Tascam Recorders/Multitracks

Been playing guitar and bass for about 5 years now I guess. Picked things up rather quickly due to my piano / keys background. Am starting to write my own music now, and actually prefer this to figuring out songs or playing covers. My musical tastes range from alternative, punk and hard rock to country. Anything that has some good guitar in it, I can appreciate. Just paid $299 online at Musicians Friend. Was looking for something portable to take to friends homes or garage jams as it's too hard to keep lugging all of my desktop pc equipment (which I have done numerous times believe it or not). I really like the simplicity of the one-knob-per function design. Don't make me work for it, let me get started right away and I'm happy. I also like the quality of the recordings. I like the 8 tracks and the 40GB hard drive which is enough flexibility for me. I also appreciate the S/PDIF outputs so I can run the digital outs to my PC for final mixdowns when I get home. Well, it's not really a complaint, but I have been using an older PC for recording for years and it is not USB 2.0 compatible. So, I can't take advantage of that functionality. Not really a problem with the unit though. The unit is sturdy. The knobs and controls have a well built feel to them and I'm sure the unit will take years of abuse before it fails me. I don't think it's solid enough to handle any drops, but then again I'm not going to test it out... =) Overall, for $299 I love it. Has more than enough flexibility and produces great quality mixdowns for the price. The unit is normally about $100 more so I took advantage of the sale and purchased one. It was at my door in less than 5 days and the shipping was free. Can't beat that! This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

This is a cassette based (1/8") 4 track recorder that records on high bias, type II cassettes in a single direction. It has dbx type II noise reduction, but on my used machine this had drifted, so recordings sounded better without it engaged. dbx on track 4 can be disengaged separately for timecode purposes. There is a pitch wheel that allows for 15% plus or minus speed change, putting the wheel to the maximum speed will cut down on some of the tape hiss. There are four main channels which correspond to the four tracks. There are faders for these channels along with high and low eq knobs and pan controls. There are two stereo channels, 5-6 and 7-8 that can be used for effects routing or as auxiliary inputs. These channels only have volume knobs without an other control. Inputs are all 1/4" and RCA. All four tracks can be recorded onto simultaneously. There is an analog tape counter with engageable zero return. There are no facilities for automated punch ins, but there is an input for a punch in pedal. This machine is much more limited than its big brother the 424 and recordings are not as high quality as that machine. By comparison, this machine's recordings sound like the quality of the 488, which is an 8 track cassette Portastudio. Both of those machines (and the 464 as well) have more features in terms of punch in and digital control of the transport. But, this machine will function well as an idea sketchpad, for someone who insists on recording on cassette tape, or for someone who needs a more mobile solution than any of the above listed multitrack recorders. I purchased this for my classroom for the students to make some basic recordings. It has done a decent job in that capacity, but I soon replaced it with a 788, which with its MIDI capabilities was better suited to our purposes.

Just OK, Novel idea at the time. UTILIZATION Unusable for recordings. See below. SOUNDS Sound was actually OK. OVERALL OPINION A 4track Portastudio that was based on a good idea (data minidisc), but a poor design in the end. The system was never able to process correctly recordings with bouncing, resulting in a loss of data known as the "skip bug" where there was a data loss/skip during recording that couldn't be modified/erased/re-recorded. Result: a waste of time. This was the last Tascam product I bought. Will probably never buy Tascam (and associated brands (Roland, HK, etc. ) again as a result because they just ignored the problem, were never able to find a decent fix, and prefered just to abandon the product and the users who bought it.

I want to start off by saying this is a very good recorder. Tascam truly delivered with this unit and I'm surprised other companies don't follow in their footsteps. What I liked Least: I hate the floor noise, the preamps are a lot noisier than other recorders in this price range, but not by much. I making this non because it could have been a little quieter. But still, fantastic recorder and the noise is nothing that can't be cleaned Other Recorders: I've tried tons of recorders: Zoom H1, Fostex FRle, Zoom H2n, Olympus etc... I'd like to focus in on the main competitor this recorder rivals which is ZOOM's H4n. The DR40 doesn't have as many features as the H4n, but it has enough as well as 2XLR inputs and it's $70-$100 cheaper than the H4n. There is no record in the DR40's price range that offer 2 XRL inputs, that's something major to consider. The stock mics switch from XY to AB pattern and they have a guard which helps reduce the chances of the mics breaking when bumped around unlike the most recorders. I also love the fact that the DR40 has "Dual Recording" Mode. This means it has a auto safety track so if one track clips, there is a another track (a back up track) which is recorded lower than the original. That allow is a really great feature and one that has saves me time and time again. Sound Quality: I would say the Dr40 sounds just as good as most recorders. Especially it's close rival the H4n. I've put the recorder up against a more expensive recorder like the FR2LE and could hardly notice a difference. The stock mics sound good, but not as good as a shotgun mic so I would suggest using this recorder a long with a shotgun mic. If you're planning on getting this recorder, know that it accepts 3 AA batteries. I would buy lots of rechargeable batteries and keep them on hand. When you use the Phantom power (to power mics) it eats at the batteries a little quicker, so be prepared

The Tascam DP-004 has 2 ¼ microphone inputs and records in WAV format. You can record up to 2 tracks simultaneously but playback 4 at the same time. There are no effects on this console, it would have been nice to at least have some studio reverb of some sort just to add a little something to what you record. After you record you can then connect the DP-004 to your computer via USB to track out. It is very easy to get your recordings into your computer. This console has 2 microphone preamps and they are pretty good. But there is no EQ on this console, with no effects and no EQ I say do not purchase it. You can almost get the upgraded version of it with 2 band EQ and effects for about the same price now. This recorder takes the sound you record and puts it directly to an SD card. It only comes with a 1 GB SD card which probably will not be enough for anyone because I know it was not enough for me. If you want to get a 32 GB SD card it will cost a good amount of money. I wish when they sell the DP-004 they would just include the maxed out SD 32 GB card to save from having to go out and spend more money after you have bought this. But with the DP-004 you can record anywhere because it takes AA batteries. But it does not come with a AC adaptor. You will have to buy the AC adapter separate which cost over 30 dollars. So by the time you buy a good SD card costing anywhere from 15 to 40 dollars, then you have to purchase the AC adapter; it is just too much extra money to be spent on a console that only cost 150 dollars. It really is not worth it.

The DP-32 is a portable studio that is ready to go with you wherever you need it to be. You don’t even have to have a computer to make a complete song. When I say complete I mean all way down to burning it to a CD. The Tascam DP-32 has a built in disk drive that will allow you to burn what you have just recorded right to a CD when you are complete. It has a 32 track playback and you can record up to 8 tracks simultaneously. The sampling rat is 44.1 kHz with a bit depth of 16 and 24. UTILIZATION All of the main functions of this model are not hard to understand and you probably won’t need a manual to learn how to operate it, but it could take some time getting use to it if you are coming from a software type of DAW. You can pretty much do all of the same things that you can do with your DAW but it will be a litter different since there is not a big screen in front of you with a bunch of menus and help pop ups. SOUNDS You can use this for any style of music, just like you would a DAW. You can get some really good and clean recordings with it and even do some decent on the spot mixing with it. This portable studio is very quiet with no hissing but it can get very hot if left on for a long time. OVERALL OPINION The thing about the DP-32 that I don’t like is the screen, I like to have a bigger screen when I am working my songs and mixing. The screen on this unit is very small and almost impossible to do what you need to do with it. Also this unit is made to be a full portable studio, but so is a computer and Pro Tools. So which one would you rather carry around, a full unit weighing 5 times as much as a laptop or just a MacBook? It is just much easier to go the DAW route than to purchase this, 7 to 10 years ago this would have been a must have. But today there is no need for a unit like this anymore.

I like the fact that it's easy to use....It will write all lead ins, etc for you in automatic mode...The transport is fast and the sound is reliable... Just recently mine (I've had it for 11 years) decided to eat a DAT tape and hasn't given it back yet...???...That's the only problem I've ever had with it... DAT machines are not really that popular now but if you are looking for a good brand name at a great price, look up a DA-20 mkII...YOu will like it... The manual is very comprehensive and covers all areas in depth... Great value for a nice digital recorder...

Playing in small ensembles, the DR07 looked like a useful practice and self-assessment device. This proved to be true ... and it doesn't cost much. Also, 'small ensemble' doesn't mean really 'loud blues-rock trio', so our stuff is not too challenging to record. These were on sale for $130 at Daddy's Junky so I bought two, one for my music and one for a friend. <a href="http://www.daddys.com">http://www.daddys.com</a> It's cheap, small, reasonably convenient and does a decent job. I especially like that the screen is visible in dark clubs, etc cuz that was not the case with my MiniDisc recorder. Also, basic recording does NOT require navigating 2 or 3 levels of menues via pushbuttons . It runs on a pair of AA batteries, which I very much prefer to any form of built-in rechargeables. Battery life is good enuf for my purposes. The 'Data Wheel' is bogus. I had to exchange one DR07 for sketchy functioning of the wheel. I could tell by the faulty functioning that it's not a real data wheel but simply a plastic wheel with bumps on it that tap at a pair of microswiches. Even when functioning as designed, such a design is slower to use and subject to more wear and tear than a real printed circuit multi-contact data wheel. Possibly due to the nature of the data wheel, fast playback searching *within* any track is not-so-fast. You can also 'fast search' inside a track via the FF and REW buttons, but the max speed avaiable is 10X of the regular playback. This means it takes a full minute of FF or RW to run past 10 minutes of music. That's always such a looooonnnng minute ! ! ! I get the impression that the recording circuits, and mics, are of a better quality than the playback circuits. When I burn the files to a CD, the sound is excellent when the CD is played. But if I play back the direct output of the DR07 to the same amp and speakers that plays my CD player, the sound is audibly inferior to what I get when playing the CD. 'Inferior' means a lack of bottom, and a generally thinner, 'canned'-sounding playback. I have never tried playing the SD card in the card slot of another recorder. That would clarify my opinion here. OTOH, the files sound better when copied to my PC, which is an ordinary office PC that does NOT have any multimedia asspirations ... meaning it has no fancy sound card. So again, the DR07 itself seems to be the worst device for listening to playback of its own recordings. It's a typical 'small black plastic digital device'. Compared to other small digital recorders I would say that 3 points of the DR07 where competitors might be offering superior design are: 1. the data wheel, as mentioned above. 2. possibly better built-in playback, as also mentioned above. 3. 1/4' jacks and/or XLR jacks instead of the 1/8 jacks on the DR07. In fairness, bigger jacks would make the unit much larger. My main gripes are the slow 'fast search' and the questionable data wheel design. The inferior playback is less important, cuz there are other ways to play back the recordings outside the unit. And these other ways also have better fast search. However, it's small, affordable, convenient for the task of basic recording. I'm rating it a '3', but that's as a $130 recorder competing in what we might call the $400-and-under catagory. For a $130 it's an excellent bargain and serves my simple needs. With an outboard mic, I'm sure it could make fine recordings for those with more advanced needs. But those with more advanced needs would prolly be happier with a $300 or $400 unit, and not regret the extra expense. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I bought this unit through American musical supply new for $1199.I am upgrading from the 788 8 track digital portastudio.I am in the process of putting together a really cool home studio once again.I did used to have a full analog demo type home studio with the TSR8,mixer board, and outpuT effects units. Likes??--Too many to list--24 tracks.The pre-amps sound GREAT.The ease of use---I have already recorded,mixed,premastered and mastered a tune and burnt it onto CD all w'out looking at the manual.Of course having had the 788 helped-but this is 3 times easier than the 788.The save scene options and effects are very user friendly compared to the 788. So far I haven't come across any dislikes about this machine however I record in a pretty simple fashion.Mostly acoustic guitars,Bass, drums and leads. This is what ODDLY enough made me make my final decision to buy this unit--I had always thought,after looking at pictures of it that it was toyishly built.WRONG!I went to a music store close by and played around with it.I could not believe how sturdy and truly easy it was to use.To make a short story long--I fell in love with it!! I have been playing 30 years.I have played professionally overseas in pop rock bands and played all over the NE in the US in acoustic duos.I have had three home recording studios.Two tape analog and a long list of trys and experiments with digital products until I came across the 788.That was where I landed--and here I am now-A happy man with the 2488--a damm good bargain!! This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I bought this at at musiccenter in Belgium for 750 euro. I needed a digital recorder to record my musical ideas I also wanted to make a CD out of my songs. First of all, This unit is the only one in this price range to have 24 bit recording capability. I downloaded about 10 mp3's made by the Boss Br-1180 and 20 from the fostex VF-80 just to compare the difference between 16 and 24 bit. I can really hear the difference in sound quality. I'm very picky when it comes to sound quality because I play the trombone and I'm studying music. It can play 8 tracks at a time and it can record 6 tracks at once, it has 250 virtual tracks, 999 levels of undo although some who has reached that much undos should just start over. It has a waveform display unlike the Boss Br-1180. The manual was ok. I tried placing 1 mic infront of a trombone quartet and it sounded excellent except for the phone ringing and the door banging in the background. It has a very nice form and the knobs are very firm. (Wow, am I talking about my girlfriend or recorder??) It's has a 10 gig hard drive which is enough for 1 album but the drive can be replaced. The costumer support was just amazing. I bought it with a version 1.10 system so I emailed tascam Germany and they said that version 2.0 was coming out so they decided to send me an upgrade cd. I didn't have a cd drive for the tascam so they sent me an eprom microchip instead. It arrived here in the Philippines in less than 2 weeks. That was really quick. The sound quality is really good. Check out my songs so you'll know what I mean: www.nowhereradio.com/slidemasterx/singles What I don't like about the tascam is that you have to buy a separate external cd burner to be able to back up, or import/export files. It only has a digital output. (no input). It doesn't have a built-in mic which I really needed because my ideas spring out during unusual times like when I'm in the shower or while I'm sitting on the toilet bowl. It's heavy and doesn't have batteries. I need to record during the vacation. One big factor that led me to buy this was the user forum on the tascam website but after I bought this, they closed it down. There is another 788 forum but with fewer members. it on: www.cmoore.com/forum I had a difficulty with the effects because as a newbie, I needed EQ and reverb presets. The 788 only had 1 good reverb preset but there were lots of wierd effects for vocals and guitar which I didn't really need. The boss and fostex had a lot of presets. The 788 looks solid to me. just don't drop and bash it around because it has a hard drive. It only crashed once. I just restarted it and everything went fine. I wish they made a softcase for it. Well this unit is pretty good and it's better than other brands in the price range. It costs $600 now and a lot cheaper used. If you're experienced with EQ and effects then the 788 shouldn't be a problem for you but If you're a newbie who just wants to record ideas and you need presets, then you should get a boss br-864 or tascam pocketstudio 5. There are a lot of features on the 788 that I don't use. I should have waited for a few months until the Boss br-864 or Zoom mrs-802 came out. I regretted it a lot. Overall this is a good unit if you have a background on recording already. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I purchased this unit from Musicians Friend (great company by the way)for $329.00. I am new to the recording scene, and I wanted something simple to use, that would give me some nice demo type recordings. The manual is fairly well written. The over all operation of the unit is pretty easy. The unit itself seems a little weak. It took a little time to understand how the unit works. My first recordings were rough, but the sound quality wasn't what I was expecting. The knobs and sliders feel cheap, and so does the 1/4" inputs. I decided to send the unit back for a refund. Musicians Friend customer service is very good about returns, I'll give them a 10. Tascam units seem to be getting cheaper. I bought this because it was recommended by others who had the MK 424II. Seems the revised MK 424III has had some changes including external power source, and the inputs have been put on the back of the unit intead of on top. The knobs feel very weak as well as the sliders. Tascam has been around along time, and have been a asset to the home recording people. But this unit just didn't satisfy my need. This is my first bad review of a product. I usually take time to read reviews on products before I buy them. I'm not saying this MK 424III is junk. I just feel it could be a little better in quality. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I was looking for a cheap, easy way to record demos of my original songs for my producer, so he would have an idea of the sound I was looking for before we went into the studio to record. I found the Tascam MF-P01 Portastudio on sale at Guitar Center for $99 and thought it was worth a shot. Unfortunately, it wasn't. The old saying is true, "you get what you pay for." The unit is lightweight and very easy-to-use, just like the box promises. It would definitely be easy to pack up and travel with, and is great for getting ideas down so you don't forget what you were thinking when you wrote a song. And it's easy to create a final mix when you're ready... but not something that I'd want to play for anyone else. I've used other recording equipment before, both professional and amateur, and I know what kind of sound quality I can get from my equipment. Unfortunately, what goes into the MF-P01 is not what comes out of it. At first, I thought the problem was with the tape I was using. It was brand new, but it was a 90-minute tape, and the manual recommends using only 60-minute tapes. A 60-minute tape did improve the sound quality, but everything on the tape still sounded very tinny, with no low-end, and a bit out-of-phase. After many tries, with many tapes, and many different settings, I could not get the same sound on tape that was coming out of my monitors and headphones. Like I said, the unit is very lightweight, and travels well. It's solid, and isn't going to fall apart with normal use, but I certainly wouldn't recommend dropping it. It's weight (or lack thereof) and plastic construction makes it seem a bit fragile, but it's designed to be portable. All in all, I would not recommend this unit. If you only want to keep your ideas together for yourself, then the MF-P01 might be for you, but if you plan on letting anyone else hear your recordings, spend a little extra money and get something better. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com