This review is from: Tascam DR07 Portable Digital RecorderI just returned mine. Simply put, its a great little product, and for $175 you just can't find a better value. But you get what you pay for, and you get a nice little recording device, perfect for most applications, epically recording musical ideas while away from the studio. However, for low level recordings such as acoustic guitar, look closer at the Sony PCM-D50, that's what I'm switching to for my use. Here are my pros and cons of the DR07:pros: great price ($175 guitar center)smalllight weightrecords any combination of 16/24bit 44.1k/48k sample ratehas built in micsvery easy to usetakes SD cards to expand recording time.records either mp3 or wave files.sound is directional, and records the best from directly in front. Comes with a wind screen.Takes AA batteries, easy to find and use. cons: Mic pre-amps are VERY noisy: when recording an interview or acoustic guitar, you can hear the hiss through it... lots of hiss on low volume recordings like that. Lots of handling noise (more on that below), NO Speaker! So you have to bring headphones to check your recordings. The windscreen looks and feels cheap, its just a piece of shipping foam cut out to fit on top. Buttons feel cheap, memory card and USB access door feels cheap, I'm sure after a short while of use, it will break off. Handling noise: any slight touch of the unit make a loud sound when using on-board mics, Poor quality limiter: the limiter cuts back so hard that when you just touch the unit, or get a loud pop from your voice, it cuts all the way down to zero, and then back up, so you get this very dramatic but short cut out of sound. Its very annoying. I had to turn off the limiter to use it, because every time i touched the unit to move it, it would cut out for a second. This was during an interview where I had the recording level up. I was doing an interview and had to set the internal mic sensitivity to high and the gain to 8 or 9 (out of 10) just to get a good level on my subject sitting about 6 feet across from me. There was a lot of noise (hiss) too. Too much for someone picky, and looking for clean sound. Maybe an external mic would have been better, but you're still using the internal pre-amps which are very noisy. I have to say that for the price, if you are looking for something to record band rehearsal, practice, or song ideas, its perfect! Maybe if you had a pair of mics you would get good results from a live rock concert (rock, not jazz or classical, because of the hiss in the background.... the rock music would drown that out)So 5 out of 5 because it is perfect for what it is, but its not a solid feeling professional piece of gear with high quality preamps, its just a portable recorder for every day recording... professional sound guys would be disappointed. I would recommend this to my musician friends who want something to record scratch song ideas while away from a real studio, or someone looking to get into recording as a hobby, and play around with recordings.Hope that helps people out there.*** UPDATE ***okay, i just found the Sony PCM-M10 Portable Digital Recorder. I would suggest that anyone on the fence about the Sony PCM-D50 should consider this one, its half the price. If its ANYTHING like the D50, it will be something to consider if you're looking for a bit more from the DR07, mainly a bit more in quality of the mics. PCM-M10 Portable Digital Recorder...
This review is from: Tascam DR07 Portable Digital RecorderI finally have this fine little solid state recorder in my hands, and I must say it does nearly anything I could want from it.Sound quality, especially using the 44.1KHz/48KHz and WAV16bit/WAV24bit settings, is as good as you can get without having to fork over considerably more for something more professional grade, such as the Sony PCMD50 (~$500) or a far more expensive device (sorry, forgot the name) that costs $1,500USD.As expected, the integral microphones are decent for recording up close, but I would definitely recommend using an external for recording bands, lecture halls, or other roomy areas where the sound source may be some distance from the unit.That is also where this little gadget really shows its stuff, as it is configurable for condenser microphones that require a powered (think "phantom" power) jack, dynamic microphones that have their own power source (I have an Audio Technica stereo mike that uses a single AA battery to operate), and even a line in jack for recording from a mixing desk or other device with a line out jack.You can even slow down or speed up the recordings after they are made, with no pitch change, although I did notice that the slowed recordings exhibited noticeable artifacting at the slower settings, but that is no real problem, as that feature is mainly a musician's tool for learning how to play a fast or complicated part, NOT for listening enjoyment.The 2GB SD card that it comes with almost has the full capability of file size that this unit can handle, which is 2GB, or ~3hours and 24minutes when recording 44.1KHz/16-bit.The 2GB card holds just over 3 hours, so anyone wanting to max out the recording file size limit will need a 4GB card.In fact, that 2GB file size limit is the only possible area of concern for anyone using this, at least if you want to capture a lengthy performance in lossless WAV format.I did not experiment with the on-the-fly MP3 recording it does, but if you set it to 128KBPS, you can expect over 10 times as much recording time, due to the compression ratio.Of course, the batteries would likely give out before that ~30 hours of nonstop recording, so anyone wanting to do that would be advised to buy the Tascam AC adapter also sold here.Oh, I also LOVE the ease with which Tascam made it to set the levels, where you simply hit the record button once, which turns on the microphones without starting recording, allo...
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