TASCAM DIGITAL RECORDER USES SD CARD

I've had this DR-1 for 4 days now and I am learning about it relatively quickly. The instruction manual (on the SD card (included)) is very thorough, and straight forward. I'm no idiot, but sometimes manuals can bog you down..this one gets to the point. {Don't forget to back up that manual on your pc BEFORE you ever format the card (formatting is not necessary to use the card initially as it is empty) or its adios manual}. The playback sound is quite good, not that I have ever done any studio mix downs, but for something the size of a chubby IPod Classic it sounds good. You can slow music to 50% speed and the pitch stays accurate...as claimed. As far as weeding out vocals or instruments, unless they are on distinctly different L or R channels...that isn't gonna happen totally.

I have yet to overdub, and I see you can't OD in MP3 format (WAV only), so you best have a big gig SD card if you plan on any J Garcia 10 minute wanderings.

So, thus far, I am...Read more

I have been doing field recordings, primarily but not exclusively of live concerts (both clandestine and not) since I first bought a Sony TC-D5M in 1982. It cost $475. I replaced that in about 1990 with the Sony TCD-D3 DAT recorder, which cost about the same and was of course far superior (48KHz/16b)...when it worked. Now comes a whole new breed of portable stereo audio recorders. I selected this for a number of reasons, not the least being that it's inexpensive, very lightweight, has that Tascam (Teac) brand name, the sampling rate is selectable between 16b and 24b, it got good reviews, records to cheap SD cards, and it has a removable Li-ion battery with a long life.

And indeed it does; I just test-recorded a show that was nearly 2 hours long at 48KHz, 24b. The battery showed approx 1/3 used once it was over. Also, it used only 1.5GB of a 4GB SD card - this is the other beauty of recording with this technology.

I have not used the "overdub" feature yet but...Read more

I bought the DR-1 to record from my Alesis Multimix 8 FW as a backup the the firewire recordings. In that capacity it has been perfect. Sound recorded through the line in mini jack is 100% clean. Transferring the files is easy. Good rechargeable battery.

Now for the bad stuff. When I opened the box, the first thing I noticed was the cheap, lightweight feel. The buttons feel cheap, the wheel that you use to navigate menus feels cheap, everything feels cheap. Also, it doesn't come with an AC adapter, you have to buy it separately. Navigating the menus is difficult, it took me a long time to figure out, after changing something in the settings, how to get back to the previous screen without completely leaving the settings section (fyi, you press the rewind button...?) Lastly, I was not impressed with the mics. You could never use this thing hand held, there is way too much handling noise. I thought the voice recordings were tiny. Other people with more experience than me...Read more