Topic: New Tascam DR-40 firmware - Independent L/R level adjustment

[Arkaium]

Folks,

Long time lurker, first time poster. I've been wrestling for months over whether to buy the newly released Tascam DR-100mkii or the DR-40, frustrated that the 100mkii wasn't four channel and that after I got all the accessories for the DR-40 that come with the 100mkii, it would all be roughly the same price.

That all changed as I was browsing Tascam's user docs last night:
http://tascam.com/product/dr-40/downloads/

I'm not audio expert, but if I'm properly understanding the 1.10 firmware notes (and I really hope I am), one of the biggest deal-breakers—likely the cause of most people's aversion and also that "helicopter" phenomenon I've read about all over the place (which always sounded to me like the unused, unmutable XLR input generating interference/high gain)—has been addressed. I wanted to share the news in case folks hadn't seen it, as it finally motivated me to purchase the recorder.

For a long time I've had a personal project in mind, a video project in which I document my parents' unique life story. It has been so frustrating reading so many pros and cons for such a while and feeling like I was making a compromise either way, but last night I was finally sure and decided to pull the trigger!  Even with this issue, my intended application was far from pro-level, so even that issue wasn't the biggest concern for me.

I'm thinking now that my next investment is either a Rode NTG-2 or a lavalier system, although as a non-professional, I suspect I'll get MUCH more mileage out of the shotgun mic based on my expected uses.

Anyways, I hope I a) read the firmware notes correctly! and b) helped folks out by posting.

[LikeASong]

You read the firmware notes correctly. Now, input levels for R and L channels can be set at different volumes. Good thing, good improvement. The delay between the external source and the internal mics (when recording at 4 channels, obviously) can now be set at 150 miliseconds, which is also quite an improvement over the previous 30 ms.

Thanks for posting! The firmware upgrade was posted yesterday, though, you've been pretty quick at it I will pass the info onto a friend who has a DR-40.

[Jive]

I noticed the firmware update as well and was very happy to see Tascam enable independent level controls on the DR-40.  For a device with 2 XLR inputs (which would most likely be used for 2 different mics), it seemed very silly not to have independent control of each channel.

I definitely hope the unit you receive is better of than the one I have as the "helicopter" sound you refer to is alive and well on my DR-40.  I had hoped that they would have a fix for this in the new update, but alas, the noise continues.  I'm going through a whole series of tests to try to isolate the issue, but so far it is clear that it has nothing to do with 3rd party mics/cables as the noise is present even when nothing is plugged in and the noise immediately disappears when you navigate away from the main recording screen (e.g. press the menu button) while recording.

Without the noise, the DR-40 would be a winner.  I actually like the method of adjusting the levels of each channel on the DR-40 better than on the DR-100!  You toggle between channel 1/2 by pressing the "1/2 Solo" button and use the same Input Level +/- buttons to adjust the levels.  This makes it very simple to adjust the levels by touch on the DR-40, whereas I find adjusting levels independently on the DR-100 somewhat more cumbersome because of the tandem nature of the level knobs.  That's something I didn't expect!

Look forward to hearing about your experience with the unit you receive.  I will be contacting Tascam to see if exchanging the unit may resolve the issue (though I bought it at the end of Jan 2012 and it experienced the same issues as the early adopters last November).