Tascam HD-P2
- Thread starter ggrantly
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Noiz2
Sound Ninja
At this price point (~$800-$900 street) the Tascam and the PMD671 are about the best games in town. I have the 671 but I think the Tascam is probably about the same.
Pluses Tascam seems to be doing a better job of support than they did on the DAP1
. Marantz has fixed a bunch of things in firmware (and poss hardware?) but at least so far firmware updates require sending the unit to Marantz, not so great.
Tascam can read TC, if you need this it's the only box under $2K that will do this (FR2 & TC option is the closest contender).
The Marantz seems (by reports) to "feel" sturdier, this may be a problem or not only time will tell. I like the feel of the 671 and the mechanics of it also but I haven't really played with the Tascam for comparison. The Tascam seems to use the same kind of buttons that they used on the DAP1, I prefer the slide action of the 671 but that is personal taste.
SK
Pluses Tascam seems to be doing a better job of support than they did on the DAP1
. Marantz has fixed a bunch of things in firmware (and poss hardware?) but at least so far firmware updates require sending the unit to Marantz, not so great.
Tascam can read TC, if you need this it's the only box under $2K that will do this (FR2 & TC option is the closest contender).
The Marantz seems (by reports) to "feel" sturdier, this may be a problem or not only time will tell. I like the feel of the 671 and the mechanics of it also but I haven't really played with the Tascam for comparison. The Tascam seems to use the same kind of buttons that they used on the DAP1, I prefer the slide action of the 671 but that is personal taste.
SK
i just went though this...i bought the tascam because both the manual and an experienced salesperson told me it could definitely do xlr line in.
i was suspicious because i'm funny, i read the manual cover to cover before i buy most things over $250-500 and on one page is says you can adjust the setting on the top panel between line/mic for the xlr's but then nowhere else did it mention it.
so i ordered it and the first thing i tried was the xlr line in. nope. didn't work. only worked with the rca jacks.
i use my audio stuff out of a bag because 9/10 of the projects i work on are like that, either lots of locations or small locations. almost all of what i do is shorts shot with a minimal crew.
so i can't be worrying about the rca cables coming detached.
i only initially wanted a recorder as affordable backup because i had two occasions where when i wasn't looking someone moved the camera and disconnected/reconnected the xlr cable and somehow plugged it into input 1. i always use input 2 with it set to send that to both left and right and i adjust the volumes a little bit different to sort of bracket the tracks.
anyway, so i thought for the price it would be a great backup but the xlr line in thing pissed me off and no offense but the case/build on the thing didn't impress me. it felt more like a modem than a piece of pro audio gear.
i am very gentle on my gear but i really felt it would break or wear excessively fast.
so i returned that and got a 722. it just arrived today!
the 722 is amazing. its built like something costing 5x what it did. the menus are laid out extremelly well and i can't thing of a single feature that it doesn't already have other than timecode or atleast a way to add it as an option later...
i love the sound devices stuff. i already had a 302 mixer so that was what kept me from getting the 722 in the first place, it seems like if you have a decent mixer your paying for and getting half of the stuff you already have in your mixer in the 722.
the only concern i have about the 722 is that there is no timecode. nada.
it won't take timecode from exterior sources.
the 744 will but that is a LOT more money.
so i'm trying to figure out how much of an issue will it be?
i mean it has a great internal clock so there shouldn't be any drifting issues and doing shorts and documentaries the takes are so short how big an issue is no timecode on the audio going to be??
matthew
i was suspicious because i'm funny, i read the manual cover to cover before i buy most things over $250-500 and on one page is says you can adjust the setting on the top panel between line/mic for the xlr's but then nowhere else did it mention it.
so i ordered it and the first thing i tried was the xlr line in. nope. didn't work. only worked with the rca jacks.
i use my audio stuff out of a bag because 9/10 of the projects i work on are like that, either lots of locations or small locations. almost all of what i do is shorts shot with a minimal crew.
so i can't be worrying about the rca cables coming detached.
i only initially wanted a recorder as affordable backup because i had two occasions where when i wasn't looking someone moved the camera and disconnected/reconnected the xlr cable and somehow plugged it into input 1. i always use input 2 with it set to send that to both left and right and i adjust the volumes a little bit different to sort of bracket the tracks.
anyway, so i thought for the price it would be a great backup but the xlr line in thing pissed me off and no offense but the case/build on the thing didn't impress me. it felt more like a modem than a piece of pro audio gear.
i am very gentle on my gear but i really felt it would break or wear excessively fast.
so i returned that and got a 722. it just arrived today!
the 722 is amazing. its built like something costing 5x what it did. the menus are laid out extremelly well and i can't thing of a single feature that it doesn't already have other than timecode or atleast a way to add it as an option later...
i love the sound devices stuff. i already had a 302 mixer so that was what kept me from getting the 722 in the first place, it seems like if you have a decent mixer your paying for and getting half of the stuff you already have in your mixer in the 722.
the only concern i have about the 722 is that there is no timecode. nada.
it won't take timecode from exterior sources.
the 744 will but that is a LOT more money.
so i'm trying to figure out how much of an issue will it be?
i mean it has a great internal clock so there shouldn't be any drifting issues and doing shorts and documentaries the takes are so short how big an issue is no timecode on the audio going to be??
matthew
I was also concerned about the lack of timecode on the 722, so I considered getting the 744 instead. Apart from timecode the main advantage of the 744 is obviously the extra two channels, but seeing as these do not have mic preamps I decided it wasn't worth the extra money.
AFAIK it's always possible to get a 744 later (or rent one) and connect the two units with C Link - giving you a 6 channel recorder with timecode
AFAIK it's always possible to get a 744 later (or rent one) and connect the two units with C Link - giving you a 6 channel recorder with timecode
sorry that was nothing to do with the original question 
I read the HDP2 manual and thought it sounded really great, loads of great features especially for that price. My concerns were with the powering and the storage, I would prefer to do a whole day recording without worrying about either.
Also I wasn't sure about how the preamps compared to other comparable products, but I have never used them so I cannot offer any opinions.
I read the HDP2 manual and thought it sounded really great, loads of great features especially for that price. My concerns were with the powering and the storage, I would prefer to do a whole day recording without worrying about either.
Also I wasn't sure about how the preamps compared to other comparable products, but I have never used them so I cannot offer any opinions.
sorry to desapoint you - the 744 is not amixer ,its astand allone recorder , so for stand allon aplication its not good at all as not good almost every 2 channel recorder .- 90% of your work is to bring 2 channel mix to aditor , to run another channels come only as back up to your mix since no one pay the editor to check every track .only if there afailuer in your mix the aditional taracks come to table .
Haydn said:sorry that was nothing to do with the original question
I read the HDP2 manual and thought it sounded really great, loads of great features especially for that price. My concerns were with the powering and the storage, I would prefer to do a whole day recording without worrying about either.
Also I wasn't sure about how the preamps compared to other comparable products, but I have never used them so I cannot offer any opinions.
lets say ( i own 744) that i dint have even one failuer with cf card , the usiall i take te card burn disc or send the card to the post - for 1 year i maybe hooked the 744 twice to computer
so cf as amedia is much better thern everyting else
not tomention it becomes very cheap lately - 8gb for 340$
so 2 cards like that give you one week recording on normal gigs (32 hours track of 24/48)
have to admit I didnt know CF cards were that cheap, the only 8gb one I have seen was $1000 ! but I didnt look around to find the cheapest option. 8gb still only records 2 hours at 24/192 stereo (unless my sums are wrong, give me a break its too early ) I still don't understand the need for a mixer
) I still don't understand the need for a mixerHaydn said:have to admit I didnt know CF cards were that cheap, the only 8gb one I have seen was $1000 ! but I didnt look around to find the cheapest option. 8gb still only records 2 hours at 24/192 stereo (unless my sums are wrong, give me a break its too early
sorry who exacly record 24/192
no one record 24/96 , pure waist of space for dyalog - you reed to much advertising crap my friend
if you dont anderstand the need of mixwer is more likely you didnt work with more then 2 mics or never worked on normal production
2 early? , i wake in 6 in the morning becouse my f,,, dog on sutterday after heavy gueness contest yesterday in the pub
MatthewD5-Forgive me if this sounds simplistic, but what kind of source were you sending into the XLR's with line-in? I haven't had a chance to try this yet, but will this weekend, with a true line-in source.
Also, I have a PMD670 and the Tascam, and I actually do believe that the Tascam feels sturdier than the 670. But, it also feels like it is about 2 pounds heavier, too (the Tascam, that is). Again, I do little to no bag work, so I'm not worried at all. And, I have always gone RCA line in from mixer to recorder (with both the Tascam and PMD). It is always less than 3 feet. Am I missing something? Is there a problem with this? It is always straight line, as my mixer and recorder are always next to each other. No power cord anywhere near it.
Phil
Also, I have a PMD670 and the Tascam, and I actually do believe that the Tascam feels sturdier than the 670. But, it also feels like it is about 2 pounds heavier, too (the Tascam, that is). Again, I do little to no bag work, so I'm not worried at all. And, I have always gone RCA line in from mixer to recorder (with both the Tascam and PMD). It is always less than 3 feet. Am I missing something? Is there a problem with this? It is always straight line, as my mixer and recorder are always next to each other. No power cord anywhere near it.
Phil
Noiz2
Sound Ninja
I think he was trying to say that the 722 (and 744) don't really have a mixer section. They have mic preamps with trims. It's a big deal for FX recording but for production it could be a real problem. For instance bringing the "trim" all the way down does not kill the input, and the range of the gain is very top heavy - not a lot of change over the first 3/4 of a turn and a lot over the last 1/4. Sound Devices refers to the knobs as trims and if you talk to them they will tell you that they were never designed to mix with, they are trims.
SK
SK
Noiz2
Sound Ninja
It's strange to hear the talk about the Tascam feeling "fragile" or "cheap". I don't remember hearing those comments about the FR2 and that is built like a toy. I have had a number of issues over the years with some of Tascams products but fragility has never been an issue, so I would be surprised if the HDP2 is as fragile as people seem to think it feels.
I'm not sure what the HDP2 run times are but with a microdrive and 2500 NiMH batteries I can get over six hours of record time, which pretty much covers my day. CF cards should get about 1/2 again that amount of battery time so nine hours or so.
With a four gig MD I get about four hours at 48/24 so once 8 gig CF cards get affordable I won't need to change either in a day. For FX this isn't a big deal and four gigs is usually enough (I have a couple of 1gig cards incase) and you never got more than two hours on a DAT anyway so it's a big improvement.
SK
I'm not sure what the HDP2 run times are but with a microdrive and 2500 NiMH batteries I can get over six hours of record time, which pretty much covers my day. CF cards should get about 1/2 again that amount of battery time so nine hours or so.
With a four gig MD I get about four hours at 48/24 so once 8 gig CF cards get affordable I won't need to change either in a day. For FX this isn't a big deal and four gigs is usually enough (I have a couple of 1gig cards incase) and you never got more than two hours on a DAT anyway so it's a big improvement.
SK
Noiz2
Sound Ninja
Phil,
No your not missing anything. There is some poss issue with an RCA connector pulling out and as a rule XLR is a sturdier connector but there is no particular reason to used a balanced line in with the short runs you are talking about. The problem with XLR cables in a bag is that they stick out a mile and many devices put the XLR's too close to use right angle XLR connectors.
SK
No your not missing anything. There is some poss issue with an RCA connector pulling out and as a rule XLR is a sturdier connector but there is no particular reason to used a balanced line in with the short runs you are talking about. The problem with XLR cables in a bag is that they stick out a mile and many devices put the XLR's too close to use right angle XLR connectors.
SK
ptalsky said: