This six track Portastudio is a flexible and capable unit for basic recording and mixing. Although it lacks the XLR inputs of some of the more advanced units from TASCAM, it has a pair of 1/4 inch inputs that can be assigned to various tracks. The impedance of the inputs is selectable via a switch on the side of the unit, so you can hook a guitar and/or microphone right into it. It also has a pair of decent internal microphones that, similarly, can be assigned to different tracks and which have selectable gain (low, mid, high) so you can contend with various source material. It includes a modest SD card on which the raw data is recorded and which allows for mixing/bouncing/mastering of tracks. You can add a larger SD card for mroe room to maneuver on bigger (or more numerous) projects.

The interface is pretty simple, with buttons that open basic selections (e.g., input mode) and a menu button and rotary selection wheel for many of the functions. It isn’t that difficult to navigate. The level and pan controls for the tracks are easy to grip and feel solid, not chintzy. In all, build quality is quite solid. This thing seems like it’ll hold up well as a portable unit.

The instruction manual is located in a file directory on the unit itself and explains the basics of recording and mastering as executed on this device.

You can record up to two tracks at a time. Although there are only six tracks, you can easily bounce tracks (i.e., combine two separate tracks into one). Because the unit is digital, you don’t add tape hiss by repeatedly bouncing or mixing tracks. This is not the four-track cassette studio of my youth.

I used this unit to record my friends’ band at a gig last weekend. It was pretty simple to mix down the tracks and export them for further processing with some desktop computer audio mastering software. All things considered, the results were quite good, even though this unit records at a maximum 44.1khz/16-bit depth (CD quality). The only thing that I’d complain about is the length of time it took to “export” the raw data into a .WAV file in the unit’s accessible partition on the SD card so I could then transfer to the computer via the USB-Mini connector on the unit. 50 minutes of audio took more than 15 minutes to “export” within the device.

In all, this is a flexible little unit with plenty of functionality.

As a point of reference, I used this device in comparison to my current portable recorder, the Boss Micro BR, which I bought used in 2004. My primary use for the device is to record my band’s practices, and occasionally my friends’ live shows. After playing with the Tascam DP-006, a few glaring issues stood out immediately:
1. LCD Screen – first, the screen is seemingly the same black and white, 16-bit looking screen I had on my 2nd generation iPod in 1998. The lack of a backlight almost immediately killed any usefulness for me in less than bright situations. It’s my understanding that the DP-008 model has a backlit screen, so that may be an option if you intend to ever use this in a dark environment.
2. Exporting to master inside the unit to get to a usable .wav – this requirement is another dealbreaker for me. In my current unit, I can stop a recording, pop out the card, export from Boss’ proprietary format on my Macbook, and quickly convert that to a .wav for editing and uploading to dropbox. With this unit, you have to create a master and export to .wav within the device itself, something that in my experience takes exponentially longer (and drains the units batteries – no AC adapter is shipped with the item) than doing the heavy transcoding on a computer.
3. The menu navigation is typically labyrinthine for this older generation of recorders (including Boss’ products). There’s got to be a way to make menus and controls more intuitive on these entry level products. For now, I’ll stick with the devil I know.
4. The quality of the knobs themselves felt substandard for a couple hundred dollar unit. Not a major issue, but an annoying one worth mentioning.
5. High/Medium/Low Sensitivity – I’d prefer,1 for my particular use cases, a sliding sensitivity setting like my Boss has (0-100 sensitivity). Again, a minor issue but an annoying one if your recording is just barely clipping at medium sensitivity.

Given those two issues, a couple nice things I noticed about the unit:
1. Sound quality is fine, and the stereo microphones are each 4x the size of the single onboard mic on my Boss unit. I didn’t A/B compare two identical recordings, but the sound was definitely comparable.
2. The unit seems more rugged than my Boss unit.
3. For truly recording, mixing, and “mastering” demos in the unit itself (a use I don’t personally have for it), this seems much more capable than my Micro BR. You can dial in levels for each track using knobs and see at a glance all your settings. So for that use case, I would think that the Tascam wins.

Overall, it’s not a bad unit, but it does suffer from many of the late 20th century design flaws (deep, non-intuitive menus for simple controls, no easy .wav export other than mastering to .wav, 15 year old LCD technology, no backlight) that frustrated me even back then. If you’re committed or loyal to the Tascam brand, the DP-008 model at more is worth it just for the backlit LCD. If you prefer simple live recordings with comparable sound quality and more sensitivity/visibility options, the Micro BR is a better fit. I struggled between the 2 and 3 star rating; depending on how much mastering you want to do in the unit, you might have decent results, plus it at least works as advertised (just not easy to do). I wanted this unit to be better, but unfortunately can’t recommend it given its numerous shortcomings relative to my 10 year old Boss Micro recorder.

This little unit is a blast. When I say little, I mean it literally — it’s only about 4 by 6 inches, and a little over an inch tall.

It’s a terrific musical sketchpad, great for practicing or quick recordings of your latest song idea. Thanks to the quick start section in the included instruction manual, I recorded a song within ten minutes of unboxing it.

It has six tracks, but just four channels — two of the channels are stereo, two are monaural. Theoretically, since it has bounce-to-track capability, you can record unlimited tracks.

What I like most is that it isn’t technically overwhelming like some standalone recorders. It has a good balance of capability and simplicity. You can do some on-board editing, and you can even “master” by mixing down your tracks. But it doesn’t have audio processing or effects like reverb — which, in such a small unit, probably wouldn’t be satisfactory anyway. If you want to do that kind of thing, it’s best to load your tracks into a digital audio workstation on your computer and take it from there.

It does not have XLR inputs. It has two 1/4-inch jack inputs, and they are versatile. One can be switched from mic/line to guitar. The impedance of both inputs can be set to low, medium, or high. You can plug a guitar directly in, or use a powered or unpowered mic of high or low impedance.

However, it comes with built-in mics, and they do a very nice job. That makes this an extremely portable unit — practically self-contained.

It comes with batteries, a USB cord (for connecting to your computer and transferring tracks), and an SD card already installed.

If I had one small suggestion for improvement, it would be that TASCAM would include a set of ear buds. A set of ear buds would make it a totally complete and ready-to-use system right out of the box.