I'd say the mixer was pretty decent. Not much that you can expect for the price they go for nowadays but you do get a good amount of features for what you pay. Even if just used as an analog to digital convertor (via tdif) it could come in handy for its price. You also have the option of using it as a digital to analog converter but it would get tricky since you'd have to do some routing if you wanted more than two outputs at the time. You get onboard effects, some ad/da conversion, and decent routing. You can also use the mixer as a control surface for your software sequencer. Though the mixer doesn't have motorized faders, you can control 16 channels at a time with its 16 channel faders. I always though the midi spec only allowed for control of 8 channels at a time but the TM-D can do 16 without switching banks. Not sure how that works out but I never looked into it any more than trying it out as a control surface. Not bad at all feature-wise, not many digital mixers lack in the feature department and the TM-D1000 is no exception.

$250

UTILIZATION

If you're doing simple recording and routing the mixer is pretty straightforward. You do have to select the channel you're working with but bus assignment are handled more or less like an analog mixer. To get down tot he routing of the digital channels you have to do some browsing through the mixer menus but that's not that big of a problem if you keep the manual handy.

The connection where the power cord connects onto the mixer itself came loose on the inside. Because of this the cable had to be at an awkward angle for the unit to power on. Eventually I openned the unit up and fixed the problem but the connector there moves around a good amount. I'm sure a lot of people had a similar issues with the solder coming off the pcb. It's not a difficult fix but it could have been avoided by Tascam. Other than that, everything is pretty solid. I had no other program with any of the buttons, faders, or anything of the sort.

SOUNDS

I wouldn't call the sound quality of the device bad but I wouldn't call it good either. The converters sounded pretty well accross the mid frequencies but I didn't like the overall sound of the mixer. Though I didn't care much for its sound, I did like how it would bring out certain things in a mix. So it was good as an alternative device to check some mixes. I never got down to using the onboard effects on the unit so I can't comment on those. The pre-amps we're anything special. I can't remember on how the dynamics were but I don't recall the mixer being anything special in that department either.

OVERALL OPINION

The mixer was okay. Not a mixer that I feel that I might go back to any time soon for any reason. I'd say that if a person has an audio device with a tdif interface and that could get a lot of usage out of the mixer, the mixer would be a pretty decent purchase. The mixer also works as a control surface so that's a plus also. Not a great mixer but an useful one.

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
Posted by: sleepy ( 3-, 2006)