aquired a Tascam DP-004

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OK this quest to record quality,comfortably and inexpensively, in my car is getting a little bit out of control! The card situation on the ps-02 has really got me down, my concern being that each time I remove from the unit into the pc, back to the unit it scratches and soon will not be able to be read. Any how, was in Sam Ash today and they had a barely used dp-004 so with $40 and a trade (didn't need it, already miss it terribly, must try not to speak or think about it again!) I came home with another hand held multi track recorder. At this point I could have saved up and ordered a used mbr and needed nothing else, however I chose a different route full of poor judgement and impulsive buys, all in the hopes of immediate gratification that I have yet to truly feel!

Hopefully I now have all I need to be happy! I plan on using the Zoom ps-o2 basically as an effects unit and perhaps a microphone and record onto the dp-oo4. That solves the card issue, after I get the song I'm working on now off the 128mb card I just spent $40 on I shouldn't have to take the card out except maybe to install those updates if I ever get around to it.The 004 (as it shall now be known as) uses sd card (whoo hoo) and has a usb port so it should be easy to import into audacity for final mixing. Not sure of the effects capabilities of the 004 but I believe it has reverb and perhaps chorus, but with the ps-02 in the chain I should have plenty of effects to keep me satisfied. I have the manual and plan on messing around tonight and hopefully recording something to post soon. Later I need to figure out how to add yet another icon onto my signature unless of course it just appeared like the others did

Oh yea how could I forget that the 004 has UNDO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rock on!

[64Guitars]

I think the DP-004 is probably a very nice recorder. It has several advantages over the original Micro BR. However, it also has a few disadvantages. See my review here:

https://songcrafters.org/community/index.php?topic=919.0

Let us know what you think of it after you've had a few days to get used to it.


TASCAM also make the DP-008 which, of course, is even nicer but more money.

https://songcrafters.org/community/index.php?topic=4652.0


By the way, here's the download page for the DP-004:

http://tascam.com/product/dp-004/downloads/

It has firmware updates (the latest is version 1.04) and a list of tested memory cards. The following document tells you what's in each update and how to tell which version you currently have.

http://tascam.com/content/downloads/products/35/e_dp-004_rn_vc.pdf


And here's a good video tutorial for the TASCAM DP-004:

http://www.proaudiodvds.com/Tascam-DP-004-DP-008-Review-DVD-Video-Training-p/dp-004.htm?Click=2040

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Thanks for the icon(you are the coolest of cool!) and the info, as always your opinion is greatly appreciated ! Your review was far superior to any I found online by people that actually had it in there hands.I have made a mental note(worth nothing) to read your reviews before I go out and buy anything. I very quickly and poorly did my research today (only found it this afternoon) I did noticed that nobody was mentioning V-tracks, but it never occurred to me that it had none...damn it!
I've had many porta-studios in the distant past and... well... I have another!
With the new discovery of the track limitations my excitement has wavered a little...again, but I still should be able to put together some interesting,developed guerrilla recordings, which was my goal in the first place. I love the idea of the usb, and the card situation is great, hopefully it will be easy to get the hang of. Any tune I need to produce larger than say 6 tracks I'll just bring home and do on the 900. If i buy another recorder it has to be a minimum of 16 tracks, however, I didn't hate mixing on audacity and plan to do more, even though now that I've lost my v-tracks, I don't have to! One of the Guitar Center guy's told me to check out reaper.......must stay focused!
Rock on!

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Someone's reading so i guess I'll keep updating for those who care how my poor choices are panning out!

I've made a few recordings now with this unit and like some things alot and am disappointed in others. No virtual tracks seems really silly to me, is this a feature that could be added through firmware?
 I did however figure out tonight that I can save each individual track as a .wav file then bounce the tracks, use the 2 remaining tracks, save those to .wav, bounce again....indefinitely, I think. In fact, since I can save each track as a .wav I can then deal with a mono bounce for playback and have 3 open tracks at a time which then puts the set up one more track than I had with just the ps-02. Spirits lifting a bit.
It's quite easy to use, very simple in it's design and processes and the guide is pretty easy to understand. The menu's make sense and once I know all the steps better, I think I'll get pretty comfortable with it.
Love the fast forward & rewind (ps-02 could not), has zero feature and scrollable time location like the br. Can punch in with just one button, anytime. Haven't figure out the undo, but just feel glad it's there.
The mics seem to be pretty good, have only recorded scratch tracks with them that I recorded over but they sounded pretty good.
The USB connection rocks, is fairly simple and quick to import/export tracks, just imported a few RTT drum tracks to mess around with tomorrow and they didn't slow down at all. Can only import mono .wav files into the unit but can use the stereo one for mix down in audacity.
Don't see the need for the partitions within the storage cards, seems like unnecessary steps if I keep too many songs on the card, not an issue yet.
The lack of effects is quite a issue, the ps-02 will have to suffice for now, I rather like the guitar patches, especially on the uke, but their vocal presets leave a little to be desired. Wish I had a bass simulator, now I need a u-bass! Just noticed the korg sos on Redlers signature and am very interested in that little guy. So far I'm into this set up $130 cash and that's about what I could have gotten the korg for online, that seems to be pretty a all-in one unit. Live and learn, I need to be happy and content with what I've got!

All in all with the revelation of the tracks to .wav deal I feel much better about the set up. Even kinda enjoying audacity!
Rock on my friends!

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Another update for those that care.
I've been getting a lot of I/F errors (like drive busy I think) but that apparently has been addressed in the new firmware and I just installed that so we'll see if that corrects that. I was just looking at the dp-008 and I'm furious that they have reverb on that one and not this one, it's a huge mistake on Tascams part in my opinion.
My idea for virtual tracks doesn't look like it will work. When it saves the tracks it saves them titled TRACK001, TRACK002 etc. but you can't seem to change the name of the file on the machine itself. If you try to save another TRACK001 it will erase the 1st. You can hook it up with the usb and change the name but that doesn't really help me with what I want. It seems to me that I'll be limited to 4 tracks, then save those to .wav, make a mono bounce and I then can use 3 more and then I'll have to connect to a computer. It's not ideal but I usually only have 2 hours in a guerrilla session and I probably won't need much more than 7 tracks. Now that does change traveling with it, I'll need to have a laptop with me then, doable but just one more piece in the puzzle.
Rock on!

[64Guitars]

My idea for virtual tracks doesn't look like it will work. When it saves the tracks it saves them titled TRACK001, TRACK002 etc. but you can't seem to change the name of the file on the machine itself. If you try to save another TRACK001 it will erase the 1st. You can hook it up with the usb and change the name but that doesn't really help me with what I want. It seems to me that I'll be limited to 4 tracks, then save those to .wav, make a mono bounce and I then can use 3 more and then I'll have to connect to a computer. It's not ideal but I usually only have 2 hours in a guerrilla session and I probably won't need much more than 7 tracks. Now that does change traveling with it, I'll need to have a laptop with me then, doable but just one more piece in the puzzle.

There's a Song Copy feature (page 51). So you could record 4 tracks then make a copy of the song. Now bounce those tracks down to a mono mix and record 3 more tracks. Make a copy of that song. Now mix the 3 new tracks plus the mono mix to another mono mix and record 3 more tracks. And so on.

When you get to a computer, you can export all of the individual tracks from each song copy and do your final stereo mix in Audacity or some other DAW.

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Yes sir, yes you are correct!!!I wish the prize was more than just my complete appreciation! I can only imagine that you have no other reason to even glance at this manual than to help me, if you do than good, either way, Thank you 64!! I think you have solved my puzzle...in fact I think you might be the (if not "the" than most definitely "a") puzzle-master! I will soon set out  an a multi-tracking adventure like no other, I'm gonna track the crap out of this little machine!!!!!!!!!!
Honestly, I'm about 90% sure I would not have thought about song copy. I know I can do it on the br and I did notice that I could on this one, I think the ps-02 can do it too, but I have never used the feature and never imagined a situation that might warrant that feature...until now. So once again my most humbles thanks, you truly rock!
Rock on!

ps. It's been 3 days and nobody thought of that one the tascam forum I reluctantly joined. You rock brother! This place rocks brothers!

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You still rock, but It has occurred to me that the .wav files are still stored together as/under .wav files not under each individual song, I found that out this morning with "Like a Bird". So do I then have to store the song copy in a different partition? and could at least repeat the process 3 times? why can't I just change the name on the machine, I've tried but it won't allow any other option other than to save with same name thus erasing previous track with same name.
I still can't for the life of me don't see why tascam hasn't embraced virtual tracks
Perhaps I should buy that card adapter you found and just use the ps-02, but I do think the levels are better and overall quality is better through the 004.
Thanks again for your help!

[64Guitars]

Page 51 says you can copy songs to either the same partition or to a different one. But it doesn't make it clear how the song names are handled if you use the same partition. Maybe if you select the same partition it will prompt you for the song. So, for example, you could copy SONG001 to SONG002. Try it and see what happens.

As for the WAV files, I wouldn't do them till you're ready to export your tracks so you can load them into a DAW. Just select one song copy at a time, export its tracks, and copy them to your computer. Then proceed to the next song copy. If it overwrites the WAV files from the previous song copy, it doesn't matter because you've already copied them to the computer. Of course, you'll have to be aware of filenames when copying to the computer so you don't overwrite previous tracks. That might mean that you'll need a temp folder where you copy the tracks. Then you can rename them and move them to the intended folder without overwriting existing files there.

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I see what you mean. I was so fixated with the idea that the .wav files were somehow the answer that I was missing the whole benefit of copying the song. I will let you know how it works when I get time to record next!
Thanks again and Rock On!