I could use some opinions...

[Hook]

I'm struggling to pick a recorder for Pan. It's between the 2 Tascam units, the DP 004

VS the Pocket Studio 5


I love the fact that the 5 has effects, some good ones at that but the compact flash of 128mb is small & obsolete. The battery life is pretty short (important to Pan) & getting the individual tracks off seems like it might be a chore.
The Dp004 is a fine machine but no effects. Does my 13 year old really need the effects? At this point I just wish the 004 had some reverb & it would be easy. The SD card is far superior, the exporting of tracks is very easy & the stereo mics are excellent quality. The battery life is good & we have one adapter to use for my 008 & the 004 at home if needed. I think I'm hung up on the lack of effects. I want her to like the sound of her recordings.
 Are there easy to use, free plugins for reverb on audacity? I tried messing with the Gverb but didn't understand it at all. I can also give her my Line 6 pocket Pod which has some decent vocal settings & she could have a nice little set up with a mic, at least once she gets the process of the 004 down.
Neither machine has V-tracks but both can be manipulated to allow indefinite overdubbing, so that's not an issue. I think the 004 is the better machine & therefore probably the best choice but would love your opinions.
Rock On!

[64Guitars]

There are lots of good effects for Audacity. The trouble is, you can't hear what they sound like until after you've applied them to the track. Real-time effects are the most-requested feature for Audacity, so maybe it will be added someday.

http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Feature_Requests#Highest-rated

In the meantime, you might be better off finding a good audio editor that has real-time effects. I don't have any experience with any in the Windows world, so it's hard to make a recommendation. You'll need to try a few yourself to see what works for you and Pan. Perhaps this one would be a good place to start:

http://www.ocenaudio.com.br/

It seems to be somewhat like Audacity in that it's a simple audio editor rather than a full-blown DAW. But, unlike Audacity, it claims to have real-time effects. However, I don't see anything about multitrack recording on their website, so that may be its downfall. You'd have to do all of your mixing on the recorder or in Audacity, then apply effects to the final mix in ocenaudio.

You could also try the free version of PreSonus Studio One. It looks like an impressive DAW. It's, perhaps, more than you need but I'm sure it would be well up to the task of mixing Pan's tracks and applying a wide variety of cool effects in real time.

http://studioone.presonus.com/free/

[Hook]

Thanks 64, I downloaded Pre Sonus & it looks a bit intimidating. The ocenaudio looks cool & I guess we could load just the vocal track or whatever track needed the effect then take that back to audacity for mixing.
Finagle on!

[Blooby]

When folks come over and see Studio One, they have all said it seems more intuitive than their DAW. You could always come up to kick the tires. I can't really speak from direct experience as I haven't futz with any others.

The DP004 above seems a lot less intimidating than the one pictured below it.

Blooby

[Tangled Wires]

I have absolutely nothing technical to add, but would say that the DP004 looks a very nice piece of kit and appears on the face of to be quite user friendly and straight forward.

Surely the clincher is that the DP004 has your daughters name plastered on it four times!

[AndyR]

Surely the clincher is that the DP004 has your daughters name plastered on it four times!

This!

[Hook]

Surely the clincher is that the DP004 has your daughters name plastered on it four times!

Totally tipped the scales!!!

You could always come up to kick the tires.

Think I'm gonna try to take you up on that brother!

Thanks guys, The Dp 004 it is!
Rock On!