Tascam DR-70D

Ik had een recorder nodig om mijn field mixer op te nemen voor boom operator klussen en ben voor de DR 70 gegaan omdat het de enige onder de 500 euro met deze formfactor is.
In het afgelopen jaar heb ik diverse recorders geleend of gehuurd van o.a Zoom, Marantz en Tascam zelf maar die hadden bijna allemaal de bediening op de bovenkant dus moet je de hele tijd de recorder uit en weer in je audiobag stoppen of een rare constructie met foam maken om bij de rec knop te komen en te zien of hij daadwerkelijk opneemt.
Enige uitzondering is de DR 60 maar die is een stuk dikker en eet batterijen als een gek, de DR 70 doet het iets beter. Ik haal iets meer dan vier uur met een set alkaline batterijen.

Goed:
-Geluidskwaliteit
-Neutrik connectors met lock
-Kan tot 128gb sd kaartjes aan
-Formfactor

Slecht:
-verwarrend menu wat tevens niet toegankelijk is tijdens recorden. bijv. Phantom power zit onder inputs>gain. Daar stel je in of het mic, line of mic met phantoom, line met phantoom is niet mogelijk. Maar plugin power zit onder basic>ch1 of ch2>input 1/2. Bij phantoom power krijg je een waarschuwing bij plugin power niet.
-Er is een instelbare monitor input maar de slate toon voor ingainen is alleen toegankelijk tijdens recorden en dan is het monitor menu niet toegankelijk
-De strap houder zijn onderdeel van het chassis en niet los vervangbaar zoals bij de DR60, 680 en 701.

I've bought this primarily as something to kickstart some kind of location sound recording career. I know that it's something that I will outgrow, but it really does have excellent preamp quality, four inputs for good flexibility and room to add mics, and great portability and ability to have a very long battery life (with a USB power bank). There's really not that much out there that can compete on the features for the price, and saving here means I can put aside more money for better microphones on my kind of budget, which I think is a reasonably smart move.

Build quality is pretty nice, and I appreciate small things like the rubberised plate on the bottom which keeps it from slipping around if you have it resting on a table.

I initially had an issue where an 128GB SD that I have wasn't being recognised properly on the device, wasn't able to get it to format properly. Eventually I used the official SD Card Formatter utility software which got it working just fine, so if anyone has any issues with SD cards then I would strongly recommend that.

I've taken this into a local wood, and recorded some wildlife there, where it worked quite well in a 'tactical deployment bag' (cheap shoulder/bum bag that can be found at a few online retailers..) with me holding a boompole/mic and scrambling about, the compact size and light weight are excellent for situations requiring some tricky navigation on foot.

Once you get used to the menus you can set things up pretty quickly, main issue I've come across in terms of the UI is if you need to move from recording something loud to very quiet quickly it necessitates changing gain mode, a fair bit slower than having more full analogue control.

My main complaint is the lack of a solo function for individual channels, which really should be possible, but it is possible to work around it, and the other good features listed above go some way to compensate for any limitations.

Eventually I will very likely end up with a Sound Devices recorder, but this will hopefully get me going until that day.

(BTW I would love to see more manufacturers start including comparable analogue-realm mixing and processing features such as on the Sound Devices gear, as the primary reason for wanting an SD recorder is the analogue limiter capability.)

Its shape is perfect to install it under or on top of the DSLR camera.
The quality of the sound is ok, you can't expect professional sound but it is way more decent than the built-in microphone from the DSLR and better sound than TASCAM DR40, but, still cannot compare with other sound recorders of higher-end.
In general, good for its price. A bit hungry with the batteries and the menus are a bit difficult to follow, as a majority of functions can be activated/deactivated only via "software" and not with independent switch/knob.
I would recommend for persons willing to improve sound quality in their recordings but who does not want to spend more than 250-300 euros.

A comprehensive recorder.
Quite complicated to set-up unless you have the instruction book (or you are a teenager). Some great features. Just to mention one: stereo recording with second stereo recording set at -10 or -20 db (or whatever you want.) So you always have a recording that is not over done.
I suppose you could say the controls are on the small side, but even I can manage, so you can. Tascam do warn you that the current drain is high if you use it to power your microphones. Something to be aware of.
Recommend.