Tascam DR-40 Handheld 4-Track Recorder Sound Samples

Guy Cochran here. Today we're going to be taking a look at a new recorder
from Tascam called the DR-40. This is an exciting new development because
this unit is the first one under $200 that has XLR inputs. What we're going
to do is jump right in and listen to a couple of different microphones.
We're going to listen to a large diaphragm condenser, we're going to listen to a shotgun,
a lavalier, a dynamic handheld, and then we're
going to pipe in a Mackie mixer and we're going to listen to
this large diaphragm condenser again through the line level input. We're
going to try a variety of different things. Let's get right to it.
I'm using a green screen technology. You can see that I can wave my hand in
front of this PowerPoint presentation. I apologize that it's not perfect
like the high-end weatherman, but it can be good enough for our show. We're
going to switch over to a different camera here. This close-up camera
allows you guys to see what's going on so hopefully you guys can appreciate
this and enjoy this session.
The first thing we're going to do is check out the record mode. The record
mode that we have that it set up for right now is recording just the
internal stereo mics. A lot of people are going to record that way, but we
want to record via the XLR input. We're going to drop down to the source
and change this from internal mic stereo and move it all the way up to
external 1/2. That would be the normal recording mode and most people are
going to record like that.
This one actually has something even cooler. Inside you can jump over to
dual and now we've changed that source back over to our external
microphones. We can then pick levels. Let's say we want to record our
second track at -10 db lower. We'll jump back over to home and let's hit
the record and see what this looks like. If we hit record right now we get
the counter. It's counting down and we're recording right now.
We're actually peaking, so I'm going to turn it down, down, down. You can
see the two different levels. You can see that the top track is our . . .
I'm still a little too hot. I'm pressing the input level which is on the
side here, and that looks pretty good now. I'm still kind of peaking, but
you can see the nice safety track that we have down below. This is a large
diaphragm condenser microphone and you can hear the quality of this. We're
going to jump to just being quiet so we can hear how good the internal
preempts are in this unit. Pretty decent.
Now we're going to compare another microphone. We're going to jump over to
a , and go jump over to a shotgun microphone. We've got the RODE. Hey, hey,
hey, hey. I'm going to turn up our levels a bit. Now we're at 75, we're at
80, and we're going to bring all the way up to 90. We are now at 90. We're
about two feet away, maybe three feet. Shotgun microphones sound best
within two feet so we can get this microphone very close. We're going to
have a better sound and we've got that ability to keep it from clipping by
using that second safety track.
Again, this is the RODE NTG-1. Let's go a little bit further. Now we're
about three feet away and we're inside a room that's not super-treated, but
there are definitely some reflections in this room. We'll be quiet so you
guys can hear what you might be getting if you're using this lovely shotgun
microphone inside of a room that has some pretty bare walls but also has
some sound absorption. We're going to just be quiet for a second so we can
listen to the noise floor.
All right. The next microphone will be the Lavalier. We have this recording
pretty hot, too; peaking, peaking, peaking. I think I'm going to wind up
using the second track more. This is the MXL FR-355 kit. Inside this kit
you get two different microphones. You get an omni and you get a cardioid.
You get two lavs in the kit for under $100.
I just want to let you guys hear this. The smaller the microphone,
generally the more self-noise you're going to get. Take a listen to this
microphone. It's actually the microphone that's going to be hissy, not the
recorder. Let's just take a listen.
The next microphone that we have here is a pretty popular microphone. This
is the Sennheiser 835, similar to the good old Shure SM58. Let's listen to
the self-noise of this one. Not bad.
The next thing we're going to do is jump over to this Mackie mixer. We're
going to hook up the line level on this one. Let's give it a shot. Hey,
hey, hey. Now we're listening to the preamps coming out of the Mackie mixer
and I'm going to hook up the line level on this one. So, let's give it a
shot. Hey, hey, hey, hey. Now we're listening, hey, hey, hey, hey. We're
listening to the preamps coming out of the Mackie 1402-VLZ mixer, and we're
feeding into this recorder via line level. Listen to the self-noise now.
So that's it, folks. I hope you guys enjoyed this session. Again, this is
the Tascam DR-40 four channel portable recorder. I'll catch you next time.