Topic: TASCAM DR-2d - announced at NAMM

[gary0214]

i'm very new to taping shows, but below is a link to a recording i made at a small venue in early april.  the recording was made with the tascam dr-2d's internal microphones.  i was seated far to the left of the stage and the recorder itself was not pointed towards the stage...the recorder was just sitting on a bar...but it's still a very enjoyable recording...i think.

http://zepidemic.net/mp3/sample/01.mp3

[EarlyMorningRain]

great thread!

Maybe I'm missing it, but what are the size measurements of the DR-2d?  I know a picture was posted with this next to a R-09, but from the Tascam site, I'm seeing that info for other models, just not this model:

DR-100
Dimensions: 3.2" W x 1.4" H x 6" D (80.5mm x 35mm x 151mm)

DR-07
Dimensions: 2.2" W x 5.3" L x 1.1" H

DR-08
Dimensions: 1.45" W x 5.41" L x 0.59" H (37mm x 137.5mm x 15mm)

[Will_S]

Dimensions (W x H x D)
65 x 118 x 24 mm
2.559 x 4.646 x 0.945 i

[bgalizio]

My 1st time out with the DR-2d:
http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=135284.0

It's heavy on the SBD because the hall (a church) was very echoey.

[HarpDoc]

Just ordered one of these suckers and am excited to try it with my band this weekend. The plan is to use the dual recording function to run board mix into line-in and CA-11>CA-9100>mic-in. Does anyone know what settings to use through the mic-in to have it at unity (the equivalent of the line-in) so I can use the CA-9100 to provide the gain and keep the internal preamp out of the signal chain? 

[Gutbucket]

I've also been wondering how to set things on the recorder to have the gains matched evenly across both pairs of channels.  I've read the manual but haven't seen or played with the recorder yet.  I'd be using the dual recording feature with identical signal chains into both the line and mic inputs, recording 4 identical channels that I want to keep gain matched.

[Will_S]

IIRC, mic in, low sens, with recording level around 60-70 should get similar levels to line in at 100.  Experimentation should reveal the exact value.

[crazifyngers]

in my two shows dual recording i have noticed that 70 is about right for mic in low.

[HarpDoc]

Thanks Will and Crazyfingers. I'm going to be recording my band this Friday, the same day the DR-2D is supposed to arrive, so no time to experiment with settings. Your settings will give me a good start.

[ChicagoBlues]

I just got my DR-2D yesterday and will bet testing it out tonight. (Tonight is the last night of Buddy Guys Legends at the original location..Moving 3 doors down.. the grand opening of the new Legends is right around the Crossroads.. lets see EC and 30 other greats are in town.. !!)

One question.. I want to take out the SD card but the compartment door seems a bit tight and isn't opening too easy. The manual shows the door just pulling out but i cant get it to pull out without feeling like its going to snap off. Anyone else have trouble opening it for the 1st time?

I found a good CF card speed test comparison at the Sound Devices web site. The were tested on a 788T. While its not reflective of what works for the DR-2D ot the speed when used by the DR-2D, its still good info to look.  Here is the URL http://www.sounddevices.com/notes/recorders/file-formats/cf-speeds/

[HarpDoc]

Got mine on Friday and recorded my band two nights in a row using the Dual/Line function (recording mic-in and line-in to separate files).  This is the first recorder I've bought since using the Iriver H120 for many successful years. I'll share my thoughts on the DR-2D.

Let's start with the good. The overdub and Dual functions work well. The audio quality is great, noticeably better than the Iriver, even though I used an external preamp with both (better converters). The unit is easy to use.

Now the bad. The battery life is a f-ing joke. I put in what I thought were my best NIMH batteries for night one and got about 30 seconds of recording before the low-battery warning came on and shut off the recording. Switched to the alkalines that came with the unit and got maybe an hour--missed quite a bit of the show. On night two I had the same thing happen with the rechargeables. This time I was prepared with a bunch of new Energizer Max backups. I only got about 3 hours on a set of them and ended up not recording a song before I noticed and put another pair in. I don't know, maybe this was because I had it set for NIMH internally, but whatever, it still sucks.

While I'm griping, the unit is significantly larger than my H120, barely OK for pocketing. If you're going to be doing a lot of st..lth recording, I'd go with a smaller unit.

Finally, when recording in the Dual/Line mode, even with the limiter turned on, it seems to only work on the mic-in, not the line-in. I found this out on night one when I had the line-in from the soundboard too high and got nasty clipping. I still think nothing beats the Safety feature on Rockboxed Irivers and am baffled as to why nobody includes this on retail units.

I'm going to keep the DR-2D because the Dual/Line function is really nice for recording my band and the Dual Rec function (recording a backup file at a lower level) will also be handy for taping (although just having the Safety feature would render this need moot). I just ordered some new Eneloop batteries and will probably get the Tascam AC adapter for when I record my band.

[bgalizio]

When I first got my DR-2d, I did some battery life tests on it and found that my old rechargeables didn't last very long, though they still worked well with my old R-09HR. I'm thinking this recorder is sensitive to the voltage put out by the batteries. I don't have any way to test and confirm this suspicion, though.

[Will_S]

Wow, sounds like spectacularly bad battery life for HarpDoc.  I've consistently gotten over 4hrs out of 2000mah NiMHs.  If new batteries don't fix your problem, perhaps you have a lemon.  Did you make sure the internal speaker was switched off and the backlight set to go off in a reasonable amount of time?

[HarpDoc]

Yes, speaker off and display light set to default, which seems to shut off pretty fast. Good point about maybe having a lemon. I'll test it with the new batteries and return it if I don't get around 5 hours.

[HarpDoc]

Battery issues aside, I'm discovering that in addition to the cool Dual functions, this thing is a great tool for songwriters. The internal mics are surprisingly nice for recording vocals and acoustic instruments (haven't tried them on an actual band). Attached is a quick test I did using the Overdub feature and some internal reverbs. I layered a total of 6 takes using the internal mics on vocals, harmonica, shakers, and a drum, recording in 24/96 mode. The only thing I did on the computer is normalize, trim down the file, and mix down to Ogg format. Hard to believe that not long ago we were using 4-track cassettes, bouncing, and adding tons of noise (I guess I'm showing my age).