Just bought a Tascam DR-05...

[ken]

I just bought a Tascam DR-05 microrecorder at the local Guitar Center's Labor Day sale.

I thought it would be cool for those times when you wake up with a cool song running through your head... and forget it before you can write it down.

Anyways, I was wondering if anyone else has one, and what they think of it?

I have two issues with mine...

1) It only recognizes certain microSD cards over 2 gb. If the card isn't on the 'approved' list, it gets formatted at 2 gb only.

2) For some reason, my unit doesn't seem to like high capacity NiMh AA batteries. I have a 800ma? pair that works correctly, but if I use a higher capacity set the unit either shows battery level almost empty or the unit shuts down. Why? I don't know.

ken

[Steve Conner]

What a cool gadget! Although one test I have for how cool a song actually is, is if I can remember it without writing it down.

All cards over 2GB are SDHC. There are a few variants of the SDHC standard, which makes compatibility a bit touch and go.

Your higher capacity set of batteries may be old and worn out, have you tried some new ones?

[ken]

My problem is for some weirdo reason I write songs in my sleep... and forget them as soon as I open my eyes. Grrrrr. I lost so many great ideas it was driving me sane.

The machine only recognizes certain SDHC cards. I found a list of cards it will take at tascam.com. I'm going to see if I can find some 8gb cards locally.

I tried five different sets of batteries. I ran them through five charge/drain cycles each before testing them in the DR-05. I'm wondering if my unit's battery charge level sensor isn't screwed up.

I learned a couple of cool tricks... if you lay the unit flat on the center of a table and lift the unit's battery end so the microphones are about 1/16" from the top of the table, it seems to work as a stereo PZM microphone. Also, you can use a camera's pocket tripod in the hole in the bottom of the unit too. I found a 'Bucket Boss' tool holster at a local home improvement store that the DR-05 fits perfectly into. Now I can clip the whole unit onto my pants pocket for field recordings.

ken

[ken]

For future reference....

I was going to send the unit back to GC this weekend because of the battery and card issues, but I was curious about why the Sandisk 8Gb SD card I bought for it wasn't recognized. I decided to try another card. I found out that the Sandisk 'Mobile' (red packaging) 16gb card available at Radio Shack had a model number that was very close to one of the cards on the list I downloaded from Tascam. The only difference was the last four digits on the model number, so I bought one.

When I inserted the 16gb card, the unit immediately recognized the disk as unformatted and asked to format it, which originally didn't happen with the 8gb card. After formatting, the new card has 14.8gb? free space. Cool.

Here comes the weird part...

I reinstalled the Sandisk 8Gb card that the machine wouldn't recognize and read as only 2 Gb after formatting. Now this card reads as 7.3Gb free space.

After reformatting the 16gb card, the batteries were reading a 'low charge'. I put in a just recharged pair of 2500mah Ni-Mh batteries that the DR-05's battery meter always read before as 'low battery'. Before, these same batteries freshly run through a charge/discharge cycle would only run the unit less than 5 minutes before the DR-05 would go into low battery shutdown mode. Now, the same batteries have been running the unit all night with music playing through the external speaker and the backlight lit with no issues.

All in all, I really like the unit. If these issues have worked themselves out, I'll like it even more. It records beautifully, but I do wish it could do 'sound on sound' recording if not actual 'four track'. There is a 'monitor mode' (through headphones only) right now for karaoke type playing. Anyone know a good software hacker?

BTW, my system software according to the unit was version 1.01 0029. Tascam has a software update on their website, but I think my unit is already running the updated version.

ken

[Steve A.]

Ken:

Did you set the battery type for NiMH sells as it specifies on page 95 of the manual? The chart on page 106 lists alkaline cells which last slightly longer than the "NiMH (eneloop)" cells also listed. Sanyo makes and sells the eneloop batteries which come pre-charged and will hold their charge for upwards of a year. The ones I've seen are only 2000mAH so there is that trade-off but I recommend them very highly along with a "smart" or "semi-smart" charger for them. (Smart means that they monitor the current state of the battery as it is being charged; semi-smart means that they monitor the two batteries as a pair which isn't quite as good.) While they don't last as long as the 2500 cells you can keep an extra set charged up and pop them in whenever you need them- within a month or two if you want a full charge. Which is still impressive since the regular cells are often completely dead after a few months.

Steve Ahola

P.S. I picked up a DR-03 as a spare recorder at GC last year when they made me an offer I couldn't refuse- had I known that they'd be selling the DR-05 for $100 I would have waited!

EDIT I'm sure that everyone here knows that rechargeable cells put out 1.2vdc while the alkaline cells put out 1.5vdc. So the equipment you are using must be able to handle the lower voltage.

[ken]

Did you set the battery type for NiMH sells as it specifies on page 95 of the manual?

Yes, I did. That was the first thing I did when I changed cell types. I learned that Energizer 2500mAH batteries work great in my unit, you can play it for hours before you lose even one bar on the battery meter. Cool.

I recorded a jam session last night with the DR-05. I had to turn on the limiter to keep the machine from overloading, but it made great practice reference recordings. Best of all, I recorded for almost four hours and filled up a little less than half of an 8gb card. This would have been at least four minidisks.

One of my friends came over today with a Zoom mini 4 track, and the DR-05 feels much more substantial, sounds better (at least to me), and is a lot easier to use too. Once you learn the menu system, it's about as easy to use as a TV remote.

ken

[Steve A.]

I don't know if this tip is applicable but I was having recording problems (skips and clicks) with my M-Audio MicroTrack II in 2008 and tech support recommended that I reformat the CF media after copying the contents to my computer hard drive. That solved the problem which had been driving me crazy since I was digitizing my LP's and was thinking that the skips were caused by a problem with the record or my turntable.

In any case after each session I would format the CF media first on my computer and then a second time on the MicroTrack II. (If your media has files that are NOT audio files you might want to skip the reformat on your computer.)

Steve Ahola

P.S. I was given a Zoom H4 which was their first minirecorder- they were $300-400 when they came out 5 or 6 years ago. They handle recording well but the case is cheap plastic and I never did get very far figuring out the user interface. TASCAM has been doing audio recording since the 60's and they sure do things right!