Recording - February 2010 - 52

BY LORENZ RYCHNER TASCAM DR-100 Portable Digital Recorder When power trumps portability why not have both? remote control, wired or wireless. More in a moment. I’ll spare you the one-by-one description of each switch and button of the DR100—please check out the many pictures and the manual which you can download from www.tascam.com, where you also have access to the manuals of the DR-1 and the DR-07 for further comparisons. Instead, I’ll describe what it felt like to actually explore and use the DR-100. Practical matters Typically, built-in mics on a recorder limit the user’s mobility, they pick up handling noises, the unit often can’t be aimed just the way it should be because the user needs to see the screen and have access to the controls—but these limitations can disappear when you use the DR-100. This alone sets it apart from most of its competition—the other TASCAM models included. The DR-100 wants to be as much at home in the field as in the studio, and anywhere in between. It is too big and heavy for the average shirt pocket—the inclusion of full-sized XLR connectors defines its size and weight: 13/8" thick, 31/8" wide, 6" long, weighing a good 10 ounces with batteries. It has separate Line In, Line Out, and Monitor (headphone) minijacks (with level controls!) as well as a built-in speaker. If you record from the Line input or from mics connected to the XLR inputs, location of the DR-100 is not critical. If you run it off the built-in mics, more than likely you’ll want to set it up on a tripod or mic stand; there is a 1 /4" thread on the underside that fits camera mounting gear—I used my Gorillapod that clamps to just about anything—or get an adapter for the standard 5/8" or the European 3/8" mic-stand threads. You’ll want to pick a stand mount or gooseneck that lets you angle the recorder just right, so that the (non-swivel) built-in mics point the way you want them to whenever you record in Uni mode (cardioid— the other option is Omni). But don’t place the recorder too high up, or you can’t read the screen. A simple video-camera tripod with a swivel head might be just the ticket. Hooray for the remote control This is just one of the reasons why, in practical terms, the XLR inputs and the remote control will be welcomed by many users. Touching the unit while it is recording off the internal mics is likely to lead to recorded noises. That can be avoided at the beginning of a recording if you choose Delay Record (delays the start by 0.3 of a second, avoids recording the contact noise of your finger on the Record button), but not during recording. Use the remote, and that problem goes away. Use external mics and—ditto. The remote can be wireless as long as there is an unobstructed line of sight between it and the top end of the recorder—the receptor is located between the built-in mics, wrapping around the edge to give quite a wide pickup range. If that placement doesn’t work for you, slip the remote control into the (included) plastic tray and connect the special 10 ft cable to the remote input at the bottom end of the recorder, between the XLR sockets. Simply ingenious! It even comes with its own CR2025 battery. Power and memory The DR-100 runs on two AA batteries. In the box is a rechargeable battery; to use it, you’ll need to buy a wall wart, or make a point of leaving the DR-100 hooked up to your computer via USB (which also charges the battery). There is no built-in memory, you use either an SD card (to 2 GB) or an SDHC card (to 32 GB). My review unit came with a 2 GB card. At 44.1/16 that lets me record for well over 3 hours, and if I make it MP3 files at 128 kbps I can record for 37 hours. If you want to record everything that goes on in your neighborhood while you’re on a threeweek vacation, set it to record MP3 files at 32 kbps and an 8 GB card will record for 596 hours Better get that wall wart! Menu mysteries The Input Setting menu lets you select Mono. It’s not what you’d think it is. If you want to record just one mic, on one channel, in mono, do not select mono in this TASCAM, a division of TEAC Corporation, has—in fairly quick succession—released three handheld stereo recorders; we reviewed the DR-1 in July of 2008, the DR-07 in December of 2009, and here comes the DR-100. In what way are they different? Vive la différence Before we get into the specifics of the DR100, let’s point out a few distinctions between these three models. The DR-07 is the smallest, the DR-100 the largest of the three. All three have built-in mics—the ones on the DR-1 can be angled up or down by the user, the ones on the other two models are fixed. The DR-1 and the DR-100 have an overdub feature. The DR-1 and the DR-07 can change pitch without changing speed, or change speed with or without changing pitch. The DR-100 can change speed with or without changing pitch, but it can’t change pitch without also changing speed. Two huge functional differences that set the DR-100 apart: First, the DR-100 accepts two mics on XLR inputs and can provide 48 V of phantom power; second, the DR-100 can be operated from aRECORDING FEBRUARY 2010

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Recording - February 2010

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