Hi I'm new here -
Tascam/Teac VR-10 Digital Recorder
I can be considered a noob - but I used to make casual live recordings years ago - initially with a Sony D7 DAT recorder - then various Sony MiniDisc recorders - took part in TapeHeads and DATheads newsgroups - and even built my own microphones from some well rated Panasonic capsules, that got published on the web.
But I haven't done any live recordings for years - until I noticed a friend with what appeared to be a pocket recorder set on a table recording - then it dawned on me that if photography and even videography had gone digital solid-state - ie: flash - don't know why I didn't realize or think of them before - so must audio recording equipment.
So did some minimal research and found portable digital recorders were easily available and reasonably priced.
First saw ConsumerSearch.com in their section "
Professional Recorders" - this gave me a start -
using
Amazon lists then gave me a better idea of what was out there and being sold -
then google searches found various reviews, comparisons, and here at TapersSection.com for more detailed discussion on them.
It didn't take me long to find out the Zoom H4n seemed to be most popular/coveted and highly rated portable recorder, but doing some searching including Amazon - found other popular recorders such as the Zoom H2n, H1 and Tascam DR-05, DR-07MkII.
But in the end I found a Tascam/Teac VR-10 on Amazon that was priced at $26.69, at the time, brand new so I bought it.
One of the main reasons and grateful to - was I heard a terrific live recording by member cd2go linked in Reply #13 - from April 02, 2011 in the thread
New Tascam DR-03 competes with zoom H1In the meantime - obviously I was looking at what would consider to be almost "ideal" - but obviously more expensive recorder - and saw the one I had targeted ($120 lowest price) - at $59 +$7 shipping, used - so I had to snap that up.
First live music recording with the Teac VR-10 was very good in parts, but I also got horrible distortion - this was because the AGC/ALC (auto record level control) could not handle the loud volumes even when set to low sensitivity.
So learned to use manual level control - and most of the time the record levels were down in 0-3 - right near the bottom - distortion problem solved.
One of my early tests was to use a larger microSDHC card fully charge up some eneloop AAA batteries and set the VR-10 on record with 24-bit 48kHz to see how long the battery would last since I had read complaints of short battery life - my one test managed 5hours 19mins worth of recorded files with any single max file size of 2GB (=2hr 4m at 24b48k)
The first VR-10 I got had problems of freezing/locking up if any buttons were pressed during recording. This may not seem to be much of a problem - but this would include adjusting recording levels during recording, also the VR-10 is supposed to be able to manually create a new file during recording at any time - by pressing the REC key during recording create a new file and continue recording. This is very useful for recording each song to a separate file without stopping and restarting the recording. BUT doing these could eventually cause the VR-10 to freeze up - and the only recourse is to pull out the battery.
Amazon were very good about replacing the recorder.
However the replacement I got had a much older version of the firmware, and had the same freezing problem.
Tascam USA website lists this item as discontinued and does NOT have any supporting downloads. Contacting customer service gets only an auto e-mail acknowledgment with ref code (3PEC0QA2) - but NO actual response or help - so could not get latest firmware.
Teac/Tascam EU has downloads for manuals, but no firmware.
Teac.co.jp the Japanese site did have the firmware (
http://www.teac.jp/product/vr-10/downloads/), but there were two versions - and release notes was in Japanese only - so I could not figure out which firmware to use, and more to the point how to do the firmware update. Flashing firmware updates is critical and should not be done by guesswork as it can render the recorder inoperable.
I wrote Teac.co.jp (in English) to ask about the firmware update - they did respond within 24 hours and the e-mail parts in English did point out which firmware to use (vr-10-40_103.zip, do NOT use the version with the "e" suffix - that is not for "English" but for another model in Japan that actually has the "e" designation) - but no instructions, or location of release Notes and instructions in English.
However I figured out 3 current Tascam models (DR-03, PR-10, DR-08) were based on the Teac VR-10/VR-20 series (again thanks to TapersSection from the above thread and
TEAC VR-10/VR-20 = Tascam DR-08 in Japan), and the Tascam DR-08 had a firmware update and pdf release notes/instructions.
No intention of using DR-08 firmware - but DR-08 release notes/instructions gave the changes/fixes and instructions on how to do the update - I cross-checked with the actual Japanese version of the pdf VR-10 release notes/instructions - by manually copying each paragraph and running the Japanese characters through google translate - to know with pretty good confidence that the notes/instruction were basically the same.
So I was able to do the firmware update successfully.
BUT guess what? the recorder even on the latest firmware that may have addressed this issue -
still Freezes eventually, if any buttons are pressed during recording.
Still, because of the very good sound quality (matches the Tascam DR-07MkII also at 24bit 48k), very small and handy form factor, and low price, I have decided to keep it despite the fatal flaw - as I will just record straight through and do the file splitting, post - inconvenient - but I can just about live with it to gain this very neat small recorder that records very good sound quality.