Having trouble getting multiple recorders to work simultaneously. the buffer will go down significantly after about 60%. i have to sony dru 820as . system config 3.2ghz and 512 ram. is it the ide controllers???

The drives must be identical in every way, should ideally be located alone on separate IDE channels, and the burn speed should be kept low. At lower speeds, you might get by with 2 on one channel.

There's any number of things that can throw such an operation off. Most newer drives use a WOPC scheme that means they will pause and re-cal at random intervals. If the drives don't all do this at the exact same time, you get trouble. For this reason, it may be better to use drives or speeds that will burn Z-CLV, as this will be smoother.