Tascam DR-60D

[Bruno]

An external audio recorder designed specifically  for DSLRs.

 

http://tascam.com/product/dr-60d/overview/

[P337]

yup, and cheaper than a JuicedLink Riggy Micro 222 plus Zoom H1 combo; bigger and heavier though, I'm interested if its pre-amp is cleaner than the H4n and other portable Tascam recorders.

[Zach]

yup, and cheaper than a JuicedLink Riggy Micro 222 plus Zoom H1 combo; bigger and heavier though, I'm interested if its pre-amp is cleaner than the H4n and other portable Tascam recorders.

Yeah, at the price I dont have a lot of faith that this sounds any better than anything thats on the market already. Form and functionality wise though this product is brilliant. They will probably sell a ton of these

[sanveer]

I did see the Tascam DR60 info a few days ago. I thought it seems extremely promising. Though, I found all the extra functionality a little intimidating. 

[nahua]

I just got the DR-60D this past Friday.  I have the Zoom H4n too, so I did a small test yesterday using both.  These are my observations:

 

DR-60D has more headroom on the highs.  The H4n can suffer some, especially when almost at 0db.  However, the H4n has a deeper low end, more fuller sound.  Not necessarily deeper bass, but it just sounds more robust.

 

For live sound, there is the dual recording feature which makes two copies of the recording, one at normal and another at up to -12db lower. This really helps when there's a sudden burst of sound during interviews.  This only works with two channels (one set) not all four channels.  I did use this and it worked very well.

 

Form factor is very different.  At least I have no fear of dropping the DR-60D.  I dropped my first H4n and it landed on the mics, crushing it.  So there is that fear.  The DR-60D has no internal mics, but it's easy to connect a small shotgun or other mic into the miniplug socket.  4 channel recording works well, and it's great to mix sound board with live ambient sound.

 

Overall I think my friend said it best:  DR-60D has very clean sound but it's more suited for studio-like sound.  H4n is more akin to live direct recording, with more ambient fuller sound.  Of course this is just straight to the recorder.  The sound can still be worked on a computer.

 

I'll keep both for now since I still need something for live concert recordings.  But for interviews, the DR-60D is just awesome.  I also have the 6AA battery pack, and it really does extend the life of the unit, especially when using phantom power for shotgun mics.  I think I got over 6 hours.  Way better than maybe an hour using phantom power on the H4n.