9 pin ESbuss, backing up to external medium thru USB and maybe
more....who knows?
All in all, I'm very happy with the PD606 so far. Although, "you have
some you lose some". Will do further testing, after i finish my
patching work of my sound cart. Will also import the files into
FCP6.0.2 and Protools to review it. Well done Fostex !! Thank you so
much to Rick Cannata from Fostex and Jim Guzzi from Gotham Sound.
Alan Chong
.
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