SD card buying hints

[Rhythmhawk]

Just an observation...I not too long ago acquired a Tascam DP-24 w/cd burner and midi. It came with an 8gb SanDisk card that I've been using for my personal recordings. For outside work I've been using a SanDisk 32gb micro which seems to be functioning pretty well. For "paid" mobile-recording work, I've used SanDisk (4, 8, & 32gb cards) and Kingston 32gb cards with each 'artist' or 'band' being assigned their own SD card. I've had excellent results. Recently I purchased a 5-pack of PNY 32gb cards and, so far, I haven't had any issues to date...no issues formatting and no issues storing or retrieving data. Not too bad for less than 15 bucks with free shipping from Amazon.

 

[Mark Richards]

I not too long ago acquired a Tascam DP-24 w/cd burner and midi...

@Rhythmhawk, I suggest re-reading Post #23, Post #39, and Post #41 in this thread, which are backed by numerous unsupported sd card sudden failures and unexpected hardware behavior reported on this site over the years across portastudio platforms; and by personal experiments/tests using unsupported sd cards.

But hey, you never know. You may just luck out and prove the exception.

If you haven't yet done so, I strongly suggest going to the sticky thread section and open the "New Members Please Read" sticky. It may save you some grief down the road.

 

[-mjk-]

micro which seems to be functioning pretty well

Yes of course it seems to be functioning pretty well, until it doesn't. No warning - just a sudden catastrophic failure where you lose all the work you've done on that SD card. There is no practical way to gauge how your SD card is functioning, so, everyone says it's fine because they are not experiencing any failures currently. It's only a matter of time though. It happened to me once. Never again, thanks to an approved SD card.

 

[shredd]

seems to be functioning pretty well, until it doesn't

Agreed. W SD cards, it's NO COMPROMISE. For the coupla bux difference, my DP will NEVER contain anything other than listed/TASCAM-tested and -approved card/s. EVER.

Even when I had HDD-based MTR's (normally tremendously reliable/stable; my 2488neo's drive worked flawlessly for nearly 10 years!), I antipicated the possibility of drive failure and maintained a rigorous backup regimen.
Trusting a random SD card solution (already a flimsy technology) with countless hours of creative work is like expecting politicians to act with integrity and comport themselves honestly. You'll get skrooed. You KNOW you will. Just be prepared.

 

[-mjk-]

It also goes without saying (meaning I should say it) that regular backups of the entire SD card are a necessary part of studio life and should not be omitted. If I were doing a serious album I would back up that card after every session.