Will There Be Another Tascam Digital Portastudio?

[lastmonk]

And the answer seems to be … yes

and by the way; WOW.
and Woohoo!


Now - what will it cost?

Phil is going to have his hands full on this one

It doesn't really have audio editing capabilities yet., But from what I hear (rumors only so far), audio editing and other Portastudio type functionality can be added through software updates

 

[mixerizer]

ive done a bit more research and the design is growing on me - as mjk said, it does take some of the behringer/wing features like dante, madi and sd recording via expansion slot, mono or stereo channel selection, etc., and it also improves on presonus’ improvements in the studiolive series III, providing per-channel aux pre/post control (which i am pretty ruthless about).

imho the use of comparatively fragile interfaces like touch screens are to me an indication of a degree of planned obsolescence. screens are fragile enough, to say nothing of touchscreens that take the most contact of any component on the mixer in software-heavy designs like some modern consoles. One need only look at the lined screens of the DM series as an example. If they had put an external HDMI output on it, i would be even more impressed 2seemystudioview?

 

[Magpie]

I wish they would do the Tascam DP-32SD with 16 or 24 XLR inputs and keep the same Mixdown and Mastering functions. Or, I suppose the Model 16 or 24 with the Mixdown and Mastering functions would do it

 

[shredd]

Tascam DP-32SD with 16 or 24 XLR inputs

I actually love this idea. Even with 16, I could completely eliminate my mixer from my studio setup and the DP would be the core of the system.
BUT: of course, the mixer does offer more routing options/config's than the DP does (more AUX sends, and also has incredible KlarkTeknik internal FX...maybe they should build some of THAT into the DP).
But these things would sort of push the DP-xx out of the class/category it occupies, and competing against other/more sophisticated gear (with accompanying cost!).

My $0.02:
The P/Studio is a fantastic concept that brought (reasonably) sophisticated recording features/capabilities to an entry-level category of musicians (which I was at the time, and basically still am!). My 2488neo/DP-32 MTR's are not a DMxxxx...but are also light-years beyond the Fostex MR-8 I started out with.
Shockingly, I never used any of the tape-based units...despite being old enough to remember when recorded music was a marvelous technological accomplishment...

 

[David Porter]

Has there been any discussion here about the Tascam Studio Bridge 24 track recorder?

Whoops. Never mind. Found it.

 

[-mjk-]

@David Porter it looks like a useful product.

 

[xmortenx]

I would hope for an expensive top pro level 24 track studio, with Vintage EQ, Comp and Verb (not Zoom quality - but Softube, UAD quali)

8 awesome pro preamp inputs

Flying faders or at least "pickup mode for easier recall between projects)
That would be truly awesome

5K or double would be cheap since you only needed that device for the rest of your life

Come on Tascam - make a true music industri changing device once again!!

And no DAW / Control Surface support or any bridge to DAW world

A Pro Stand Alone Unit to save the world for more quantised, multi multi track mush garbage music

 

[-mjk-]

Something better and cheaper than that already exists but not in the Tascam realm.

 

[xmortenx]

Which ?? Zoom r20? or...

 

[xmortenx]

Ps. Saw this post from Tascam to a question on a tutorial video on you tube

@miguelangelcass1830​

2 years ago
Thank you. When are you going to develope a new “powerfull” portastudio, please?

Tascam Rep :

We can't comment any specifics at this time, but we can assure you the Portastudio will see some serious upgrades in the future.

​

 

[Old No7]

^-- From 2 years ago...

And so, we wait...............

And wait...................................................

Old No7

 

[lastmonk]

AFAIC Tascam Portastudio is totally legit and can be used to produce expert quality commercial sound recordings. If you know what you're doing all the tools are there. It's that simple. Using effect sends allow me to get signal processing from any outboard gear I choose, or from any VST, or VSTi , I choose.
The portastudios are open systems and 1/4 compatibility never gets old.

But..... It would be nice to have HDMI out so band members, and others who want to spectate can see what's going on. Also it would make producing Youtube videos, and other types of presentations a lot easier.

I do think a new Portastudio is coming, because there is a major trend (has been for a few years now) on hardware MTRs. Now that storage media is more or less stable, and SoC are so powerful and DAW mania has finally fizzled out. Yamaha, Presonus, Behringer, Midas, Tascam, Peavy, DigiCo, etc are all making digital mixers with MTR capability. All that's missing is Track edit and that will be a wrap. These mixers are posing major competition for the Audio Interfaces out there. The Tascam Model 12 has single handedly shutdown the focus rite LOL

 

[-mjk-]

Which ?? Zoom r20? or...

Behringer Wing, for 64 track, or Behringer X32 for 32 track, with an X-live card and Automate software for automation. Fully integrated recording on SD card with full FX in the console, moving fader automation. Nothing like it in the Tascam realm currently.

 

[xmortenx]

Behringer! Never thought about that. Looks great!!! However X32 is massive and Wing Compact looks like an Ipad mixer so for me I would need something a little more handy

Still dreaming of a 16 fader flying fader console portable multitrack, with a fixed channelstrip with 12 high end combi inputs running into a high end pluginstrip / tape simulation / Api/1081/SSL / Urei Comp/ and then a Lexicon 480 sim and tape delay on the FX.

And most importantly. No iPad like touch screen interface...

I would be in heaven

 

[lastmonk]

Behringer Wing, for 64 track, or Behringer X32 for 32 track, with an X-live card and Automate software for automation. Fully integrated recording on SD card with full FX in the console, moving fader automation. Nothing like it in the Tascam realm currently.

Those are nice boards for sure. But they don't allow track editing do they? Our band's bass player has the X32 with recording option and its gorgeous. But she couldn't find track editing on it. And for those of us who don't use DAWs the track editing feature is critical.

Tascam recording has done right by me over the years and their mixers have always met my needs. I'm from the school of "If it a'int broke......." I'm still waiting on Tascam Sonicview to add track editing
Track editing on the Sonicview would be a dream machine for me

 

[-mjk-]

But they don't allow track editing do they?

No man, they aren't optimized for that. You use the software for editing.

 

[lastmonk]

This is why the only thing missing for me from the Dp 24/32 SD's is HDMI out. The track editing functions on the DP for me have become second nature. Even the screen size is okay to me. But many times I have band members, sometimes clients that want to watch the mix and master so the screen makes spectating challenging. When the next Portastudio is released I hope it has HDMI out....

Recently I have been tracking with the Tascam Model series and do the audio editing, mixing and mastering on the Portastudios. I use the effect sends to use any outboard processing that I need.

The DAW, software with all the upgrades, version changes, patches, bug fixes, incompatibility issues, dongles, non deterministic crashes, subscription fees, feature bloat, copy protection schemes, cloud connection requirements, privacy violations, paradigm shifting, and new interfaces every other version is simply more than I can take. The few minor challenges that I have using the Portastudio are actually refreshing compared to the 24/7 Shenanigans that come with having a DAW as a fundamental part of my work flow.

On rare occasions (Every other blue, very blue moon) I will use Logic Pro 9 or Audacity to deal with some
post production technical (non musical) audio issue. But that is extremely rare ;-)

 

[Stutz]

Looks very impressive. Probably need to take out another mortgage to pay for it.

 

[mixerizer]

I looked at a bunch of modern day portastudio alternatives and options in a few categories to fulfill my needs, which largely boil down to:
- my workflow features,
- immediacy of use,
- I/O varieties, and
- portability/weight

The necessary functions and immediacy I saw as:
— multitrack recording of live artists (4+ channels of simultaneous audio, preferably 8 or more)
— multitrack overdubbing of mics and line level stuff (same, including mixing multiple input channels to one or more overdub tracks)
— individual track punch in/out
— sync w DAWs, LTC 2 track and/or field recordings and MIDI devices
— internal digital mixdown of tracks and channel inputs
— internal effects
— I/o to allow reamping and external effects
— mix and mute automation, ideally bidirectional w a means of touch sensitive/moving faders
— internal region editing (crossfades and splits are usually enough)
— SD card storage, import/export (eg import and mix a set of stems all digital)
— minimal screen surfing, maximum knobs n faders at hand

The relatively obvious best options that surfaced for me were:
- TASCAM Portastudio DP-24/32 (v1, w MIDI)
- Zoom R24
- 1010music Bluebox

None had all the capabilities I wanted, but the TASCAM had the most features (and was correspondingly by far the least portable). Being an owner of a Portastudio 246 since 1985, this didn’t surprise me The Zoom and the Bluebox both had significant limitations (preamp and internal effects are limited on the zoom, Bluebox is known to be glitchy and not nec guaranteed to provide prompt function upgrades, and limited to 12 channels of audio. However, they each would fit in a gig bag a lot more easily than the bigger Portastudios do. Automation and MIDI are a more complicated affair but all three provide some means at least of MIDI control, synchronizing to a DAW or other MTC/MIDI Beat Clock devices.

I would love to see a new TASCAM Portastudio with some of these features, nice preamps, DAW Sync and robust USB connectivity… and if they really want to earn points, give me a real hardware digital i/o on the Portastudio as well (letting me simplify my workflow as I like, which usually involves realtime digital monitoring of mixdown rather than bouncing).