Tascam DP-006 6-Track Digital Pocketstudio Multi-Track Audio Recorder, Built-in Mics, Songwriting, Battery Operated

Great value, great fun
UPDATE: I originally said the manual did not list the power consumption of this unit. That is not correct, I noticed that it does — it lists the power consumption as 1 Watt maximum. That means the power adapter has to be 5 volts with no less than 200 milliamps. —–I have an old Tascam Porta 05 4-track tape recorder that I bought new in 1987. Yes, it still works fine after all these years. Hopefully the Tascams these days are as well made, we’ll see! I bought this DP-006 to replace it, along with a 2×2 USB audio interface for use separately with at DAW. I got both of these together for a small fraction of what that old Porta 05 cost me back in the day.It’s a great little machine. The manual is very good and thorough (don’t lose it!). It had me up and running in no time. I started downloading and installing the DAW software for my USB audio interface, and this always takes forever — these are multi-gigabyte downloads. Add to that the time it takes to install and update the drivers for the USB interface (which gave me trouble), and it easily can (and did) take pretty much the whole day. And then you have to learn the DAW. Meanwhile, while the downloads were going, I had plenty of time to go through the Tascam manual more than once, learn its features, and even put down a six track recording (vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass, drum machine, and ukulele). It even happened that one of the ground wires inside my electric bass had come lose, and I resoldered it — got it all in before the DAW (mine was a 30-gigabyte monster).So, it does take a little time to learn the features of the Tascam, but when you put in perspective, it hardly seems too much to ask.The great feature of this Tascam is its extreme portability. Also, it’s great to lay down basic blues, rock or jazz rhythm tracks to practice soloing and improvisation, for example. Or also to record yourself conveniently so you can listen back from the observer perspective and notice things you might not pick up on when you’re concentrating on performance. It’s very handy.Others have remarked about the power cord, well this is one thing that SHOULD have changed over the years. It was a bad deal back when the Porta studios cost hundreds and hundreds, but even worse when you have a $79 unit. They still price them at $40 a piece. You can get cheaper non-Tascam ones, I paid $9.99 for mine (hasn’t arrived yet tho). Disappointingly the manual does not list the power requirements, but rooting around on the Internet I found the specs of Tascam’s adapter.They are: 5V 2000mA 10W Max Tip Size: 2.5mm x 5.5mm (Inner diameter x Outer diameter). The pin on the connector is positive. So the adapter is capable of putting out a lot of current. I doubt the DP-006 uses the full 2 amps at any time, but as a rule you don’t want to run anything under-amped. You do need a 5 Volt adapter. Having more amps available than necessary is fine, but you don’t want less.That’s asking for trouble, so unless anybody can say what the actual engineered current draw for the DP-006 truly is, I wouldn’t recommend running any adapter on it that’s not 5 Volt, 2 Amp. That’s a change for the worse, my old Porta 05 4-track did list out these kinds of specifications in the manual. [UPDATE: The manual DOES list power consumption after all. It’s listed as 1 Watt maximum. That means you need to have 5 volt adapter that can handle at least 200 milliamps.]This thing does put down its own filesystem on the SD cards, one that Windows or OS X can’t read. So, there is a conversion step that has to happen when you export your songs or tracks to the computer. People have complained that it takes too long. I tried it with my one recorded song, and I didn’t think it was too bad. But I did mix and master it on the DP-006, as we do on the old Portas from before the age of the DAW. So I only had the finished song to export, no biggie, not six separate tracks.I saw some comments where people said the onboard mikes weren’t sensitive enough. You can set their level, though. They have three sensitivity levels: low, mid and high. Default is low. I had them on low, and I found them to be more than adequate. Quite nice actually. In fact, the air conditioner unit kicked on outside when I was doing my vocal track. It doesn’t make a lot of noise, just a new low hum. I didn’t think the DP-006’s mikes were going to pick it up, but dang it they did, had to re-take it.I tried out a few additional features, the metronome and the chromatic tuner. The metronome is useful, helping you synchronize things. It will appear in your headphones, but not in the recording (unless you tell it to show up in the recordings). I couldn’t get the tuner to work, but I didn’t give it too much time, this is undoubtedly user-error. I don’t really need it. Still operating off the trusty old 440 A tuning fork here.I think it’s a great piece of equipment. Well worth it.

Qualidade de gravação

Es ist ein gutes, vielseitiges Gerät aber aus meiner Sicht ist die Bedienung zu kompliziert.

I often get inspired but by the time I get to my recording equipment, load up the software in my PC, get everything ready, the moment is gone.I started using my phone to record spontaneous music with limited success.I decided to give this little (and I do mean LITTLE) multitrack a try. It’s perfect for this role. The built in mics are worth using, running off batteries is handy too.The interface takes some getting used to, but other than that it’s a great ‘bedroom’ recorder.