TASCAM Portacapture X8 - Portable 6+2-Track High-Resolution 32-bit float/192-kHz Recorder, usb2.0

Product Information

I always recommend my students play with the equipment to understand it better before they go out on a shoot. Not following my own advice, I went on location with a shotgun microphone to record some sound effects. Portacapture X8 provides a preset level setting to achieve a wide dynamic range, thanks to top-quality A/D converters and recording technology with 32 floating-point resolution. The result is impeccable audio content, even with low-level recordings.When editing the audio data later, you can increase the level without deteriorating the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N). Also, the internal normalize function can automatically align the level of the stereo mix file after recording. USB Audio Interface for your Computer The Portacapture X8 can accept Micro SD cards up to 512GB in capacity, while power can come either from four AA batteries (alkaline, Ni-MH or Lithium), a USB power cable, or an optional AC adaptor. If you're running on external power but your mains or power supply fail, the unit will automatically continue recording on batteries if you've got them fitted. Oh, and when you're not on the move, the X8 will also function as an 8-in/2-out audio interface, via USB. Included Mics and Input 5/6, Phantom power used, Stereo-WAV-Recording; 44,1 kHz / 24 Bit; POWER SAVE MODE on 5:30:00 I suggested to Tascam that since presets are employed elsewhere it would be good to support user‑definable presets in the Manual app — if you use two or three recording setups frequently, creating presets for each could be a real time‑saver. Tascam liked the idea and say they are looking to see if it can be added in the next firmware update.

Included Mics and Input 5/6, Phantom power used, Stereo-WAV-Recording; 44,1 kHz / 24 Bit; POWER SAVE MODE on 10:00:00 Podcast: Though obviously not the equal of dedicated podcast hardware, this app nevertheless offers a number of useful facilities to aid in the creation of podcasts.

Specifications

The X8 seems built well and feels good in the hand. It’s made of solid plastic and there are no rattles when it’s shaken or handheld. The dark grey looks good and isn’t too reflective even in strong daylight. The detachable microphones are a different story. They’re made of very light plastic and they just feel cheap. The way they screw into the slots at the top is in stark contrast to the elegant design of the rest of the unit. It seems like they were designed by a different team and only as an afterthought with limited budget. They’re difficult to protect from wind or bumps because they protrude so much outwards. Unlike on the Sony PCM D100, there are no protective bars around them so you can easily smash or break them if you aren’t careful. The display and the interface is a pleasure to work with. I particularly like how the wheel feels for adjusting levels. Tascam has set the wheel so that it adjusts input values in agreeably small increments and it feels very responsive, making it easy to match levels between input channels and make fine adjustments.

Power supply: 4 AA batteries (alkaline, Ni-MH or lithium-ion), USB bus power from a computer, AC adapter (TASCAM PS-P520U, sold separately) All the files in a project share a common filename that’s derived from a root name you can specify (otherwise it defaults to ‘Tascam_’). There will be a mono audio file for each active mic, or a stereo file if two mics are stereo linked. There will also be a file for a mix of the active mics. New projects will take the current root filename and increment a number to identify it uniquely, eg. ‘Tascam_0023’. For naming things there is a neat on‑screen virtual keyboard.The Portacapture is portable but that doesn’t mean it’s designed to be used in Record mode while you’re shlepping it around. I suggest you mount the unit onto a tripod when recording outdoors, otherwise you’ll introduce handling noise into your recording.