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Author Topic: GRIPE ABOUT TASCAM! What is wrong with them?!  (Read 25486 times)

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Offline hoppedup

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Re: GRIPE ABOUT TASCAM! What is wrong with them?!
« Reply #45 on: January 02, 2019, 06:37:51 PM »
We had a Tascam employee on the forums trying to listen and be as helpful as he could in his position. He kept getting attacked and bounced. Looks like he even deleted his account.
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Offline vialenco

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Re: GRIPE ABOUT TASCAM! What is wrong with them?!
« Reply #46 on: January 02, 2019, 07:12:20 PM »
We had a Tascam employee on the forums trying to listen and be as helpful as he could in his position. He kept getting attacked and bounced. Looks like he even deleted his account.

That's a shame, unfortunately some people are just  :tomato:

I wonder how the whole Gibson thing affects them

Offline voltronic

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Re: GRIPE ABOUT TASCAM! What is wrong with them?!
« Reply #47 on: January 02, 2019, 07:28:45 PM »
We had a Tascam employee on the forums trying to listen and be as helpful as he could in his position. He kept getting attacked and bounced. Looks like he even deleted his account.

Tascam has long been known to have poor / unresponsive customer support.  It's a big problem with the company, and one many of us had to find out after we already bought products from them.

That said, the Tascam rep (Tomuo) who had an account here (as well as Gearslutz and JWSound) was a notable exception.  He was one of the only major-manufacturer reps I am aware of to ever frequent this board, other than John Willett (formerly Sennheiser, now Gefell) and Paul Isaacs (Sound Devices).

The way some of our members attacked him for giving answers they didn't like was really unfortunate.  They seemed to hold him personally responsible for problems with product design, firmware performance, or other poor customer service interactions they have had with the company in the past.  He was just one guy trying to be helpful, at least in my view.

This is where things started to come off the rails.
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Offline Gutbucket

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Re: GRIPE ABOUT TASCAM! What is wrong with them?!
« Reply #48 on: January 02, 2019, 07:58:08 PM »
Vialenco, have you tried a few different SD cards (freshly formatted) in the recorder and found the same issue with each?  If so and the issue is playback-related only, as a work-around you might consider a small inexpensive "playback only" player/recorder, physically transferring the SD card over to that when you need to make an listening check in the field.  Not ideal, but less costly than a replacement recorder.

Tascam makes decent gear at low cost that performs well in most cases, but one should not expect much support from them.  The Tascam recorders I have - a DR680 Mk1 and DR680 Mk2 - have been very good recorders for me and are still performing well.  I know this does not apply to you in this case but I'll put it out there for others- Early adopters be warned, best advice is to hold off purchasing until the initial problems and issues of new devices are well documented and have been sufficiently resolved.

I don't expect any new recorders from Tascam until after the Gibson dust settles.
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Offline vialenco

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Re: GRIPE ABOUT TASCAM! What is wrong with them?!
« Reply #49 on: January 03, 2019, 05:40:34 AM »
Vialenco, have you tried a few different SD cards (freshly formatted) in the recorder and found the same issue with each?  If so and the issue is playback-related only, as a work-around you might consider a small inexpensive "playback only" player/recorder, physically transferring the SD card over to that when you need to make an listening check in the field.  Not ideal, but less costly than a replacement recorder.

Tascam makes decent gear at low cost that performs well in most cases, but one should not expect much support from them.  The Tascam recorders I have - a DR680 Mk1 and DR680 Mk2 - have been very good recorders for me and are still performing well.  I know this does not apply to you in this case but I'll put it out there for others- Early adopters be warned, best advice is to hold off purchasing until the initial problems and issues of new devices are well documented and have been sufficiently resolved.

I don't expect any new recorders from Tascam until after the Gibson dust settles.

Hi, I might start a new thread re my issues but to answer your question I have tested 3 different SD cards I have on it and they all did the same thing. The odd thing is it only started doing it few days ago and never had this issue in the past. I even did a full format of the card in the Tascam and still same issue.
I wonder if it's FW related as to be fair since updating to the latest FW I haven't used it much although I'm sure I would have noticed by now. Like most manufacturers though I am unable to "downgrade" the FW as I have tried, I have also tried re-flashing it with the latest OS.

Offline mjwin

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Re: GRIPE ABOUT TASCAM! What is wrong with them?!
« Reply #50 on: January 03, 2019, 02:33:35 PM »
Last year I brought a DR-100 mk III [...]
Well bang on a year after purchase the machine now glitches on playback or whilst record monitoring, this is now just a few days outside of the warranty period!
The data recorded to the SD card is actually ok but playback and monitoring on the DR it'self isn't, at a guess an issue with the DA IC or a capacitor... Thing is it doesn't really give you confidence if you play something back and it's clicking and popping, on location you'd think is the file corrupt?
When you say it's "glitching", I don't suppose this could be anything as simple as a bad connection on the h/p connector? Not that that's necessarily simple to fix, but if you can nail it down to this, you might find someone who can fix it. You didn't say much about how it actually sounded, so it isn't easy to tell.  If the recording itself is ok, the problem is likely to be in the post-digital output section, and bad connectors are the #1 cause of such noise.

The sad thing is the DR-100 III other wise was great, some minor quibbles about the build (noisy and poor quality jog wheel and the shock mount doesn't really do anything when the unit is hand held)

I think you might well have got a bad unit here.  I find the jog wheel an excellent interface,  and it certainly isn't noisy. It can also be spun with one finger so it's easy to scroll through very long files. Mine has had a lot of use in this respect and is still holding up after 2 years or so.  (Actually, I wish the Mixpre6 had a similar function!)  As for the mic shock mount, sometimes I wonder why machines at this level bother with an internal mic as this tends to do them a disservice.  AFAIK, only Sony D100 offers a decent quality in-built mic, and it's double the price for a reason!
« Last Edit: January 03, 2019, 02:47:12 PM by mjwin »

Offline vialenco

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Re: GRIPE ABOUT TASCAM! What is wrong with them?!
« Reply #51 on: January 04, 2019, 11:37:53 AM »
It's not a breaking down socket or cold solder joint, I thought I attached an audio clip as well as the picture but I forgot that was only on my email to Tascam.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=10YMuSgUhq1oh9TcO5a3MI5lITDM10fVd

Any way I actually got a speedy reply from them (Tascam UK) saying it's most likely the DA section at fault and to contact the dealer I brought it from to arrange a return.
Upon contacting the dealer they said it will probs be done under warranty even though it's just a few days out although he couldn't get a answer out of Tascam regarding that question and assumed it would be ok as they gave him a returns RMA.

So fingers crossed it all goes well and Tascam are turning over a new leaf  :coolguy:

Re the shock mount reason I mentioned it is because from memory I've used better on cheaper recorders from the likes of Zoom from memory i.e. hand held for interview. But it's of no real importance to me as 90% of what I do is using line sources.
« Last Edit: January 04, 2019, 11:40:41 AM by vialenco »

Offline IronFilm

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Re: GRIPE ABOUT TASCAM! What is wrong with them?!
« Reply #52 on: January 14, 2019, 12:49:04 AM »
We had a Tascam employee on the forums trying to listen and be as helpful as he could in his position. He kept getting attacked and bounced. Looks like he even deleted his account.

That is sad to hear.

I really enjoyed my usage of the DR60D/DR70D/DR680

And apparently the HS-P82 was pretty awesome for its time.

Wish Tascam would make something now to respond to the MixPre6/10T and F4/F8n machines.

Offline vialenco

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Re: GRIPE ABOUT TASCAM! What is wrong with them?!
« Reply #53 on: January 25, 2019, 08:07:00 PM »
Not had an official reply from Tascam yet and have been advised by my dealer the manufacturer will update me late next week but I believe the issue was software related and has been resolved.

The reason I believe this is that Tascam has just released a new FW which addresses my described faults so chances are they are now testing it to confirm all is ok.
I should of also mentioned the battery miss-reporting issues which I believe are software related but it never bothered me that much.

Download the latest FW here https://www.tascam.eu/en/downloads/current/DR-100MKIII

"Maintenance items
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
V1.06 fix

- When AUTO MARK was set to LEVEL, marks would be added frequently. This has been fixed.

- During playback of a WAV File with 96kHz sampling frequency, low-level noise would be output on rare occasions.
  This has been fixed.

- Plug-in power would be supplied even when the input source was set to EXT LINE. This is been fixed."

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Re: GRIPE ABOUT TASCAM! What is wrong with them?!
« Reply #54 on: March 25, 2019, 10:45:53 PM »
I just procured a DR70D from the yard. Ran it for the first time 3-22-19. Just moved all the files that were on the card over to my desktop and reformatted the card. It came with a SanDisk Extreme PRO 16GB card.
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03/22/19 rig update: AKG c480b(ck61/62/63) > Canare StarQuad mic cables > EAA PSP-2 and/or Lunatec V3 > Marantz PMD-661 (Oade Bros. Warm Mod) and/or Tascam DR-70D

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Offline tascamsks

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Re: GRIPE ABOUT TASCAM! What is wrong with them?!
« Reply #55 on: October 30, 2020, 11:01:52 AM »
I have three tascam recorders, two I bought over the years, one given to me by a musician friend of mine.  None of the files produced by them are recognized by my windows 10 computer, the message is, the codec code from the Tascam is not recognized.  So i spend a couple days staring at a 2 inch screen, mixing tracks down on my DP-004, and now I can't transfer this file to my video editing software.  Nothing i have recognizes this file.  So i go on some websites selling Tascam recorders and read that DP-006 is good for windows 7, Vista and Windows 8.1 or something.  NOT 10.  WTF.  This is a complete ripoff.  Every update from windows 10, trying to stay ahead of Chinese and Russian hackers, is rendering a new category of Tascam products obsolete. 

If you are using these mini-computers to store information, you are an idiot.  Record through an audio interface and use a REAL computer to store files.  This is where everything is going, and fast.  Hardware can't keep up, and its like buying a horse and buggy, in the age of cars.  Tascam knows this, and is selling products which will not work in a couple years, if nothing else because of the constant updates of Windows software.   I say sue the fk out of them.  Tascam is dead. 

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Re: GRIPE ABOUT TASCAM! What is wrong with them?!
« Reply #56 on: October 30, 2020, 11:17:52 AM »
love my dr100 mkii and my dr-2d

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Re: GRIPE ABOUT TASCAM! What is wrong with them?!
« Reply #57 on: October 30, 2020, 12:37:32 PM »
I have three tascam recorders, two I bought over the years, one given to me by a musician friend of mine.  None of the files produced by them are recognized by my windows 10 computer, the message is, the codec code from the Tascam is not recognized.  So i spend a couple days staring at a 2 inch screen, mixing tracks down on my DP-004, and now I can't transfer this file to my video editing software.  Nothing i have recognizes this file.  So i go on some websites selling Tascam recorders and read that DP-006 is good for windows 7, Vista and Windows 8.1 or something.  NOT 10.  WTF.  This is a complete ripoff.  Every update from windows 10, trying to stay ahead of Chinese and Russian hackers, is rendering a new category of Tascam products obsolete. 

If you are using these mini-computers to store information, you are an idiot.  Record through an audio interface and use a REAL computer to store files.  This is where everything is going, and fast.  Hardware can't keep up, and its like buying a horse and buggy, in the age of cars.  Tascam knows this, and is selling products which will not work in a couple years, if nothing else because of the constant updates of Windows software.   I say sue the fk out of them.  Tascam is dead.
OKaaayyyy. Since this is your first post, WELCOME!
Now, I'd like to tell you some of the issues you bring up which most of us do not do anyway:
1] Almost zero hard core recordists store any data on their recorders. We mostly take the data off SD|CF cards and transfer it to our computers (Mac and PC)
2] Almost zero hard core recordists consider their digital recorders as a device to edit with, movie sound operators aside, and they certainly don't do much field editing these days anyway.
3] Nature or Foley recordists might do either of the above, but surely if one is being paid, one is not storing files on a bit bucket.

While Tascam certainly has issues, this file format mis-match I do not comprehend. What is the suffix for the files (i.e. .wav, or other?)
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Re: GRIPE ABOUT TASCAM! What is wrong with them?!
« Reply #58 on: October 30, 2020, 01:48:21 PM »
I have three tascam recorders, two I bought over the years, one given to me by a musician friend of mine.  None of the files produced by them are recognized by my windows 10 computer, the message is, the codec code from the Tascam is not recognized.  So i spend a couple days staring at a 2 inch screen, mixing tracks down on my DP-004, and now I can't transfer this file to my video editing software.  Nothing i have recognizes this file.  So i go on some websites selling Tascam recorders and read that DP-006 is good for windows 7, Vista and Windows 8.1 or something.  NOT 10.  WTF.  This is a complete ripoff.  Every update from windows 10, trying to stay ahead of Chinese and Russian hackers, is rendering a new category of Tascam products obsolete. 

If you are using these mini-computers to store information, you are an idiot.  Record through an audio interface and use a REAL computer to store files.  This is where everything is going, and fast.  Hardware can't keep up, and its like buying a horse and buggy, in the age of cars.  Tascam knows this, and is selling products which will not work in a couple years, if nothing else because of the constant updates of Windows software.   I say sue the fk out of them.  Tascam is dead.

No issues getting my 24 bit WAV files off the Tascam to my Windows 10 computer via either USB or usually direct off the SD card.

How big are your files? More than 4GB? Some DAW software will not recognize files due to the size, not anything to do with the equipment it was recorded on. Most of us allow the recorder to autosplit the files at 2GB to avoid system issues and then seemlessly rejoin them later.

If you have a problem relating to the Live Music Archive (http://www.archive.org/details/etree) please send an e-mail to us admins at LMA(AT)archive(DOT)org or post in the LMA thread here and we'll get on it.

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Offline voltronic

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Re: GRIPE ABOUT TASCAM! What is wrong with them?!
« Reply #59 on: October 30, 2020, 06:56:59 PM »
I have three tascam recorders, two I bought over the years, one given to me by a musician friend of mine.  None of the files produced by them are recognized by my windows 10 computer, the message is, the codec code from the Tascam is not recognized.  So i spend a couple days staring at a 2 inch screen, mixing tracks down on my DP-004, and now I can't transfer this file to my video editing software.  Nothing i have recognizes this file.  So i go on some websites selling Tascam recorders and read that DP-006 is good for windows 7, Vista and Windows 8.1 or something.  NOT 10.  WTF.  This is a complete ripoff.  Every update from windows 10, trying to stay ahead of Chinese and Russian hackers, is rendering a new category of Tascam products obsolete. 

If you are using these mini-computers to store information, you are an idiot.  Record through an audio interface and use a REAL computer to store files.  This is where everything is going, and fast.  Hardware can't keep up, and its like buying a horse and buggy, in the age of cars.  Tascam knows this, and is selling products which will not work in a couple years, if nothing else because of the constant updates of Windows software.   I say sue the fk out of them.  Tascam is dead.
OKaaayyyy. Since this is your first post, WELCOME!
Now, I'd like to tell you some of the issues you bring up which most of us do not do anyway:
1] Almost zero hard core recordists store any data on their recorders. We mostly take the data off SD|CF cards and transfer it to our computers (Mac and PC)
2] Almost zero hard core recordists consider their digital recorders as a device to edit with, movie sound operators aside, and they certainly don't do much field editing these days anyway.
3] Nature or Foley recordists might do either of the above, but surely if one is being paid, one is not storing files on a bit bucket.

While Tascam certainly has issues, this file format mis-match I do not comprehend. What is the suffix for the files (i.e. .wav, or other?)

+1 to this response.


Regarding the format issue: While it may be possible for a file transfer through your recorder to be getting borked, you should try using a card reader to dump the files directly from the card.  Any Tascam recorder you have writes .WAV files, and this is a format Microsoft created with IBM.  It is absolutely supported.

Also, I 100% disagree with the premise that recording straight to computer is where "everything is going".  Talk to any of the professional location recordists on GS Remote or JWSound, the people who do this as a day job, and they will tell you that portable recorders are generally much more reliable than recording straight to a laptop or PC.  I have found this to be the case as well.  I can count one hand the number of times I have had a recording made on a digital recorder be unusable.  Two of those were faulty firmware; the others were user error.

You can hate on Tascam all you want (with or without cause), but try making this argument to Sound Devices, AATON, Zaxcom, Sonosax, or any other high-end portable recorder brand.
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