Probably the best 8-track you will find for the money!, March 26, 2013

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Versus the competition (and there ain’t much)…, July 4, 2013

The DP008EX (+ predecessor DP008) and Zoom R8 are basically the only two *sensibly priced* games in town for compact / mobile 8-track SD-based recorders. I’ve now owned both (the R8 was great but was stolen; almost bought another, but decided to try the 008 for a few reasons). They’re pretty different machines although they are both solid choices – which one you ought to choose depends on your priorities from such a device. Here’s a quick rundown of various contrasting pros and cons from my personal angle, DP008EX first.

DP008EX:
– No built-in guitar amp modeling.
– Metronome and tuner, but no built-in drum machine (although the R8’s “drum machine” is frankly way more trouble than it’s worth unless you just want “a rhythm, ANY rhythm”; I’m a drummer, so I’d rather hear no pattern than some Casio autorhythm I pulled out of a preset menu as the best available whatever).
– Insert effects for post are pretty much reverb… and that’s all. You DO get compression / EQ / exciter IF you are willing to print those effects to “tape” going in. No delay, no chorus, no anything else.
– Can’t yank the SD card straight out, stick it into your laptop / desktop, and bring everything into your DAW. You’ll need to go through a time-consuming partition copy operation and/or use a USB cable. (Thankfully, they used a standard mini USB connector.)
– Smaller than the R8 – enough to make the difference between “I can throw this on the piano music stand” and “dang, I guess I’ll just have to put it up on top of the piano and keep standing up to press the buttons.” (The 008 is about the size of a VHS tape; the R8’s about the size of a closed 11″ Macbook Air.)
– Track volume knobs, not nice med-throw faders like the R8’s – but, UNLIKE the R8, provides actual-hardware pan and reverb-send pots. BIG plus for the 008EX. I love havin’ faders, don’t get me wrong, but not at the cost of having to dig through menus just to pan a pair of tracks 50% in each direction.
– 1/8″ headphone jack. BIG plus over the R8 in my mind – there are basically no portable / little-bag-stuffable headphones with 1/4″ plugs, and an adapter’s just another dumb little thing to go missing when you need it most.
– Seems to have slightly better battery life than the R8. Good thing, too, since Tascam has shafted you out of an included AC adapter in the box. (Nice margin inflation strategy, fellas, that’s certainly not too 1987 or anything. Hey, maybe charge just more, provide the AC hookup in the box, and “shaft” us out of that “generous” four-dollar 2GB card instead.)

Bottom line – the DP008EX’s is definitely a more limited feature set but the unit is a little faster to use than the R8, and significantly more portable too.

R8:
– It’s got the modeling and nice comprehensive set of internal effects / independent sends / drum machine and all that. The question is whether you’ll ever want to take the menu-time to use them for something like this. (I used the amp modeling a fair amount, that’s DEFINITELY handy on the go with an electric, but I hardly ever used anything else in the DSP stable. The drum machine, again, CAN be programmed WITH an external laptop / editor – but it probably won’t be worth your time to learn how.)
– Also works as an honest-to-goodness, ASIO-ready USB interface in a pinch – that was nice / frequently useful, although the external-mic preamps are a notch down in quality from what I’m used to even on prosumer USB interfaces – and a sampler / control surface. The sampler, again, is not worth the time and this is a guy who once did everything on a notoriously unusable TX16W. The control surface might be nice IF you’re not already using a tablet and TouchDAW, which would probably be vastly preferable.
– Has very easily-set in-project multiple marker points. The DP008 doesn’t, not quite anyway, which makes me sad.
– SD card can be removed / shoved right into your computer and the multichannel recordings are basically ready to load right off the card right into your DAW. Wonderful. Tascam, please do take note.
– USB can power the thing (is actually the primary connection for doing so), and they were even nice enough to include an AC–>USB transformer even though everyone already has one that came with their tablet or smartphone now. Tascam, PLEASE do take note.
– Battery life only about 2 hours max on a set of NiMHs. Has an easier time with phantom power than the Tascam though.
– Already addressed the not-as-portable-as-I’d-really-like issue, the “really? I have to menu-dig and data-wheel-scroll just to pan a flippin’ track?” problem, along with the 1/4″ headphone out (which, incidentally, doesn’t get very loud; 008’s headphone out SLIGHTLY louder).
– The add’l bigness over the DP008EX comes with a little bit more protection for the front panel controls (via the “siderails”), although the 008 actually feels more solid as a whole…

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Alright for recording music, I guess, June 3, 2013

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D. Johnson (Utah, USA) – See all my reviews

  

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