Recording Studio Equipment

I purchased this microphone for two reasons. 1) I needed a mic that was sturdy and could fit into a digital voice recorder. 2) I needed it quickly as I was going to Chicago for a comic convention doing video interviews.

Pros:
- It arrived earlier than I expected.
- Well constructed product
- Instructions were easy to understand

Cons:
- Wouldn’t turn on.
- Battery wasn’t being detected
- There was a short in the connection from the flimsy wires to the board itself.

I like Tascam do not get me wrong… but this really left a bad taste in my mouth and I really could not recommend it based on the fact that I got a faulty microphone.

The old Sony DVR I used on that trip instead, worked ten times better and saved what was going to be a disastrous weekend into the most successful one that I’ve ever had.

using it on my Canon D7 for HD recording. Really a great mikle, and I could not believe the price was so low.

Tascam advertises this as “class compliant” USB 2.0, and it is. I plugged it into my Ubuntu Linux machine and was ready to go. No messing with drivers, no clunky setup. The US-100 works and works well. The case is nice and sturdy, making it idea for mobile use. And it sounds good too. If you want to just plug and play, this is a great buy.

I plugged this in and it worked seamlessly in both Linux and Mac OS X without installing any drivers.
Very pleased with the recording quality I got.

I’m a do-it-yourself singer/songwriter and recording artist. I bought the DR08 largely for capturing ambient sounds to include in my home recordings and for recording band rehearsals and gigs. Overall I’m happy with the DR08. The interface is simple and intuitive to use. It’s done a good job capturing and representing band rehearsals and live music. Of course, it’s not what a pro would use to mic a show, but for my purpose of providing fairly faithful feedback of what the music sounded like at a particular position in the room, it does the job well. The ambient stuff I’ve grabbed has been solid fidelity with minimal background noise/hiss–to my ears, definitely good enough to incorporate into DIY recordings. I’ve also recorded some interview-type conversation, which sounded great.

Key problems are two-fold: the device is highly sensitive to wind (even light breeze) noise and to noise from the hand holding it. Which leads to my biggest disappointment…the lack of practical tips-and-tricks TASCAM could have included in the Manual. The Owners Manual covers the technical stuff clearly, but it offers little practical guidance on how to get good recordings from the device for the non-super-techy/audiophile (who, I suspect, based on where this falls in the spectrum of products and prices, is TASCAM’s market for the product!). I’m left wondering…

How to deal with wind noise? No mention at all of this as a potential problem (which it is for outdoor recordings) in the manual. Do they sell a windscreen for this product? Would pantyhose or some home-made contraption help?

The device is very sensitive to picking up noise from the hand holding it. Not a shocker, but it would be great to have some tips on dealing with this issue besides the obvious one of setting it on its back on its stand–a so-so solution that is (1) often not practical based on the recording situation and (2) can create the issue of picking up reflected noise from the surface it’s on). Are any of the “Low-Cut” settings meant to help here?

When, specifically, might I want to apply the different “Low Cut” settings of 40/80/120? What do those settings even mean? What difference in result can I expect? Some examples/scenarios would be appreciated.

For the EQ boost feature, when, specifically, might I want to use the TREBLE/MID/BASS boost feature? Again, some common examples/scenarios would be great.

There are three different mic positions. For each position, where exactly is the field of sound capture? In other words, which direction do I want to point/orient the devices to best capture certain types of sounds? How close/far should I be to capture the most “real” sound?

I realize I can and will figure this stuff out with extensive experimentation, which, sure, is part of the fun. But who wouldn’t want some practical tips for a head start? If you’re like me (and I’m guessing you are if you’re considering buying at this product level/price point), then I’d say just about everyone would benefit from a more instructive “Manual.”

So overall, a good product at a good price for the hobbyist/semi-professional, but it comes with a frustrating lack of guidance on how/when/why to use the technical features and get the most out of the device.

been playing guitar off and on for 15 years and would say it good device to learn basic structure of any song you need, and allows taking pop songs, rap songs laying guitar solos or riffs over them. Good jam device. Love the overdub feature can take mp3 songs and play around them and jam, and if you really want to learn basics of a song it can slow a song down to 1/2 speed, and repeat.

Great tool for working out leads. Very easy to use and fun to travel with.

Works great for the DR-07. Nice long cord and saves on the batteries. Happy I bought it.

I bought the MPS recorder and it uses a set of batteries about every 4 hours. I ran out of batteries in a middle of a recording, so the PS was clearly a must. It arrived promptly and it has a reasonable cord length allowing you to pick any close by outlet.

I am very happy with the purchase and would reccomend it for people recrding more than an hour.