TASCAM Portacapture X8 - Portable 6+2-Track High-Resolution 32-bit float/192-kHz Recorder, usb2.0

Product Information

The display and the interface is a pleasure to work with. I particularly like how the wheel feels for adjusting levels. Tascam has set the wheel so that it adjusts input values in agreeably small increments and it feels very responsive, making it easy to match levels between input channels and make fine adjustments. Another issue I found happens when recording at 32 bit 192 kHz with the detachable mics and phantom powered mics plugged into all 4 inputs. The first few times I did that I got weird low frequency bumps on all channels. It took turning phantom power on and off and rebooting the device several times until this issue cleared. It’s still not clear what’s causing this but I imagine it must either be a phantom power or a card writing speed issue. General Settings: Here’s where you set all the useful stuff like bit rate and dual recording. Sounding It Out Ready for action. No matter where you are, the X8 is always ready to record. It comes complete with 4 x AA batteries which can power the unit for up to 11 hours. Alternatively, you can use other power sources for convenience including USB bus power or an AC adapter (not included). With USB bus power you can also utilise Phantom Power to incorporate external condenser microphones. The front of the Tascam is ruled by a 3.5-inch color LCD touchscreen which accesses all the unit’s functions. Directly below are Stop, Record, Play/Pause, and Mark with a rotary knob to adjust levels. The bottom has a Peak and Record LEDs, and the top has two detachable 14.6mm Condenser Microphones that may be configured in the X/Y or A-B positions.

The Portacapture X8 has some interesting features right out of the box. Firstly, the two built-in microphones come detached from the main unit. They plug in as needed and can be positioned swapped to allow for both an XY stereo pattern and also a wide stereo pattern. This is a very interesting approach. The device also lets you plug in any other microphone into these inputs via 3.5mm plugs and they also support phantom power. This provides a greater level of flexibility than most units with built-in mics. The device itself is quite sturdy in construction and the large touchscreen makes it easy to see what is going on — more on the touchscreen later. INNOVATIVE DESIGNA third problem I noticed is unexpected bursts of noise, mostly when signal reaches 0dB but not only, both in 24 and 32 bit recording modes. This is probably related to limiters, although it happens even when they aren’t engaged. Speaking of which, the limiters cause an unnatural pumping effect that makes them unusable. The Portacapture is portable but that doesn’t mean it’s designed to be used in Record mode while you’re shlepping it around. I suggest you mount the unit onto a tripod when recording outdoors, otherwise you’ll introduce handling noise into your recording.

Tuner & Metronome. The simple chromatic Tuner and Metronome apps do what they say on the tin. Neither is essential if you’re doing all your recording to the Portacapture, but they’re nice to have and could make life easier later on in your DAW.All the files in a project share a common filename that’s derived from a root name you can specify (otherwise it defaults to ‘Tascam_’). There will be a mono audio file for each active mic, or a stereo file if two mics are stereo linked. There will also be a file for a mix of the active mics. New projects will take the current root filename and increment a number to identify it uniquely, eg. ‘Tascam_0023’. For naming things there is a neat on‑screen virtual keyboard. Collection and delivery costs are included for the first 2 years in the event of an item becoming faulty

Just like its older sibling, the main way you interact with the Portacapture X6 is less via the physical controls and more through the touchscreen, in an approach that owes an awful lot to smartphone design. This means that you can get quite a long way with this machine just by touching icons and seeing what happens. Just like a smartphone, you start with the Launcher, which presents you with a set of ‘apps’ that give you access to all the functionality of the machine. You get exactly the same set of apps in both the X6 and the X8, with the exception of two minor apps that are missing on the X6: a tuner and a metronome. In my review of the X8 I gave quite detailed descriptions of each of the apps and I commend that review to you for the full monty; for this review, I shall give just brief descriptions of each one. I’m surprised that Tascam decided to use microSD instead of full size SD memory cards in the X8. MicroSD cards are rather flimsy (I managed to break one just last year) and it’s difficult to find high speed ones. There’s certainly enough room on this device to house a full size SD card slot like the Sony PCM D100 did more than 10 years ago. MicroSD cards make life more difficult when doing data management on expeditions and I hope manufacturers will move on from them. Included Mics, phantom power off, Stereo WAV -recording; 44,1kHz 24-bit recording POWER SAVE MODE on 18:00:00bit floating point recording means you don't need to set input levels before recording, and you won't have to scrap audio that was recorded too loudly or quietly Slate tones can be added automatically or manually to simplify synchronization of video files when editing Really love the built-in effects (i.e. Noise Gate, Compressor, EQ, Reverb etc...), they're pretty good and useful and alot of more expensive units don't include all of these things. Mid-side decoding. M/S microphones can be decoded directly on the device. No word about Ambisonic recording or decoding, however. For the more demanding recording situations, you can use a Bluetooth dongle (not included) so you can wirelessly control the X8 via a smartphone or tablet device. It even has a handy feature that will automatically switch between power sources should your batteries run out – so you never miss a take again! What’s Included

Browse: I don’t think I can be too brief with Browse, though, because to use it you have to understand the X6’s filing system. Browse is where you can list and play projects, delete and rename projects, and obtain basic information about them. You can also create new folders here (to a depth of two) to contain projects. So, what’s a project? It’s all the files associated with a single recording. Multiple recordings are multiple projects, so if you want to keep all the recordings associated with a single real‑world project, then you should create a folder to hold them. But you have to remember to change into that folder before you make your recording, and that’s something that I kept forgetting to do! It’s the same for the X8, and one of the few things I don’t like so much — I’d much prefer something like the set of files for a single recording to be called something like a ‘take’ and a project to be defined as a collection of related takes. The Portacapture X6 makes Tascam’s touchscreen approach to mobile recording more portable and affordable than ever. For customers in outlying areas of the country, the price of the Extended Warranty may be marginally higher, due to the potential for higher collection and redelivery transport costs.Tascam has created an interface that presents as friendly and familiar. The touchscreen is large, clear and responsive. The UI design is bold and simple and responds to the types of gestures we’re all accustomed to with our smart devices. Portacapture X8 records in 32-bit floating point for plenty of headroom. In my tests I recorded a handful of loud bangs and crashes. Interrogating those recordings in my DAW, I was pleased to see that the Portacapture had retained the full waveform without distortion. The biggest limitations on peaking will likely be the dynamic range of your microphones. I tested this with my own mics plugged into Inputs 3&4 as I did not want to risk damaging the supplied mics. The fidelity on the 1/4-inch tape was a bit “dull” when I monitored it with headphones connected to the Portacapture. Using the new digital file from the Portacapture, I brought it into Adobe Premiere Pro, used the Tube Modeled Compressor, and had a file that sounded just like I remembered.