A comparison of old and new technologies: the 1980s Tascam PortaOne Ministudio (a four-track cassette recorder) and the new Tascam DP-008 Pocketstudio (digital 44.1/16 bit, eight-track recorder) from 2010.
While this video was meant to be more nostalgic than anything else, I guess it ended up as a review of the DP-008, which I am so very please with. I received my DP-008 one week ago and have used it every day since! I doubt I'll ever have these two units out again, side by side like this, so I decided to shoot a video.
I purchased by PortaOne new in 1987 and used it for over a decade until I became more and more involved with computer recording. It was always a very reliable machine.
Recently I decided to update some things in my studio and looked at what Tascam had to offer. I had been using their digital DR-1 for field recordings and for some of my musical projects, but really was in need of a multi-track recorder. Initially I was going to purchase Tascam's four track DP-004 (even had it in my "cart" on Amazon), but after looking up the price of the DP-008 (their scaled-up eight-track recorder), and comparing its features to my needs, it was a no-brainer. I couldn't be more happy, now that I own a DP-008!!
It is feature-laden, offers many user-changeable settings (input assignments, mic/line levels, etc....), and is quite intuitive to operate.
The only down side of the DP-008 is perhaps the way in which tracks and masters are transferred to the computer. Unlike a lot of things these days, where you plug in and software guides you through the transfer, the DP-008 has no such interface software. Tracks have to be prepared within the unit (Exported, as it's called) before they can be accessed on the SD card. This consumes time, and also memory of the SD card. It takes about 80% of the playing length time of a Master Track to be exported onto the partition of the SD card. After this, it's easily accessed on your computer. But, again, there is no "plug and play" type of file transfer. Not a big deal, but you'll be reading and re-reading the manual, then scratching your head more than once or twice as well.
Also, there's a typo in the Owner's Manual that may have you pulling your hair out! Unfortunately, they give a wrong page number in reference to a topic and it makes matters quite complicated if you find yourself needing the real page. Here's the line, from PAGE 68, first paragraph:
'As described in "Partitions and songs," (page 47), SD cards formatted......"
The page given SHOULD READ "page 36," NOT 47!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyway, this rather lengthy video was more a trip down memory lane than anything else, since I found myself coming across the old PortaOne lastnight while digging around in the closet in my music room. But it also turned out to be a review, of sorts, on the DP-008. So I hope it's helpful for anyone considering a quality, digital studio recorder.
Seriously, for the price, no musician should be without a DP-008! They're a great learning tool, and produce studio quality masters.
Hope this is helpful to some and not too boring to others. Thanks,
Dave