Fostex Announces FD-4 Digital Multitrack
 July 10, 1998Providing musicians everywhere with all the tools they need to create professional and totally uncompressed digital multitrack recordings at an unprecedented price, the Fostex Corporation of America is exhibiting its FD-4 professional digital multitracker at the 1998 Summer NAMM Convention in Nashville.
The world's first digital multitrack recorder to retail for under $600, the Fostex FD-4 provides all of the features usually associated with hard disk recorders, adding a variety of mixer functions and getting users as close to media independence as they can get anywhere.
"The FD-4 really makes digital hard disk recording available to any musician who wants it,"' says Derek Badala, Applications Engineer for Fostex. "In addition to the hard disk recording features, we've added some great mixer features like two XLR balanced inputs, insert points and a 3-point EQ with sweepable MIDs, all in an onboard analog mixer with a 105dB dynamic range."
Users of the Fostex FD-4 are able to select the type of recordable media they use and, in fact, many will already own their preferred choice of media. Equipped with a standard SCSI-11 port, the FD-4 allows users to select from a variety of recordable media, from removable systems such as Zip, ezflyer and Magneto Optical, to larger capacity SCSI hard drives. For a truly compact solution, Fostex offers an optional factory-installed internal 2.5" IDE hard drive. Unlike all mini disk systems, the Fostex FD-4 offers totally uncompressed audio.
Demonstrating the flexible capabilities of the FD-4, the Fostex multitracker provides four dedicated tracks and two virtual tracks, giving the product the ability to bounce back and forth between virtual and dedicated. Plus, as the FD-4 records in the digital domain, there is none of the generational loss found with products that record in the analog world.
"With the FD-4, you have the ability to fill up your four dedicated tracks, bounce those over to your virtual tracks, re-fill the dedicated tracks, and then do a mastering stereo mix of it all- all on the same machine. You simply can't find that in any other product at this price." explained Badala.
Other features of the FD-4 include cut/ copy/move /paste editing, non-linear memory, undo/redo, vari-pitch and onboard MMC/MTC/Midi Clock features. Its Graphical Preview function offers inuitive fine adjustment of edit points and the Jog/Shuttle wheel allows for the shuttling of audio or precise scrubbing of edit points.
Now available at a suggested retail price of $599.00, the Fostex FD-4 Multitracker performs professional 6-track recording (two tracks simultaneously) without data compression, with near total media independence, at an affordable, unprecedented price point.
Throughout its 16 years of existence, Fostex has provided the recording industry with a series of innovative products, being the latest. From its debut at the 1981 AES Convention with its pioneering A-8 open-reel eight-track recorder, to the revolutionary introduction of the X-15 four-channel Multitracker for home recording, through its newer hard disk recording and editing systems and the FD-4 digital multitracker, Fostex is perhaps the one company most responsible for the industry's continued expansion and the empowerment of musicians through affordable and powerful personal recording systems. For more information, visit their web site at www.fostex.com. | 
