NAMM 2012

[Gnasty]

Wow! Phil X plugging a yamaha amp. He`s always at the NAMM shows too.

That sounds big for a small size amplifier.

[SdC]

They'll have to pry my Fender Mustang amp from my dead hands before I'll buy one of those.

[Bluesberry]

They'll have to pry my Fender Mustang amp from my dead hands before I'll buy one of those.

Hahaha, I was thinking the same thing...............either way, that Yamaha looks nice.

[SdC]

The Roland G-5 is nice but I'd rather have a VG-99. At $1,299, the VG-99 is the same price as the G-5. It does everything the G-5 does and much more.

The GR-55 also has the same modeling options (as the G-5) + BASS guitars/double + loads of SYNTH's, FX, looper and you won't have to bother with batteries in the guitar (the previous version VG was a power hungry monster).

[Bluesberry]

The batteries in the guitar thing is a bit of a deal breaker, for sure.  Its a nice concept, but not totally there just yet.  Great concept though.

[SdC]

The batteries in the guitar thing is a bit of a deal breaker, for sure.  Its a nice concept, but not totally there just yet.  Great concept though.

Way ahead conceptually and in useability of the direction Gibson is taking with the Firebird X.

[64Guitars]

Here's a video on the TASCAM DP-24.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhuVLkuqJh4

Street price is $799 US.

The owner's manual is now available for download from the TASCAM website:

http://tascam.com/product/dp-24/downloads/

It has 8 v-tracks on each of the 24 tracks. So that's 192 v-tracks!

Uses SDHC cards up to 32GB. It comes with a card but I didn't see any mention of the size.

Has WAV import/export, so I assume the normal recording format is proprietary. But you can export multiple tracks at once directly from the DP-24 to your computer. No WAV converter software needed.

The guitar effects seem a bit limited compared to Boss and Zoom recorders. That's not surprising since TASCAM is not known as a guitar effects company. It looks like you get a Compressor, Flanger, Phaser, Chorus, Wah, and Delay. There are also send effects (reverb, delay, and chorus) and dynamic effects (compressor, de-esser, exciter, and noise suppressor). You can only use one send effect and one dynamic effect at a time, but the selected effect can be applied to all of the eight inputs with separate settings for each input. For example, if you select the compressor for the dynamic effect, you cannot also select the de-esser, exciter, or noise suppressor. However, you can adjust the amount of compression (threshold, ratio, attack, release, and gain) on each input individually.

There's also amp modelling but I haven't seen anything that says how many models are included or which amps they model.

The DP-24 has an internal clock/calendar so all of the files it creates are timestamped. Nice!

Looks like a very nice recorder for the price. Since it's replacing the 2488 Neo, I imagine those will be cleared out at a very low price. Musician's Friend has the 2488 Neo for $649. I don't know when the DP-24 will be available.

[64Guitars]

I think Boss needs to release a great top-of-range BR to compete with the DP-24 and Zoom R24. Their BR-1600 and BR-1200 are grossly overpriced by comparison.

The BR-1600 is currently $1499.00 at Sweetwater. It's 8 years old and has only 16 playback tracks. The TASCAM DP-24 is brand new, has 24 playback tracks, a colour display, SDHC storage, and is only $799. A much nicer machine than the BR-1600 for nearly half the price!

The BR-1200 is currently $1199.00 at Sweetwater. It's 7 years old and has only 12 playback tracks. The Zoom R24 is 1½ years old, has 24 playback tracks, SDHC storage, can be used as an audio interface and control surface, records direct to WAV files (no wave converter software needed), has USB Host port for offline storage and backups, and is only $499. Twice as many tracks and much more for less than half the price of a BR-1200!

Come on Roland! You're leading the way at the low end (BR-80) but you've fallen way behind at the high end. I can't recommend the BR-1600 or BR-1200 to anyone when there are better machines available for half the price.

I'd like to see a new BR with similar features to the DP-24 at a similar price, but with the following additional features:

• great Boss effects based on the GT-100
• drum machine with Toneload and SMF import and export
• audio interface and control surface capabilities
• records direct to WAV files
• USB Host port
• USB 3.0 for fast file transfers
• standard 5-pin Midi In and Out
• internal clock/calendar for timestamping files

[SdC]

• great Boss effects based on the GT-100
• drum machine with Toneload and SMF import and export
• audio interface and control surface capabilities
• records direct to WAV files
• USB Host port
• USB 3.0 for fast file transfers
• standard 5-pin Midi In and Out
• internal clock/calendar for timestamping files
• 8 or 12 simultaneous recording tracks with inputs mappable to any recording track (like the Tascam but not like the Zoom)
• motorized faders
• USB storage device capable (USB harddisk or flash for recording storage)

[SdC]

My local Roland dealer has the retail price for some of the new stuff listed:
G-5 VG-Stratocaster: 1409 Euro
GC-1 GK-Stratocaster: 939 Euro (GC-1 + GR-55 = 1502 Euro)
(reference: American Standard 1150 Euro, MIM Standard sunbust 469 Euro, separate GK pickup 120 Euro)

So they are pretty expensive toys! And for the price difference of 100 Euro, I'd prefer the GC-1/GR-55 combo over the G-5 any day!