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You can switch from recording on tracks 1-8 to 9-16 at the touch of a button.

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With the R16, Zoom is offering a modern alternative to the classic hardware multi-tracker, using an SD card for storage rather than the built-in hard drive we'd have seen in similar products a few years ago.

As we saw with the launch of Cakewalk's Sonar V-Studio 100 last year, manufacturers are now looking to add value to the basic recording unit, and Zoom has followed suit by designing the R16 to double up as a USB audio interface and control surface.

Overview

The R16's plastic construction gives it a surprisingly light feel, but the case is still tough and will stand up to any reasonable use and abuse. At just under 38 x 24cm from above and weighing in at 1.3kg there's no questioning the unit's portability.

For battery operation, you'll find a slot for six AAs underneath. The unit can also be powered by a DC adapter or run via USB bus power when connected to a computer.

In addition to a basic package of nine digital effects, the unit also hides a couple of handy extra tools that should make the recording process run more smoothly. The onboard metronome can be routed to all outputs or sent to the headphones only, which could come in handy as a click. Meanwhile, the built-in tuner features a huge number of guitar tunings and can also be set to tune to any frequency.

The darker grey handles on the ends of the R16 not only act as protection for the exposed controls on the top of the unit, but also house a pair of microphones which can be used to make quick and easy stereo recordings. A 1GB SD card is provided to get you started, but the R16 can handle anything up to 32GB in order to increase recording time.

In detail

The R16 features eight mic/line inputs on combo XLR/TRS sockets, with switchable 48V phantom power on two channels and a high-impedance option on one input to allow a guitar or bass to be hooked up directly.

Recording is pleasingly straightforward, with eight very basic channel strips, a master fader and a dedicated transport section. The push buttons above each channel fader toggle the track between play, mute and record.

Up to eight tracks can be recorded simultaneously, but it's also possible to link another R16 up using a standard USB cable, allowing 16 tracks of simultaneous recording. Once you've recorded to the first bank of eight tracks, you can switch the unit to tracks 9-16 at the push of a button. If you already have audio on some tracks and want to record a full eight channels at a time, moving recordings from one track to another is a little more fiddly, requiring you to dive into the R16's menus.