Topic: Tascam DR1

[flintstone]

Yeah, how generous of Tascam to include a 1GB card, which costs less than $5 at retail and undoubtedly costs Tascam a lot less than that.  I just bought a 4GB PQI card from Fry's for $9 after MIR.

The silly marketing prose aside, the Tascam looks like a reasonable competitor to Microtrack II and R-09.  Does anyone have an informed guess about the DR1's shipping date?

Flintstone

[soundpro]

Hello:

I thought I would answer a few questions here: We did not add the marketing mumbo-jumbo.....it's right from the Tascam site:

http://tascam.com/products/dr-1;9,12,3594,14.html

The expected delivery schedule is as follows: In the last week of February, Guitar Center, Sound Professionals (that's us) and a few other dealers who committed to buying large quantities of these up front get recorders from the first shipment. About 10 days later, other smaller dealers will get theirs. 

To give members a small thank you for your support over the years, we posted a couple specials on this recorder in the retail forum (one on the recorder alone, one bundled with Audio Technica mics and one for the mics alone). If you are interested, please go there to see the details.

As for the recorder, it has some nice features not found on other recorders in this price range, like a removable rechargeable battery, overdub capability, 1GB card included (most comes with a basically useless small capacity card), playback and speed adjustments, Karaoke function and an analog limiter.

Thanks!

Chris Carfagno
The Sound Professionals, Inc.
www.soundprofessionals.com
sales@soundprofessionals.com
800-213-3021

[micmonster]

I can't understand why they don't mention the analog Limiter in the manual .

[professorhalfbaked]

I can't understand why they don't mention the analog Limiter in the manual .

It does say it on the specifications list on the website.  AGC is analog too.

[micmonster]

I know, but why don't they describe it in the manual how to use the limiter. Or did I miss this?

[colorado_bob]

I know, but why don't they describe it in the manual how to use the limiter. Or did I miss this?

There's not much.  On page 20:

LEVEL CTRL

Use this to set the level control function.

Set it to AUTO to have the DR-1 automatically adjust the input gain according to the input level. Loud sounds and quiet sounds are both adjusted to the same level.

Set it to LMT to have the DR-1 automatically limit the input gain so that input level of loud sounds are reduced to prevent distortion.

The factory default setting is OFF.


NOTE
When recording live performances and in other situations where unexpected loud sounds might occur, set this function to LMT to prevent input clipping and allow recording without distortion.

[micmonster]

Thank you. That's why I missed it.

[prof_peabody]

All of a sudden there's a lot of competition...  Can't wait to see some field reviews.

[Ozpeter]

There's some tested-it-in-the-shop comments at http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=20674&st=0&gopid=131974&#entry131974

[soundpro]

Hello:

A quick note.....the Tascam DR-1's will be shipping next week to all who pre-ordered. As soon as we get them, we will post more info on it.

Thanks!

Chris Carfagno
The Sound Professionals, Inc.
800-213-3021
www.soundprofessionals.com

[Ozpeter]

The participant in the the minidisc forum thread I linked to above has now purchased a DR1 and promises to report further...

[Ozpeter]

.. and his initial comments are that he's wondering whether the unit is faulty, due to noise levels.  He's put up a sample.

[it-goes-to-eleven]

All these units look cool, but I really wish more had a digital in.. I mean, the pre cant be as good as a decent (Ua-5) outboard pre w/ a/d..

Based on comparisons (though never of the ua5, mine stays connected to my PC), I disagree. Look at this 722/r09 a/d comp as an example:

http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,99237.0.html

The a/d in the r09 was overwhelmingly favored in a couple of blind comps posted here when run behind a v3 (as compared to the v3's a/d).  Of course the results can vary depending on material but the r09 sounds very good when run correctly behind a good pre.

I think with all of the various small recorders coming out, the v3 comp test should be done on all of them as a reference. It is an easy comp to do, doesn't require much gear (v3 & bit bucket and an xlr to recorder cable) and quickly answers a lot of the sound quality and overload concerns. Most people are familiar with the v3 a/d sound, etc.

It is always good to see new recorders coming out but it needs to be said a lot of them don't sound all that good, have high noise or can't handle bass, etc. I was surprised to hear someone say the D50 sounds like crap, but so it goes..

[PeterE]

Has anyone received their Tascam DR-1 yet?  Any first impressions?
Curious as to how its mic pre and a-d sounds, compared to the R09, PMD620, and D50?
I'll be getting a DR-1 soon.  I'll add my $0.02 soon after I get it but I don't have access to any of the other models for comparison.
thanks!!
Pete

[guysonic]

The DR1 LOOKS to have similar capabilities and carry size to R-09, PMD-920, and having a bit of the H4 with instrument tuner and such features for musicians. 

To me, while these decks have nearly identical audio recording features/modes the audio (analog input) quality varies greatly with noise performance being the almost most important only second to reliability. 

Not so acceptable reliability example is R-09 deck with break-away analog input jacks!  Otherwise, R-09 is excellent at least for LINE input audio quality and a personal favorite with glued down jacks.

So far, no flash deck model seems perfect, but as more of these appear on the market offering the recordist many to choose from for having most important deck qualities and least important deck shortcomings.

It does help to have someone (like me) post noise spectrum performance graphs of each new model and do some other electrical bench tests like I usually post in TS.  This helps at least me get 'a handle' on how these decks stack up in having exercised some degree of 'engineered refinement' of the analog audio path. 

Like is the digital polluting the heck out of the analog front end?  I've seen this in at least of few models, and sometimes only under certain input conditions!

Looking forward to testing both LS-10 and the DR1.  Anybody in USA up for a short term loan please PM or EM for paid shipping details.

So far, direct at -35dB MIC level input comparison gives best chance of 'apples-to-apples' comparison of important (easily audible) audio performance.

Below are deck noise spectrum graphs with all decks having the same mic input gains, along with deck noise if  using low noise external preamplifier (the line input mode) on these different models.   

Comparing the noise performances of these different models over frequency is possible with eyeing the dB scale numbers at the right to the graph lines showing the recorded deck noise levels. 









How audible, or interfering to the audio signal purity a deck's internal noise is going to be depends on the frequency, the character of the noise (like is it continuous Gaussian type or more audible digital impulse with harmonics) and the dB level (loudness-amplitude) of the noise.