Customer Reviews

Tascam DP-02 Digital Portastudio - 8 Track

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is an outstanding system for demo recording and I am sure it would also be useful for live recordings with some added components.

After much research, I purchased the Tascam DP02 Portastudio instead of the Boss BR900CD. I had previously used the BR900 with much success and had my mind set on it for quiet some time. I kept my options open and the DP02 seemed to be the most comparable system. Despite some reviews stating the DP02 did not allow you to hear the effects while recording, I decided on it due to the on-board high, low, and reverb adjustment options. (I did not want to transfer to a computer for mastering) I was going to add an effects processor and pre-amp for the mic, but found all effects do play through recording.

The system has a lot of built in guitar (acoustic and electric), drum, bass, and vocal effects. It took me only a few hours to record several tracks, master them, and burn them to disk. Only being able to record to 2 tracks at once is a small drawback, but if you are doing all of your own recording shouldn't be a problem.

READ THE MANUAL!

Although it is not the easiest to follow page to page, if you know how to find what your looking for it's in the manual. For those of you that want to sit down, push record, and be on your way, you may want to look for a simpler system. Once you get it down, the DP02 is quite easy to use, but not something you can just turn on and go without some instruction. The trickiest part would would be mastering, but it is by no means difficult if you follow the directions.

All around this is a great system for a home studio and possibly more.

P.S. Thanks to Amazon for having the lowest price, and quick delivery.

Just a quick update. May 29, 2010. I have put many hours onto this Portastudio and can say it has absolutely been worth it. The volume on the final track can be a little tricky, but nothing some time and patience cannot overcome. It has not given me any trouble and has never locked up as some people have said. Great piece of equipment for a very fair price.

This Portastudio is great, and exactly what I have been looking for. I have had no problems whatsoever with it, and it has worked like a charm. As far as other people, I'm sure they have gotten bad units. It happens with all electronics. Sometimes a bad batch of units gets sent out, or one out of ten has a defect, or sometimes they fix the problems but older versions are still being sent from store inventory. Whatever the case may be, it works amazing, unless you are one of the unlucky ones who gets a defective one.

I am a heavy metal guitarist, and I use this to write my own tracks, and lay down drums and all. This works great if you want to finalize the track and burn it to a cd, but most of the time I will send it to my computer for final mastering. Why don't I do it all through my computer, you may ask? This is hassle free, it has no lag in the sound, and I can start it up and start recording when I have an idea, rather than get my computer turned on and all set up. Plus this unit has great sound quality. Before this, I have recorded directly to my computer for a few years. I enjoy this a lot more.

The guitar effects are decent on it, and can be used by themselves without a preamp, but they do sound weak. Being a metal guitarist, the built in effects don't quite have the sound I need, such as heavy distortion, gain, and harmonics. It does have some metal tones on it, but believe me, not what I need. It would work well for acoustic stuff though, and for some light rock. So basically I still use a preamp in front of it, even while using built in effects, putting a preamp in front of it helps immensely.

This unit is only an 8 track, and you can only record 2 tracks ata time, but this shouldn't be a problem if you're the only one doing all of the recording, or if you're taking turns laying down your parts, like you should during studio recording. But if you wanted to record all 8 tracks, say as a live performance, it won't work. I use two tracks for rhuthm guitar, two tracks for lead guitar, two more for the second lead guitar, and two more for drums. Works great in that recording aspect. If you run out of tracks, just send them to your computer (for final mastering later) and then just delete them off of the unit to make more room.

Ok, to sum it all up, here are my final thoughts on everything:

* This unit works great, whether it be used as a standalone unit or mastered on your computer,

either way it IS COMPLETELY worth it.

* Although the amp effects in this are a little weak sounding for metal, you simply just add a

preamp in front of this and it sounds great. Plus the effects for acoustic or lighter

sounding guitar work great, since you don't need to use pinch harmonics or gain, etc.

* Works great for self recording, laying down ideas, or self creating entire tracks or albums.

I lay down my drum tracks, my rhythm tracks, then my lead tracks.

* Even though there is not a ton of final track mastering features, or barely any at all, what

it has works very nice. You CAN silence parts of tracks, such as in between where the guitar

is not being played, so you can take out all that unnecessary bad noise.

* You can hook it up to your computer and transfer all your tracks, so you can do final

mastering on your computer, back-up tracks, etc.

And most of all, it IS really easy to use. don't let everyone else convince you otherwise. Within one single weekend, you should easily be accustomed to it and be fairly familiar with it. Within a couple days, recording really is that simple. If you use built in effects, just remember what they are, so you can dial them in in the future easily. Just to give you a run down of my everyday operation, I want you to see how easy and fast it is. I plug it in, I start it up, I create a new track, I assign the guitar input to the tracks I want it to record on, I set my effects, and I record! Then whe nswitching to different tracks, you simply deselect the current ones, and select the new ones. It's that simple, and takes two seconds! What's better than this, is the fact that if you had a recording session going the previous session, and saved it (always save your session or you will lose it), then upon startup, it will load your previous used session, so all you have to do is turn it on and record! That simple!

So all in all, this IS completely worth purchasing, if you plan on using it the ways that I have mentioned. It really is an amazing piece of equitment, and I have looked at many many others before deciding upon this one.

The soft case for this DP-02 is well worth checking out, as I have also wrote a review on that to help out. If you have any questions, feel free to comment, and I will respond and answer them for you to help as much as I can!

First off, I am a life long musician and have been recording in my home studio and in major studios for over 25 years.

I bought this unit to record my music, expecting a great experience, as I had used Tascam's products before. All went well until I ran into this unit's notorious issues...

First was the units issue with freezing in play mode on occassion after you press stop. It doesnot continue playing, but ever button you attempt to push give you a "Not Stopped" message and the only way to resume is to unplug the unit and lose all that you have recorded since your last save.

Second was the most untolerable of all. With this unit you are given only a certain amount of recording time per song, which is not in real time. If you get to the end of your time you will loose everything you have done, period. I lost one completed 4 minute song twice due to this issue. Then I restarted with a new song just to see how the time measurement worked and was in shock! I did four takes of about 20 seconds each and everytime I pressed the undo button to start fresh. Afterwords I check the time counter and BAM!, I lost 17 or the 2300 alloted minutes of recording time just like that... 17 minutes! without even recording a thing.

How a company like Tascam can put out a unit with this fatal flaw is not only beyond me, but has made me lose all previous beliefs that I might of had that they were a solid company. I thought I got a deal, but after dishing out $400 for this unit all I really got was robbed. Not only for my money, but also for the time I spent learing of theses unexcusable flaws. WTF Tascam! WTF!

I am a multi-instrumentalist who creates atmospheric soundscapes that integrate electronic music with American folk instruments, woodwinds, and world percussion. I am a strong advocate for the *process* of recording music (which I liken with cooking) as opposed to mechanically generating beats and tones (which I liken with microwaving).

After some ambivalence over the transition from an analog to a digital Portastudio, I decided to go with this 8-track to replace my cassette 4-track when recording electronic music. (I still use the analog machine for recording guitar-bass-drums material which I then mix and master on computer, but to capture the fuller range of direct-input synths and drum machines it really is necessary to use a digital machine.)

With the DP-02, I have been more than impressed with the fact that I can combine analog and digital recordings on an album without differences in tonal quality becoming a distraction.

I would agree with other reviewers that the machine holds up quite well. It has frozen up only once, and that was at the end of a very long session (7 hours) on a summer afternoon in a stuffy attic studio.

I have discovered only four major drawbacks with this machine:

First, whereas my dynamic mics worked like a charm with my analog machine, this model does require a preamp to drive acoustic instruments into the mix. (On the other hand, the preamp does help generate a sense of warmth that I miss from the analog recorder!) With the DP-02, it is VERY important to keep an ear on the input level (for both mic and line in). When set too high it will pick up the sound of the internal hard drive, which has stained the recordings of some very good spontaneous moments with a high-pitched whizzing sound (thankfully I was able to restore them via computer software, but it took some work and some of the clarity became dulled). My advice, therefore, is to set the input level lower and to crank the output on your instrument/amp and/or to close-mic (just try to avoid clipping from the preamp by adjusting its volume level as needed). I have found that the balance *will* come out in the wash during the mixing/editing phase.

Second, the DP-02's EQ and effects are good (though I really only use reverb - any other effects I tend to introduce at the instrument/amp level), and the hardware durability is outstanding (I've had this machine for about a year now and it has definitely withstood the test of time). However, I have found that the on-board mixes on this machine are muddier than those made via software. I find this disappointing because I would much prefer to use my hands to operate the sliders and pots than to sit before a computer screen pointing and clicking a mouse. On the other hand, two advantages to doing mixes by computer are: (a) the difference between 0 and 1, between 1 and 1.5, between 1.5 and 2, etc. on the DP-02 volume sliders is substantial, which makes it difficult to make subtle adjustments without affecting the entire mix, and (b) whereas software has an "undo" button, one mistake during a stereo mixdown on the DP-02 and one has to start over. All that said, I would say that the SmartCard model may be better than the CD model because it is about $150 cheaper!

Third, I love the fact that I can upload each song track by track to a computer via USB cable and then mix/edit/master/burn to CD or upload to internet from there. However, the transfer to computer process does take a while (between 5 and 25 minutes for a 2:30 song, depending on the number of tracks used and how involved the wave forms are). Uploading only can occur one song at a time, and the USB cable must be disconnected between uploads. In turn, I cannot set the DP-02 to upload 8-10 songs at a time and then leave the machine running while I do something else for a while. So bring a book during the transfer process.

Fourth, I concur with the other reviewers that the manual is a mess. However, don't let this discourage you. The procedures are actually quite simple, and I was able to get them all down after about two (or at most three) times around. (Meantime, simply writing out my own set of step-by-step instructions was a good enough reminder when need be.)

Now to the positives. In addition to those I mentioned above, I would say that the DP-02 serves as an outstanding blank canvas. What goes in is what comes out - which is not something I can always say for recording equipment (digital or analog). It works just fine with a $100 stereo receiver and some good speakers for a monitor system (e.g., no need for a fancy mixing set-up). And again, it is very well constructed and should hold up for several good years (assuming that one cares for equipment).

Overall, for home recording I'd give this an A-. (In comparison, I would give my old 4-track cassette Portastudio the full A, and my old 1970s TEAC open reel a C+.) Comparisons and preferences are always subjective, and no one piece of equipment will ever receive a perfect score. But for what the DP-02 is designed for, it gets the job done.

Let me start with product quality -the unit appears to be well made, and has the weight and feel of a well designed and constructed machine. The sliders are solid, smooth, and there is no "mixer noise" during recording. The unit is advertised as intuitive -not so much, the physical layout is clean, easy to read, intuitive and straight forward. But, the instruction manual is an insult to anyone who can read; it lacks logic -operationally and sequentially, plus the manual mixes the DP-02 (CD Version) with the DP-02CF (mem card version). This gets to be VERY confusing.

I'm a classical musician, so sound quality is imperative, and this unit does a very nice job of giving back what is recorded. The mics need to be of HIGH quality for this to occur, but you should have these for all acoustic recording. It is best to use phantom power, not the battery power of many XLR mics. Even with phantom, you gotta push the gain to get anything to record from mics.

I purchased TASCAM's Portastudio DP-02 after reading reviews -obviously by techno geeks who love mixing electronic media. I struggled with the "Printed in China" manual to figure out how to record and playback the piano in my studio. TASCAM has apparently figured out how to make a relatively simple procedure sufficiently complex to make their product nearly inoperable out of the box. To make recording even more of a hassle, try calling "Customer Support." I called Tascam five times, 42 minutes of long distance toll calls, I was put on hold every time, and hung up after 8, and 10 minutes wait times -listening to their recorded announcement about customer service. There's no support at TASCAM...customer support is a delusion.

My votes: HIGH for the unit, LOW for Tascam Customer service.

Have had this unit since May 16, '08. Great price & service.

Had to call tech support many times just to undestand the basics. They can e-mail you a user friendly set of directions to get you through the common functions. I've gone through the main functions many times & just wrote down my own instructions. I had purchased the original porta-studion one ( cassette ) ages ago. Too bad this unit doesn't have at least four XLR inputs--it would have made a great mixer for me.So far, I love this gadget !!! [...]

Just got the Tascam DP-02 for Christmas from my wife. I just started playing with it last night and it seems like a solid little unit. It pretty much takes away most of the need for a computer to record. I haven't really done much with the advanced features, but after about an hour, I had composed a 3 track guitar ditty, mixed it to master, and burnt a CD.

It's a little tricky out of the box. The manual doesn't really have a start to finish tutorial for dummies, so trial and error had to suffice using the manual as a reference. It probably isn't that hard if you have used something like this before, but arming the tracks and assigning the input to a track before anything would record was a little funny with the shift key functions at first. I had trouble recording anything through the 1/4" mic line in. Once I plugged in a guitar it worked fine. I guess I'll have to use the XLR inputs for mics, but those are better quality anyway.

All in all it's a great little unit. I'm looking forward to recording jam sessions live and archiving them to my PC. Super cool computer interface options. I give this device 5 stars. It is well built, and fairly easy to use.

So far, I am absolutely loving my new Tascam Portastudio. It does everything I need it to. That being said, I wish it had a built in metronome, which I havent found yet... and I also wish that it had a line-out for every line-in for monitoring. All in all though, a great product at a great price. Look at the feature list, it does all the things it claims and sounds great to match.

I have read some reviews which make mention of a "whining" or "high-pitched" sound coming from the internal hard-drive but I have not heard any of this, not while playing, not while recording, not while playing back. A+ product. Perfect for beginners looking to do a little recording and pros that want a rig to practice/write on.

This is a fantastic recorder, but there is a learning curve. If you know next to nothing about how recording in a studio works like me, heed my advice. First, download and print out the maunual, (several sites have it in PDF form),next, put it into a three ring binder and study it by reading it at least three or four times. Concentrate on the sections entitled: "Song Creation" and "Recording a Song". Then take your binder to a Guitar Center where they have them set up and plugged in. Spend an hour or so working all the menus, sliders and dials. I was there an hour and a half and nobody ever said one word to me. As to the price, If you do your research you can get it for half of average retail. Hint: the best price on the net is from an Amazon Reseller.

I own the TASCAM DP-02 digital eight track recorder. I noticed today that TASCAM has "replaced" the DP-02 with a newer DP-03 model. To me, the features of of the DP-03 are wanting.

The DP-02, unlike the DP-03, has a large built in hard disk AND a CD burner in the unit itself. It doesn't use or need flash cards. While there's a few new cool things on the 03 like built in condenser mics, it has less effects, no hard disk and songs have to be transferred via port or flash card to a computer for burning CDs.

Since this model won't be produced much longer, GET ONE NOW if you find one at a good price.