Tascam DP02
Tascam DP02 8-Track Hard Disk Recorder with CDRW
Tascam DP02 8-Track Hard Disk Recorder with CDRW
About the Tascam DP02
Composing and recording use two completely different parts of your brain. When you’ve been struck with inspiration, you don’t want complicated machinery stifling your creative flow, but you also don’t want a unit that’s so simple it limits your creative expression. The Tascam DP02 8-Track Hard Disk Recorder strikes the perfect balance between ease of use and powerful design. And with the integrated CD burner, sharing your vision is just that much easier. It’s like a conduit through which your greatest ideas can enter the world.
If the term “multitrack recorder” makes you nervous, fear not: the DP02’s layout was designed around a streamlined recording workflow, and it makes laying down multi-part instrumentation a snap. Plug a microphone into one of the recorder’s two XLR inputs or a guitar into the dedicated instrument jack, “arm” the first two tracks, and hit record. When you’ve captured your basic idea, keep the mics plugged in, select two different tracks, and hit record again. . . you’re overdubbing! Repeat this process to layer embellishments, harmonies, and counter-melodies until you’ve got a pop-orchestral number that’ll make Brian Wilson green with envy. A built-in metronome helps keep all those parts in synch with one another, and the clear LCD and footswitch punch-in option make it easy to clean up flubbed takes. The overdub process is made so effortless by the Tascam DP02, it’s like having your own studio assistant.
Intuitive layout is only the beginning. With eight separate tracks, you’ve got plenty of space for even complex arrangements, and keeping each element separate gives you more arranging flexibility after you’re done recording. Say you’ve just added a violin part that you think might conflict with the accordion lick you recorded three takes ago, but you’re not sure which one you want to keep. Simply ride the respective tracks’ faders to pull them in and out of the mix and listen to which one sounds best. Do you think that vocal track could use a little reverb to really sparkle? Don’t just imagine it, use the DP02’s built-in effects section and give it a listen. There’s even flanger, overdrive and a bunch more effects to add a little spank to your guitar and bass parts. Dedicated EQ and left-right panning controls on every track helps you hear exactly what works and what doesn’t in your stereo mix.
This flexibility makes the Tascam DP02 a great sketch pad and indispensable pre-production tool, but you can also use it to take your project from idea to finished product. Simply bounce down your song to the Tascam’s 40GB internal hard disk, then burn to audio CD with the integrated CDRW burner. Now you’ve got a physical recording you can take with you anywhere and share with anyone. Alternately, connect your DP02 to a computer via USB and drop your project into any multitrack recording program for the ultimate in mixing and mastering flexibility.
