I bought the DR-40 a few months ago, and just got down to using it these past few weeks. My expectations were high based on the reviews I've read, and I am happy to report that my expectations been exceeded.
But first, a caveat: I am using the DR-40 in a controlled environment (more on that later) and not out and about, so my review will focus on this as a studio microphone set-up. I am also not a sound professional. I was a film major back in college, so I know a bit about sound production and technique, but by no means does my career revolve around it. If I had to label, I'd say I was an amateur enthusiast.
I have the three AAs installed (they come with the unit), but am running with the USB connected (USB bus power) to my laptop. I purchased a sturdy little table top tripod to pop the unit on, and that has proven to be a wise purchase. I can position the Tascam so that it is pointing directly at my mouth, no matter how I am sitting, and the stand also keeps vibrations down. Since the Tascam is very sensitive to any movement or vibration, isolation is important. You cannot handhold the unit by its case and expect not to pick up rustling; you have to mount it on something if you want to carry it about.
Learning the button layout and features is fairly straightforward. The interface and buttons labels aren't the clearest in the world; there is a shallow learning curve. But once you get them down, things are easy and make sense. With a thirty second glance at the manual I was up and recording. Hit the 'Record' button to go into standby mode (it blinks red) and hit it again to begin recording (steady red). Pretty easy. I was able to upgrade the firmware with no problem.
When recording, it took me a couple of tries to get the levels right. And to be honest, they still aren't right. I'm yacking into the DR-40 relatively close, and the levels on the screen look good, but when I import the sound into Audition (yeah, I know) the levels are mediocre. I'm also getting some clipping on hard P sounds, even though I am not that close to the mics and the level monitor doesn't indicate clipping. These are small problems, and I'm happy to attribute them to user error at present. I'm also fairly certain an external mic would mitigate these problems. But again, I'm confidant I can solve them with a little experimenting.
As for the sound, I'm very pleased. I've been recording short phrases for a iOS game I'm making. The first try was ok. The second try better. The third try, excellent. I was able to get a full, balanced sound out of the unit. And even after having bumped up the levels in post, there was very little noise in the signal. Listening to playback through a pair of Grado PS1000's was like listening to me talking to me. It sounded live, so much so that it startled me the first time. My setup is a bit funky: I currently live in a hotel, and it is tough to get a quiet spot. Even 25 floors up, the Tascam picks up road noise. It is very sensitive. I've been locking myself in a closet, AC off, with a heavy quilt over myself and the Tascam. Even under these less-than-optimal conditions, the sound is stellar.
Importing sounds into the laptop is easy if you have a card reader. My laptop does, so it is as simple as popping the SD card out of the DR-40 and into the card reader. The card shows up as a volume on the desktop, and the individual sound files are a drag and drop away. The unit comes with a 2GB card, and I upped it to 8GB just to be safe. I didn't need to worry. A 3-4 minute file at default settings saved as a WAV comes out to be around 50MB.
Based on how impressed I am so far, and realizing I've uncovered a small percentage of capability and potential, I can enthusiastically recommend the Tascam DR-40. I'm giving it five stars based on the price and quality. Fifteen years ago I used a Tascam professional DAT field recorder that cost 1KUS , and I think the DR-40 gives it a run for its money.
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Compare with similar items
This Item  Tascam, 4 AD Converter, usb2.0, Black, DR-40 |  |  |  |  | |
| Price | $199.99 | $274.00 | $14.99 | $89.00 | $134.00 |
| Delivery | — | Get it as soon as Thursday, May 16 | Get it as soon as Friday, May 17 | Get it as soon as Thursday, May 16 | Get it as soon as Thursday, May 16 |
| Customer Ratings | |||||
| Sound quality | |||||
| User interface | |||||
| Battery life | |||||
| Value for money | |||||
| Sold By | Audio Watt Store | Loyal Firm | York Sales | Amazon.com | Amazon.com |
| hardware interface | usb2.0 | usb2.0 | usb | usb | usb2.0 |
| memory capacity | 2 GB | 32 GB | — | 128 GB | 32 GB |
| display size | 40 inches | 2.4 inches | 7 inches | — | — |
| battery quantity | 3 aa, 3 aaa, 1 lithium ion | — | — | 2 aa, 1 lithium ion | 1 a, 4 aa, 1 aaa |
| weight | 0.21 kilograms | — | — | 0.7 pounds | 0.11 pounds |
| mic form factor | Built-In | Built-In | Built-In | Built-In | Lavalier |
| mic operation mode | Stereo | — | — | Stereo | Mono |
Reviews with images
Works great for very loud bands.
I was in the market for a handheld digital recorder and was having a lot of trouble trying to find any that explicitly stated that they could handle a VERY loud band. In my band we have a bass player who has a near pathological obsession with speaker cabinets. He has a wall of speakers featuring no less than 2 4x10 cabinets, a couple 18s and a couple 2x15s. In addition we have two guitar players running full stacks with Marshall and Verellen heads, and of course a drummer. I'm not saying this is the right thing to do, nor is it safe, but that's what we do. It gets LOUD. And even though I'm pushing forty, I know loud. We play stoner rock and sludge metal. This ain't your dad's cover band.After a bad experience with a previous Tascam DR-2d recorder that seemed to always be clipping no matter how low I set the input gain (it was stolen before I had the chance to see if the distortion was the result of a bad setting on my part), I was skeptical but hopeful that this one would perform better.It far exceeded my expectations. I couldn't get the Peak light to come on unless I was holding it right next to the drummer and he was really cracking the snare. I placed it in the center of the room, pointed it in no particular direction and set it to record. I set the input level all the way down and let it roll. We played through about four songs and then I went out to the car to see how things were sounding. I was blown away. It obviously doesn't sound like it's ready to be pressed to vinyl or anything, but it sounds AMAZING for a little handheld recorder. No distortion from the drums or the bass, you could hear all the instruments even though I didn't take any special care in directing the built-in mics toward one instrument or another. It basically created a faithful recording of what we were doing and allowed us to hear back our practice clearly so that we can refine our songwriting. This will be an indispensable tool for all future practices, and I might even record some live shows with it. Those tend to be even louder, so we'll see how it holds up. I haven't even tried the dual record mode yet, which is supposed to create a safety recording at a lower level.I'm going to upload a customer image of the levels from this recording so that you can see that nothing was clipping and there's still plenty of room left for me to increase the input volume.I'd also like to give some special props to Tascam for including a storage card with a *usable* amount of storage. Every digital camera I've purchased in the last 15 years comes with a tiny card that you can't do anything with. They include a generous 2GB SD card which is a ton of recording time in single track mode. Files are very easy to access via USB and recorded in WAV, which any audio editor will understand and easily convert to mp3 in seconds. My buddy has a BOSS digital recorder and we still can't figure out how to read its proprietary track format. Bad move on their part, and I'm glad Tascam didn't go that route.All this plus XLR ins with phantom power so I can use any mic that I want? (Though the built-in mics sound great!) I think I'm in love. Another bonus, it kinda resembles a tazer and you never know when you might have to scare away a crackhead who's giving your gear the greasy eyeball while you're loading your van.
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Reviewed in Italy on August 28, 2018
Il Tascam DR-40 offre la possibilità di registrare dai due microfoni incorporati (soluzione ideale per registrazioni al volo in esterni), ma è anche possibile sfruttare i due ingressi microfonici e di linea. Ha l'alimentazione Phantom per l'utilizzo di microfoni a condensatore.
Il registratore dispone di varie modalità operative: registrazione mono; stereo; dual; 4 tracce simultanee su 2 canali; overdub. Quest'ultima funzione è particolarmente interessante, perchè utilizzando la modalità "Overdub separate" si può sovraincidere un numero virtualmente illimitato di tracce editabili in post, e senza distruggere ne la traccia originaria, ne tutte quelle successive. Sostanzialmente la funzione Overdub Separate permette di ottenere risultati simili a quelli che si avrebbero utilizzando un classico registratore a tracce separate. Questa funzione risulta particolarmente preziosa per elaborare bozze compositive o registrare brani completi.
Il DR40 registra su schede Sd-Sdhc-Sdxc files WAW e BWF con risoluzione fino a 24bit/96Khz, ha integrate funzione basilari di editing sui file e un mixer per correggere pan, livelli ed effetti prima durante le riprese o per il mixdown.
Attualmente sto utilizzando il TASCAM per lo studio, la composizione e la produzione professionale, e lo trovo davvero ottimo. Si tratta di un dispositivo dotato di un interfaccia comoda e intuitiva. Dopo un breve, ma necessario studio del manuale si riuscirà a sfruttarne a pieno tutte le qualità.
Al momento dell'acquisto ero indeciso fra il TASCAM, lo ZOOM h4npro, e il BOSS microbr. Ho scelto il TASCAM (dopo avere avuto modo di provare gli altri due) sia per il prezzo (il DR40 costa attualmente 60/80eu meno degli altri due), sia per la filosofia progettuale che c'e' dietro. Il TASCAM è un registratore multitraccia portatile che integra alcune comode funzioni aggiuntive, mentre ZOOM e BOSS sono due veri e propri studi di registrazione tascabili, con numerosissime funzioni di editing, mastering, simulatori di effetti e amplificatori, accompagnamenti elettronici e molto altro. Tutto questo rende l'interfaccia più ostica macchinosa - e in definitiva (almeno per me) inutile, dato che trovo più pratico importare sulla DAW del PC le registrazioni fatte col DR40, e da li fare il mixing e mastering.
In definitiva mi ritengo molto soddisfatto del prodotto acquistato, e posso consigliarlo a tutti quelli che hanno necessità di registrare per esigenze di studio, composizione o produzione.
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