What's a good substitute for my Tascam portable recorder mic for the studio?

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Re: What's a good substitute for my Tascam portable recorder mic for the studio?

Post by DC-Choppah »

Mike Stranks wrote: Why do you want to record your voice in stereo? It's an unusual technique, but if it works for you...

Not voice. I am recording my stereo guitar setup with multiple amps that sounds very lush in stereo.

I also use the XY mic on real instruments like violin, saxophones, flutes, etc..

I find that the proper XY mic setup allows me to place these stereo instruments on the stage very nicely using the Waves S1 plugin. Sounds better to me than recording in mono and just panning.

I like when you can isolate the instrument by location. It allows the mix to be less cluttered since the instruments are split up by their location. Sounds more real too.
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Re: What's a good substitute for my Tascam portable recorder mic for the studio?

Post by Hugh Robjohns »

DC-Choppah wrote:Is this a mod project? Is there a way to get a 2nd Tascam unit and take it apart and convert it to a regular microphone that will plug into my board and use the phantom power?

You could... but you'd need to buy or build a couple of phantom-to-plug-in-power converters.

It would be a lot less complicated just to buy a Rode NT4 stereo XY mic

http://www.rode.com/microphones/nt4

EDIT: Sorry... just read the rest of the thread and I see Bob has already recommended it!
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Re: What's a good substitute for my Tascam portable recorder mic for the studio?

Post by Hugh Robjohns »

Mike Stranks wrote:I have my doubts about the 'stereo effect' of the mics on the DR07... two omnis about 3 cms apart... hmmm... :think:

They aren't omni capsules in the Tascam, they are 'undirectional' mics. Cardioids. So the options are XY cardioids or near-spaced cardioids to introduce some small interchannel timing differences.
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Re: What's a good substitute for my Tascam portable recorder mic for the studio?

Post by ConcertinaChap »

Another +1 on the Rode NT4. One of the first decent mics I ever bought and still has a place in my collection. One facility it has which may appeal is it is phantom powered in the studio but can be battery powered which makes it very effective for field recording.

CC
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Re: What's a good substitute for my Tascam portable recorder mic for the studio?

Post by Mike Stranks »

Hugh Robjohns wrote:
Mike Stranks wrote:I have my doubts about the 'stereo effect' of the mics on the DR07... two omnis about 3 cms apart... hmmm... :think:

They aren't omni capsules in the Tascam, they are 'undirectional' mics. Cardioids. So the options are XY cardioids or near-spaced cardioids to introduce some small interchannel timing differences.

My mistake... :oops: ... I was looking at the Mk1...
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Re: What's a good substitute for my Tascam portable recorder mic for the studio?

Post by Hugh Robjohns »

I thought the original DR 07 had fixed back-to-back cardioids... but it was a long time ago and I can't be bothered to google it...

Omni capsules would be largely pointless on a small handheld recorder since their inherently ultra-close spacing wouldn't generate enough inter-channel time difference to produce any meaningful stereo image.

You need around 1.5ms difference to move a signal fully over into one loudspeaker, and you're not going to get that with only an inch or two of separation.
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Re: What's a good substitute for my Tascam portable recorder mic for the studio?

Post by DC-Choppah »

Image

From the Tascam website: https://tascam.com/us/product/dr-07mk2/top

'Adjustable directional microphones'

I just use it in the coincident XY mode and I think it sounds terrific. When I record something real and bring it into the DAW, I get a stereo image that responds very well to the S1 plugin to place it in the 'scene'.

I am getting the Rode NT4, and I hope it will have that same idiot proof stereo recording ease. I assure you that when I have a room full of musicians and I have to play engineer and musician, and therapist at the same time that I need all the idiot proofing I can get!
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Re: What's a good substitute for my Tascam portable recorder mic for the studio?

Post by ConcertinaChap »

You'll find the NT4 comes with a cable that will allow you to plug it directly into your Tascam as an alternative to the recorder's own mics. I've done that with my Olympus LS10 when I wanted quality beyond its own mics and the results have been very good.

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Re: What's a good substitute for my Tascam portable recorder mic for the studio?

Post by DC-Choppah »

ConcertinaChap wrote:You'll find the NT4 comes with a cable that will allow you to plug it directly into your Tascam as an alternative to the recorder's own mics. I've done that with my Olympus LS10 when I wanted quality beyond its own mics and the results have been very good.

CC

This will be great actually. Being able to operate the Tascam controls remotely from the mic position will be very helpful in some situations like when we record a gig live.

I sometimes mount the recorder where it sounds good and then later realize I can't get to the controls to turn it on and off. :headbang:
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Re: What's a good substitute for my Tascam portable recorder mic for the studio?

Post by ConcertinaChap »

Sorry if I gave that impression. You can't control the recorder from the mic. It's just the mic can take a PP9 battery for power and thus can be plugged into the Tascam's input to provide higher quality; good as the Tascam's mics may be, the NT4 will be better.

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Re: What's a good substitute for my Tascam portable recorder mic for the studio?

Post by Murray B »

I am in no way looking to undermine the excellent advice you've had so far regarding replacement microphones.

if you are happy with the sound of the Tascam, you might explore changing the recording settings to record mp3's rather than wave files onto the memory card. I can record 4 or 5 hours of rehearsals on my 2gb memory card as mp3's on my Tascam DR-05. This would hopefully solve the problems with running out of memory and or the recorder shutting down.

I can't say this for sure but I can't imagine that the recording settings will have much effect on the live output from the recorders line out. Might be worth a try? Obviously the recording onto the machine will be compromised but I don't think you are using this.

Having said all of the above - investing in some new kit might yield better results - but this way you could hopefully use what you have in the meantime.
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