I had the AW-16G at first and was very impressed with the quality. Five years later, the AW1600 comes out and I had to have it. What a machine! I use it to record my music and it's packed with excellent features and quality that can't be beat for it's price range. Clean recording and most of all dependable. A year and a half later, I'm still impressed. I used this machine to produce a cd with awesome results. The features are too numerous to mention, but I've done some studio recording that didn't come out as good as what this baby can do. I've linked the AW-16G and the AW1600 together-but that's a whole other story...

I've owned this unit for about two years, and most of the other reviews have done a superior job of describing the units abilities. I would like to point out that there is a fairly high learning curve with this unit, but it's certainly worth it. This unit is incredibly reliable, and I've been producing full blown radio jingles with it, and the sound is quite good. I would venture to say you could actually record an album with it.

The Yamaha AW1600 is a thoroughly professional digital multitracker. I've owned mine over a year now and have had zero problems with it. No lock ups, no break downs, nothing. Trying saying that, Pro Tools users. The sound quality is amazing. The effects are of the SPX quality. Having a dedicated compressors and EQ on each input and track is unheard of in other machines in this price range. I've rarely had to break open the manual as this unit is very user-friendly. My only quibble is that it claims to be a 16-track, but if you count how many SOURCES you can record, it's really only a 12-track. Count the faders. I wish Yamaha would maker a version of this machine with mastering effects, such as multiband compressors, gates, limiters.

I've owned this machine for three years now and I've never hit a snag with it. Simply the best recorder in it's price range. The manual is well written but this thing is packed with so many features that you'd have to be a professional engineer to use and take advantage of all it's features. The reason that others find fault with this machine is simply that they don't understand it. The noise on the preamps may be an actual problem but nothing that a cheap mixer wouldn't solve. The features are so complete that you may have to take a course on the art of recording to understand them but that's not Yamaha's fault. They simply made an incredibly professional machine. That's why it's title says "professional recording workstation". So..... if you're willing to put the time into learning to record and don't expect a recording that's a pop-up miracle, this machine is a bargain on wheels. You can't go wrong with it unless you want a 128 track Neeve board. The 4 paired stereo tracks do,in fact, make this a full 16 track recorder as anybody who knows can tell you that almost everyone used two paired tracks to make a true stereo image. I find myself pairing almost ALL of the tracks anyway. Maybe you'd want to add drum or special effects on a single track but pairing them makes for a better stereo recording. The difference between 16 and 24 bit recording isn't extreme enough not to use it in 16 bit mode. Naturally, if you're making megabucks (the fortunate few) with your music, you'd want something bigger and better, but for the home recordist or project studio buff who simply loves music, this is a FANTYASTIC investment.

Very pleased with this. Started out with the lexicon omega for around 300 dollars and it was a nightmare. Pay the extra cash and go big...you won't regret it. This thing is loaded with features. Doesn't have ALOT (but still quite a few)effects or drum samples but if your using your own amp for guitar and your own drummer that point is moot. It also does really good punchins for audio edit almost seemless. The preamps do get a bit noisey if pushed hard like was mentioned but I can still live with them. Buy some external ones and you have the ultimate home recorder