Anybody got it? Is it worth it for 400 smackers? Downsides? My band is trying to record a demo and were trying to make it sound as professinal as possible without spending over $500. (and we dont need the fx model)
Stairway to Freebird!
Hey, I've been looking at this one too. Looks like a great deal with the user-friendly interface andespecially the 40 gig hard drive. Lots of other 8-track digitals in this price range come with tiny memory cards that fill up like that. The monster space is awesome for me, who likes to fool around with far-out, not-very-serious songs, which mount up fast and eat memory.
Anyone know how it sounds? I am seriously considering it after lots of research, but haven't heard it in action. Also, what are the inputs for guitar and mic?
If you don't know where you're going,
Any road will take you there
No direct experience with this one yet, but the other Tascam recorders have always been pretty decent and the the hard drive option at this price is excellent.
Also, USB 2.0 is a great addition for a computer-based mixdown. You'll probably get a good sound onto each track faster with this than a computer workstation, but for anything complex, you will probably dump the tracks to a computer to fiddle with the final mix. (Though plenty of people do great work on a stand-alone 8-track.)
The Tascam effects have always been kind of an afterthought, I would go in intending to use outboard effects, POD's (and their like), and/or mic'ed amps. The one issue I see is that they both have 2 1/4" inputs, but only the FX model has XLR inputs (2). That means you'll want an outboard mixer or preamp, which seems a shame, since the workstation typically acts as a basic mixing board (for a demo you may be planning on using tube preamps for your vocal mic's anyway, nudge-nudge).
ya.. if we were to get the fx model it would only be for the 2 phantom power mic inputs.
Stairway to Freebird!
I'm a complete novice, but I've been looking at this because of the hard drive space too. What is the significance of the 2 1/4" inputs versus XLR? Why do you need a separate mixer or preamp with the 2 1/4" inputs?
Okay, so I went and took a look at this. It seems like a pretty good quality, not as nice as the Yamaha 16, but pretty decent feel to the controls and a logical layout. It looks like it might be reletively intuitive to operate, which is important.
The deal with the XLR vs. 1/4" inputs is that your microphone's will have XLR plugs. You can plug them into 1/4" converters, but XLR plugs can be quieter in some circumstances. Not a huge deal, except if you are recording something important and you get a hum. So, that's one reason you might want to run your mic's into a preamp or a mixer with a built in preamp to bring the signal up to line level and then send that over to the recorder, if you lack XLR input. I've used dinamic mic's with 1/4" cables for recording into 4-track tape recorders, with no real problems... other than maybe having to rearrange some cables to get rid of a little extra noise that was getting picked up along the run.
More importantly, if you want to record with condensor mics, which you may well want to use for lead vocals, acoustic guitar, drum overheads, or distance micing (or "micing the room") for electric guitar you will need phantom power. The XLR inputs on the more expensive model can supply phantom power giving you the simplicity of plugging a condensor directly in to the recorder.
You could probably get an inexpensive mixer or preamp for less than the $100 difference in price (though you do get the effects, maybe you would use the reverb for a final mix). A mixer would give you increased inconvienience of another piece of equipment to set up, but also increased flexibility.
The other consideration would be the use of a tube mic preamp to sweeten the vocals. Depending on the singer, you may well need to use some compression to get a good vocal onto the hard disk without clipping. But this is more of a quality and convienience issue than a neccessity.
