Fostex VF-16
The VF-16 is a 16-track hard-disk recorder and a 16-channel digital mixer in one self-contained desktop box. EQ (November 2000, p.20) gave it a First Look as a complete digital recording system. The magazine noted the 20-bit A/D conversion and a "direct" mode. Direct mode routes each input through its trim pot straight to a track, bypassing the mixer, so eight tracks can be recorded simultaneously.
Fostex's own advertising in the same magazine called the VF-16 the first completely digital 16-track recorder/mixer/editor to list under $1,400. The MSRP was $1,399. The spec sheet is a familiar one for the turn of the century: a 5.1 GB internal hard drive, 99 scene presets, three-band EQ with parametric mids and highs on all 16 channels plus the master, two independent digital multi-effects units, assignable compressors, eight virtual tracks for multiple takes, waveform editing, and jog-wheel navigation. The campaign also harkened back to the X-15 Multitracker, the analog-era Fostex that broke the $500 barrier, and cast the VF-16 as its digital successor (EQ, August 2000, p.109).
Documentation beyond those period pages is thin. No factory manual or service data has surfaced in the Archive. The UK edition of Sound on Sound (July 2001, p.289) showed the VF-16 with balanced and unbalanced inputs, distributed in Britain by SCV London. That and the EQ coverage are about all the record offers.
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