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small digital recorders-TASCAM DR03



i ended my search, bought a tascam dr03.
saw they were on sale at MF for $79, they honored the $15 gift card from GC (my local GC didn't have it), & i had a 40$ gift certificate too. so i didn't pay much for it.

should note i had been debating either the olympus dm420 or ws700-small digital voice recorders...but then saw the tascams in my MF catalog...
i originally wanted to get the DR07,but both GC & MF were out of them, and come to find out, it's discontinued...it looks a little bigger, think it has a few more options. besides the price, a few reviews i read basically said it's an EASY recorder to use, which i wanted (i'm dumb & lazy).

FIRST REACTIONS-when i got it on tues, the box WEIGHED NOTHING. when i took it out of the mailing box, the packaging weighed less than NOTHING. i wondered if anything was in there. when i took it out, i couldn't believe how small & light it was. i also thought it looked kind of cheap/plasticy, wondered how it will last, but i figured i didn't pay much for it...i was bummed it had no headphones w/ it (the olympus recorders come w/ some). wed night i did a cursory read of the manual (barely)-just checked to see which option for recording, i set it on one of the higher MP3 settings (they start it at highest PCM recordings-which gives the 2mb memory card about 2 hrs of recording)-and the recording time went to 14 hrs, which i thought was plenty of time for my need-i really wanted to just record my practice/playing time and listen back to try to work on my playing technique. have no illusions of recording anything masterpiece-ful to wow anyone--really just wanted to hear my playing to work on things.
i recorded 2 little sessions on wed, one thursday morning, one thur afternoon. i was a little scared to listen back. wasn't sure if i'd just hear that i SUCK, or if the sound would suck, etc (should note i've done recording on my old 4 track tascam, my digital cd recorder, & my digital fostex 8 track). i think some reviews of people saying small recorders have crappy sound was in my head, and i figured the stereo mics in the thing were probably not great. well, after listening to the stuff i recorded, i'm really blown away by the sound. honesty really captures my sound/ playing i thought (warts & all). so far i've had it about a foot away from my fender amp a bit off to the side. it's a nice little recorder. i won't say that it will compete w/ any more expensive digital recorder (the $200 or $500 & up ones), but for $80 it's decent. certainly for capturing ideas it's easy to use, especially for me. the funny thing i've learning in my playing: i'm always STIFF in the beginning, and things sound better when i'm playing against my drum machine...at least so far....the other thing i like is it is small, not hard to carry to and from work which is part of the time i use for listening....
 
i'm finding in all my stuff so far once i get loosened up, i've done some little loop things w/ my digitech DL8 and played over it, textures, noise, lots of my FUZZ MACHINE use
w/ my swollen pickle stuff, little processing from my korg kaoss pad 2....i really love it. don't know if it will meet everyone's needs, not sure how it
compares w/ the zoom ones, but i like this one.
happy looping.
s---
www.myspace.com/scotthansen