Tascam DR-07mkII Portable Digital Recorder Bundle with Headphones and Polishing Cloth

• Handheld portable recorder
• Adjustable stereo condenser microphones (XY or AB)
• Up to 96kHz/24-bit WAV (BWF) linear PCM recording
• Stereo MP3 recording from 32-320 kbps bit rate
• Reverb effect

I bought this recorder to record live gigs for my band. I was pleasantly surprised, as it has exceeded my expectations. In a nutshell:

The built-in microphones are extremely sensitive (both a pro and a con). Do not expect to be able to record a live event when you are holding the unit; the noise your hand/grip conducts into the shell of the recorder will will drown out whatever you are trying to record. However, if you tripod mount the unit, you will get exceptional sound quality and clarity.

Additionally, the built-in mics are extremely susceptible to wind. The first gig I tried this at was an outdoor concert on a mildly windy day (maybe 10 mph with gusts to 25 mph) and the recordings were unusable because of the wind noise. I have since bought a "wig" type wind screen from a company in Hawaii called "red headed wind screens", which took care of the issue. Now outdoor recordings, even in heavy wind, are no problem.

Aiming the built-in mics is a bit of an art. They are *very* directional. The first two times we tried it out I placed the tripod-mounted unit about 10 feet in front of the band (4-piece rock setup, Guitar & Amp, Bass & Amp, Drums, Keys & Amp).

-With the microphones in the "inside/crossed" position, all I picked up was the two guitars (Barely any vocals, keys, vocals and only picked up the cymbals on the drum kit).

-For the second set, I tried them in the "outside/spread" position. Then all I got were the keys and the vocals (through the PA) and basically nothing else.

-I've since learned to aim the mics so that left mic is pointing midway between the bass rig/drums, and point the right mic midway between the keyboard & lead guitar (also vocalist). I also make sure that one of the stage monitors (vocals) is pointing roughly at the right mic.

The menus are a bit confusing and the manual is typical "written in Asia and poorly translated". I'm pretty good with electronics, so I eventually figured it all out.

I found that the best setting to use for recording live rock performances is to let the unit automatically adjust the gain on the recordings. It works pretty well, but the first second or two of some songs gets distorted; after that the recordings are consistent at about 0db (+/3 db). If you had an operator for the unit during the show (I am the operator but I'm on stage performing), manually setting gain would probably get you cleaner recordings, since you could continuously dial-in the gain.

As originally stated, the sound quality is pretty amazing once you get it dialed in.

Overall, this is a great quality unit and I am highly pleased with my purchase.

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