Anyone using the Tascam DP-008EX digital recorder?

[bitewerksMTB]

I'm thinking about going digital:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/DP008EX

Is anyone using that machine or one similar (esp. in price range)?

[pentd]

i think kf whitman praised that machine somewhere, tiny + feature rich... 

that tiny screen though, as with my zoom or any other device... its like mixing with an old cell phone... menu/ choose page/ choose parameter/ adjust value/ go back one page/ choose wtf there went my train oh well...

those onboard mikes are probably also above average.. see if you get option to record, lets say, 1x line in (from mixer/mik/whatever) +1x onboard mik for instant room/ambience, shit wont sound so flat when blended into a bit of space

[bitewerksMTB]

There are two analog inputs. I doubt I'd use the built-in mics but who knows? Could be useful... Price seems good considering the other digital recorders seem to jump up to $300-400.

[Pax Chetyorka]

I used to have one, ended up selling it to buy a cassette 4 track. :b

It's a very orderly and intuitive unit. It'll do what you expect it to. Minimal menu-diving. Good sound quality & overdubbing is effortless. The mics are a bit awkward due to placement, though I didn't experiment much with them.

Gripes: Eats batteries, power supply sold separately. It doesn't record in .wav like on handheld Zooms and the like; you convert .001 (etc) files  in the "track export" setting, and it is not fast. Longer tracks can easily take an hour.

[Leatherface]

Avoid, except if you like to play with menu, sub-menu, sub-sub-menu. If you have big fingers, difficulty is duplicated.
I think that the Zoom R8 is better.

[bitewerksMTB]

No power adapter means it's out of the running. The Zoom R8 includes it. I'm just looking around. I'll probably wait until the 4-track has died.

I thought there would be more options for multitrackers...

[pentd]

zoom H4N recommended -- also R16: record 8 at once, then add another 8. decent onboard mics. laptop sized. everybody's selling theirs cos the new models have "more of everything". 2nd hand ca.200-250?

[horribleflesheater]

I switched from tape to digital in the last year and very much grew to prefer digital- the workflow is a little more difficult to wrap your head around than on a cassette 4 track in my opinion, but I definitely prefer that cold clinical digital tone.

[Andrew McIntosh]

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/DP008EX

Is anyone using that machine or one similar (esp. in price range)?

Just noticed this topic. I got that very one earlier last year, I think it was. Great little unit if all you want to do is just record sounds, layer them, maybe edit them a bit. But if you want more editing function you're better dumping files onto a DAW. For straight up, raw recording, it's fine. The inbuilt microphones are okay but nothing special. The big advantage is its portability and affordability. The disadvantages I suppose are there's a bit of faffing around with creating partitions and such, going between pages on the menu to do things like name tracks, adjust eq and panning and so forth - perhaps not much worse than working out a good analogue multi track. The problem of course is the more features a unit has, the more one has to learn. In truth, the eq-ing and other editing parts are probably more trouble than worth bothering with. And yes, the track "exporting" thing adds more time than should be necessary.

Mine has a power adapter included, so I'm not sure what the story is there.

Mostly I just use it as an interface between instruments and main computer. I got the thing originally because I wanted something portable I could record at different sites, and this is small and cheap. It could well be used as a back-up recording/editing device if and when my main computer dies, but I wouldn't rely on it all the time.

But I do like it as it meets my needs very well.