Topic: TASCAM DR-680 portable 8-track - announced at NAMM

[neumannu47]

- Can you turn off recording on some channels so you don't have to use up SDHC card space by recording 6 channels when for example you only want to record 4?

1. Yes, you can turn channels on and off as needed.

Sorry to be anal, but please confirm that if a channel is turned off, so no SDHC space is used for that channel. There was a question earlier in this thread about that function.

Has anyone who purchased this unit developed any regrets yet? No one commented on the earlier posts that "all these early units have problems."

[Chuck]

Sorry to be anal, but please confirm that if a channel is turned off, so no SDHC space is used for that channel. There was a question earlier in this thread about that function.

Yes, you can turn off unused channels that you don't want to record to. The unit defaults to recording all channels when it is booted up. But, you can turn them off, so that you don't waste memory card space.

Has anyone who purchased this unit developed any regrets yet? No one commented on the earlier posts that "all these early units have problems."

After recording 5 sets of music, so far, this weekend with mine. I like it more every time I use it.
Even the meters are growing on me. I'm not even bringing my V3 tonight for KHB & moe.

[TNJazz]

After recording 5 sets of music, so far, this weekend with mine. I like it more every time I use it.
Even the meters are growing on me. I'm not even bringing my V3 tonight for KHB & moe.

+1

Loving this unit more and more every day!

[philper]

Sorry to be anal, but please confirm that if a channel is turned off, so no SDHC space is used for that channel. There was a question earlier in this thread about that function.

Yes, you can turn off unused channels that you don't want to record to. The unit defaults to recording all channels when it is booted up. But, you can turn them off, so that you don't waste memory card space.

Has anyone who purchased this unit developed any regrets yet? No one commented on the earlier posts that "all these early units have problems."

After recording 5 sets of music, so far, this weekend with mine. I like it more every time I use it.
Even the meters are growing on me. I'm not even bringing my V3 tonight for KHB & moe.

Are you generally running the DR680 with an external clock (like from a preamp w/ digital out)?  Any opinion on whether it sounds better with an external clock vs internal?
(I've always felt that my MOTU stuff sounds better with a solid ext clock....)

Philip Perkins

[Chuck]

So far, I've been running everything on the DR-680 clock. Which brings up an interesting point. Last night I ran the V3 coax output  into the DR-680. It worked perfectly when I set the V3 sample rate at 44.1kHz, which is how I have the DR-680 set. When I set the V3 sample rate on 48kHz, the DR-680 gave me an error message. It would not accept the digital signal from the V3 at 48kHz. The Tascam also truncates the 24 bit digital output from the V3 down to 16 bits when the Tascam is set to 16 bits. So, it is not possible to record 16 bit and 24 bit tracks on the Tascam at the same time.

That has got me wondering whether the Tascam re-samples the digital input. I'll have to test it sometime this week to see if the digital input does get re-sampled. To me, this isn't a deal breaker on the Tascam, but it is something that many people might not like.

[Ozpeter]

Seems to me that what you are describing is the Tascam refusing to resample, which is what would be expected.

[dgale]

Seems to me that what you are describing is the Tascam refusing to resample, which is what would be expected.

I agree this is what he is describing, but I think what he was trying to point out is that the unit can't be set for all the analog inputs to record at one bit depth and/or sampling rate and send a different one in via the spidf input (i.e. set the analog channels to record at 24/44.1 and then try to also capture a 24/48 feed from an external AD). 

[Ozpeter]

.. which doesn't surprise me.  I'm not aware of any device which will record at multiple sample rates simultaneously.

But I don't know everything...

[Chuck]

If anyone has the server space to host it, I'd be happy to upload my 04-16-2010 moe. 16 bit recordings:

C-461 (DINa) > V3 > (coax out) > HR-680
C-461 (DINa) > HR-680

This is a direct comparison between the V3 pre-amp's and the HR-680's pre-amps. One pair of microphones was split between the two devices.
I'd like to upload the RAW files for one or both sets if that would be helpful to anyone.

Please PM me if you have the server space to spare. Thanks.

[Chuck]

Look forward to hearing the 480s.

C-483 > DR-680 recordings of moe. from 04-17-2010:

http://bt.cotapers.org/torrents.php?id=406&torrentid=558

http://www.archive.org/details/moe.2010-04-17.C-483

[Chuck]

OK, I hope this works...

I have uploaded two files:

http://www.filesavr.com/moe2010-04-161

http://www.filesavr.com/moe2010-04-163

One is AKG C 460 B comb/ CK61-ULS > Tascam HR-680 the other is AKG C 460 B comb/ CK61-ULS > V3

I didn't plan on doing it this way, but I left the file names ambiguous so you can listen and guess which is which.

[MattH]

If anyone has the server space to host it, I'd be happy to upload my 04-16-2010 moe. 16 bit recordings:

C-461 (DINa) > V3 > (coax out) > HR-680
C-461 (DINa) > HR-680

This is a direct comparison between the V3 pre-amp's and the HR-680's pre-amps. One pair of microphones was split between the two devices.
I'd like to upload the RAW files for one or both sets if that would be helpful to anyone.

Please PM me if you have the server space to spare. Thanks.

Thanks for sharing the recordings. Was it a direct XLR out of the V3 or are you comparing adc's as well?

[Chuck]

It compares the A/D's as well:

C-461 (DINa) > V3 > (coax out) > HR-680
C-461 (DINa) > HR-680

[Jammin72]

Listening to the Archive version of the moe. show now~~!



First.. Thanks!



Second... Kyle !~!!


Clean, detailed, and crisp stock.

I think some chip mods addressing the slew rate may open her up a bit.  But the noise is a non issue for rock concert taping to be sure.

Great box out of the box without being nearly as harsh as the SD boxes.   Yeah I know you kids love them but they suffer from a very specific hardness to the sound. 

What a fantastic solution with so many possibilities.

This sport is growing more fun by the moment.

[Chuck]

I e-mailed Tascam/Teac earlier this week with some questions about this recorder. Mr. Chang (Teac Engineer) just called me at home with the answers!

I asked him about the Recording Trim adjustments and some other things...

On the Recording Trim knob if you dial one click away from "0" you get a reading of .5 or -.5 depending on which way you turn the dial. But, above 1 and below -1 you have to dial two clicks to get to the next number, 2, 3, 4 etc... I thought it was a firmware glitch that the assumed .5 increments between the whole numbers didn't show on the screen. Mr. Chang confirmed that there are .5 dB increments between the whole numbers. He said there wasn't enough room on the display to show 13.5 or example, so the .5 increments don't and won't show between the whole numbers. He did say there is a firmware glitch that doesn't allow the .5 dB increments to be saved when the recorder is turned off though. That will be fixed in an upcoming firmware update.

Mr Chang did say that they are considering making the <2 dB from clipping indicator more customizable. For example showing an actual clip rather than a <2 dB from clip. Personally, I'd rather know when I actually am clipping, rather than knowing when I might be clipping.

He confirmed that the DR-680 does not re-sample when using the SPDIF input. He was proud to say that the DR-680 uses the AK4612 http://akm.com/prod_brief/AK4614_pb.pdf chip for the A/D section.

He didn't comment on what chips (instrumentation amps or op-amps) were used for the microphone pre-amp section. I'm sure someone will crack one open before I do to report what they are.