What you can do live with a Tascam DR-40

This is my Dutch friend's band Vinnie and the Villains, great lead guitar work from Ian.

This was just a live rehearsal!
https://soundcloud.com/vince-maat/vinnie-and-the-villains-lets-dance-rehearsal/comment-362240228

Amazing sound from just a handheld device.

Comments welcome

DaveP

Hey Dave,
you can do great things live ,with an absolute minimum of gear ,
Heres a tune a few friends of mine did live in my old workshop , I did it on a small Yamaha digital multitrack , its only six channels .
I miss that room so much ,high vaulted ceiling ,wooden floor .band is no longer now unfortuneately

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2-9UNY4uXo

Yes, you are right and I liked that, I'm a bit of a Blues fan.

Well done

DaveP

Hi Dave,
yes the new handheld portable audio recorders are really good.

Technology improved a lot,  digital recording is sounding pretty good, even a basic mic preamp chip has enough headroom , flat frequency response and lower noise. Small condenser mic capsules are also quite good.

Those Tascam and Zoom recorders are actually the best there ever was in terms of small portable recording, and they're quite affordable.

Not the $20000 you would pay for a Nagra 20 years ago

I use the Tascam DR-40 for recording my acoustic guitars all the time  ... with the built in mics.

Great sound  no doubt.

For post-processing I like iZotope RX5 Audio Editor and plug-ins - the mastering suite is just amazingly useful - the reverb is really usable for 'ambience' on the acoustics and the eq/comp are great for cleaning up the DR-40 built in mics a little. 

Usually I do some bass cut and some treble lift - my acoustics are quite deep sounding and tuned down a semi tone or tone.

I also use the balanced line inputs for my computer mix send, as well as  external tube mics if I have two players to record.

The Tascam DR-40 sees more use than any of my other recorders, these days 

Glad to hear from you Alexc

DaveP

Thanks Dave    Still truckin'  ;D

I'm a bit slow off the mark this DIY season  I have a bunch of projects on the go (as usual) and am happy my last years' efforts are holding water quite well ...  a whole winter's worth of heavy usage and shaking out!

This summer is about some flagship floor standing speakers build from scratch and a couple more tube builds ...  a 6V6 pp 'deluxe' guitar amp and a refurb of a hifi el84 stereo integrated amp.

I'm trying to spend more time recording the acoustic guitars ...  hence the DR-40 loving.

Tracking some good acoustics is a challenge, as always!

There is absolutely no substitute for a live recording of a good band. You just cannot buy that vibe. I recorded demos for all kinds of bands from the 60s through to the beginning of this millennium, in village halls, pubs, garages, front rooms, outhouses and even a factory or two in everything from mono to 12 tracks. Some of the tracks are just musically outstanding. Beats the proverbial out of many studio produced tracks.

Cheers

Ian