Tascam DR-1 Portable Solid State Recorder

I have had friends who have used hand held recorders in various rehearsals and performances and I finally saw this one a couple of weeks ago. I was playing a wedding gig and one of the trumpets had this little device. He let me dink around with it when we were on break from one of the sets. I took a listen and wow I was blown away. This thing recorded excellently. I knew I had to have one.

I began to look at more of the features on this device and I now know that this is the ultimate practice helper. It gives you a tuner (very accurate), an amazing metronome (it can go as slow as 20bpm). For recording large ensembles and individual practices I think this is a great functioning unit. I am right now working on doing some quartets with myself. I also am planning on creating a warm-up cd for my students. I think it will help them get a better sound in there head. I can see many practical uses for this device both by freelance artists and educators.

My complaints for the unit are the difficulty in setting the device to handle extreme louds. I think this is more user error than anything else. Also the metronome feature could have a subdivision setting with it. If it does I haven't found it yet. Great little unit for the price.

We use this to record our services for church. We've used the built in microphones and the line in option. Either way it's great quality. The line in allows us to tweak each channel on the board to get a great mix. We cut the music out in editing and then upload it for podcasting. It works like a champ.

I am a professional sound designer working in the video games industry. For years I've hauled around bulky DAT recorders with mic cables draped over shoulder, several microphones, and DAT recorder batteries that just don't last very long.

The result of this is that going out to record things or organizing a foley session was just that; A feat of organization.

For years I couldn't wait until the technology reduced the form factor size and weight of the recorders, and extended battery life. That time is now, and near-pocket-sized recorders like the DR-1 are the way of the future.

But let me be honest. My biggest fear was between the stereo microphone and the recorder, the quality would simply not be high enough. I had read posts about the DR-1 on various audio forums suggesting that this device was for amateur musicians only, not for professionals, much less professional sound designers.

Granted the electronic components you would find inside this little beast if you were to take it apart are not of the same caliber you would find inside thousands of dollars of high grade pro audio equipment. But that begs the question; Does it matter?

To me all that matters is the end result, and after using the DR-1 in several foley sessions I can say I no longer have any doubt about the quality of its recordings.

I paid $1200 in 1996 for my Tascam DA-P1 DAT recorder, plus several hundred dollars more for a pair of Audio Technica lipstick condensers for recording. For a mere $300, the DR-1 gives all that expensive equipment a serious run for its money. In a lot of ways the DR-1 recordings sound better. There is less noise and more headroom due to solid state and the lack of tape mechanisms. I believe I am getting better recordings than I used to with my DA-P1, with none of the bulky hassle.

Foley sessions are now a breeze. Just make sure you get the accessory kit.

Do you need an extra battery? I try to keep my sessions down to 1 hour in length to reduce fatigue -- remember after all that recording you've got some serious editing to do! Since the DR-1 battery lasts about 6 hours, 1 hour a day means you can record *all week* without having to recharge.

The 1 gig SD card that comes with the DR-1 is actually quite generous and definitely usable in most situations if you're regularly dumping the files onto a computer. But for $15, I ordered a 4 gig SD card and now I can literally record hours upon hours just for peace of mind.

All in all the DR-1 is a beautiful example of efficient innovations in audio electronics. I have no problem vouching that this is not just for amateur musicians -- unless you enjoy wasting thousands of dollars so you can feel like an elitist snob.

A lower end shotgun mic will run you around $700. You could buy two fully outfitted DR-1s for that price, and the quality would more than suffice.

Don't listen to the snobs, this thing is awesome.

Just got one, and used it for one day. It was working great and I really like it. But at about the 20th recording, it went haywire. The recordings were filled with static, reguardless of how I set the input levels, and gains. I restored the software and reformated the disk, and it still did not fix the problem. I changed the recording format from .wav to .mp3 and then it went really nuts, recording just a garbled fast-forward sound, mixed with some recognizable sounds. My computer also was not able to mount the device, and saw it as an corrupted drive (however it worked fine before.) Called the manufacturer and they said it was defective. So it's now being replaced by Amazon per my request. I just hope the next one works. If not, I'll just get a refund. It's made in China, and does not seem a high quality build, so I guess it's hit or miss on being defective.

Yesterday I tried to buy the Zoom H-4 and I just tried this one to see if it is the same as what happened. It is all about the "Bill Me Later" $10 discount.

Don't expect the BillMeLater will pay you $10 because right after you enter every information of yours, it will tell you "We're sorry, but the promotional code you entered cannot be applied to this purchase....". If it couln't be applied, why AMAZON is still OFFERING it? God knows!

You might ask why? The reason is The Bill Me Later ONLY wants your personal informations.