Tascam DP-01 Digital 8-Track Portastudio Review

History: Been playing guitar and bass for about 5 years now I guess. Picked things up rather quickly due to my piano / keys background. Am starting to write my own music now, and actually prefer this to figuring out songs or playing covers. My musical tastes range from alternative, punk and hard rock to country. Anything that has some good guitar in it, I can appreciate.

Purchase: Just paid $299 online at Musicians Friend. Was looking for something portable to take to friends homes or garage jams as it's too hard to keep lugging all of my desktop pc equipment (which I have done numerous times believe it or not).

Pros: I really like the simplicity of the one-knob-per function design. Don't make me work for it, let me get started right away and I'm happy. I also like the quality of the recordings. I like the 8 tracks and the 40GB hard drive which is enough flexibility for me. I also appreciate the S/PDIF outputs so I can run the digital outs to my PC for final mixdowns when I get home.



Cons: Well, it's not really a complaint, but I have been using an older PC for recording for years and it is not USB 2.0 compatible. So, I can't take advantage of that functionality. Not really a problem with the unit though.

DP-01 Digital 8-Track Portastudio Quality: The unit is sturdy. The knobs and controls have a well built feel to them and I'm sure the unit will take years of abuse before it fails me. I don't think it's solid enough to handle any drops, but then again I'm not going to test it out... =)

Tascam Summary: Overall, for $299 I love it. Has more than enough flexibility and produces great quality mixdowns for the price. The unit is normally about $100 more so I took advantage of the sale and purchased one. It was at my door in less than 5 days and the shipping was free. Can't beat that!

Rating of this product: 5

This Tascam Multitrack Recorders Review Submitted By: David Hamer

Date: 2005-09-26

Usefulness Rating: 4.8 out of 5. 10 reader(s) voted.