Tascam DP-01FX/CD.
Once upon a time, recording music was difficult to do and required a soundboard the size of a bedroom to get decent quality. Now, people can record easily on a smartphone or iPad and make their studio mobile. So why might one be interested in an old Tascam Portastudio machine from the 90’s? You can make the decision for yourself but here’s my 2 cents:
As a musician new to recording, this was the perfect toy to get my hands on. It is straightforward and simple to use while providing high quality sound. The simplicity allowed me to focus on the music. This little machine has built in effects for recording production and digital editing. In addition to this, it can be mastered on the same machine. This model even has a CD drive that will burn a master copy or you can connect a USB drive. You can literally do the whole recording process on this one machine.
Proceed with caution though; it is not too good to be true. There are some serious limitations to consider. This machine only has 8 tracks for recording. In addition to this, you can only record two inputs at a time. If you are recoding a full band or drums live, this can make things nearly impossible. So, this may not be the best option for full band music. That being said, I found the limitations to be a creative challenge which led me to new production ideas. (I recorded a full live drum set and used 3 mic’s/tracks just for the drums alone). I also found ways to use multiple instruments on one track.
Another issue to consider is during the mastering process, there are only two bands of EQ. Again, with a lot of instruments recorded, this may be an issue. With careful planning, it could work, but it wouldn’t be the most efficient way of going about recording.
All in all, this little machine is great for singer-songwriters or those recording minimal instruments or bare bone acoustic music. It is much easier to use than learning a software or spending time debugging digital hardware or troubleshooting compatibility issues. It allows you to focus on the music. It is however, limiting in a few ways so it may not be the best option for every project.
