Tascam DR-100mkII - Portable 2-Channel Linear PCM Recorder

Comments about Tascam DR-100mkII - Portable 2-Channel Linear PCM Recorder:

A great recorder with lots of uses! I got it mostly to record voice overs for small corporate videos (I use an external condenser mic-A Rode NTA-1), so that It can be a portable recording studio when used along a DIY "Porta-pro booth"! but its built-in unidireccional mics are pretty good.
I also use it to transfer some analogue sources-such as my extensive cassette collection!; to gather some minor Foley sound effects and I will use soon to record some interviews with my Canon DSLR and have a dual recording system. This Tascam has a separate headphone and line out which helps.
I will also use it to record some live music. The mic preamps sound pretty good to me. I have tried it also with dynamic mics and they sound good. No loud hiss. Itried the Shure Beta 58A, a EV RE-20 and a AKG C414! I wish I could afford this last one! but the Rode NTA1 sound pretty good for the price.
The good thing is that I didn't have to max the input level with the dynamic mics to get a good level so I guess Tascam improved the mic preamps compared to the previous model since many reviewers complained about the hiss with dynamic phones...not with this one.
I'm still learning how to use it but the controls are pretty easy to figure out.Transferring files to my imac is super easy.
The only thing is that it would be nice if the unit had a 1/8" mic input-but most of my mics are XLR anyway.
And the AC adaptor is extra. So far so good!

Comments about Tascam DR-100mkII - Portable 2-Channel Linear PCM Recorder:

I just bought these dr100mk2 and 2 akg mics from B@H> to Australia.It took me 2 minutes to get everything working and using the external mic XLR plug on the dr100mk2. The sound quality of akg mic thru the dr100mk2 is what I ALWAYS WISHED. Its warm, a full solid sound of piano. Meanwhile still doing experinment for Low cut/high cut filters on this unit. John Mar

Comments about Tascam DR-100mkII - Portable 2-Channel Linear PCM Recorder:

I am very pleased with this product. I use it to record sound for my DSLR video work. It works great as an on camera mic plugged into my camera's mic jack, but is also awesome to use with my shotgun microphone. Other sound recorders I have tried have had weak pre-amps and I could not get high enough levels with an external mic, but there are no such problems here. The rechargeable battery is an awesome feature. I think that the menu navigation could be refined a little to make it easier to use, otherwise no complaints. Great piece of kit.

Comments about Tascam DR-100mkII - Portable 2-Channel Linear PCM Recorder:

I used this with my canon T2i. I was able to plug our wireless mic into this unit, monitor the levels through the headphone jack, and output the sound into my camera. The files created on the unit are high quality and worked great for us. The uni mics are good, the omni are pretty poor, but I wanted it for the XLR inputs anyway.

Comments about Tascam DR-100mkII - Portable 2-Channel Linear PCM Recorder:

Great update however the rugged aluminium casing doesn't exist, is this a typo? it's hard plastic, rugged ABS plastic maybe but no way this is aluminium, the dial is metal as are the mic and mic cage but that's all the metal/aluminium I can see, it's not aluminium, tascam need to fix this typo or they will have returns. I liked it though and had a great play around with it, along with the Roland R26 (enhanced sound, didn't like that one although the build was nice - hard heavy plastic too) the improvements here with the Mark 2 are nice, nicer preamps apparently (couldn't tell) tripod thread is better this time around it's metal - but I think I'll wait for a Zoom H4n Mark II.
B&H staff were......Perfect, Love this company.

Comments about Tascam DR-100mkII - Portable 2-Channel Linear PCM Recorder:

Great recorder with all the needed features! I'm an ambitious DJ with a start up home studio and this unit takes the place of a rack-sized recorder for now. I can even use it for some live rcordings. Biuld quality makes me say wow. Only thing is that at this price Tascam should have included a power adapter but not a deal breaker for me.

Comments about Tascam DR-100mkII - Portable 2-Channel Linear PCM Recorder:

When choosing my first portable linear PCM recorder, I eventually narrowed it down to the Tascam DR-100 or the Zoom H4N. Most of the reviews I read stated that Tascam had better onboard sound, while the Zoom had some additional musicians features that might be beneficial. When I found out that Tascam had just released this updated recorder (the mkII), I decided to go for it.

My first impression was that the recorder is LARGE. It's about 1.5X the length of a portable cassette recorder that I own. It's also a little bit thicker. That being said, the recorder feels well-made and durable.

So far, I have been really impressed with the sound from the unidirectional mics. I've recorded some fairly faint noises, and I've been able to crank the amplitude way up in post with very little noise or distortion. The omnidirectional mics are useable, but I can't see myself using them for much other than meetings.

I ultimately plan to use this recorder to grab uncompressed audio from external lav mics during weddings and events. I normally just mix the audio down into the video feed. However, after hearing the difference in quality when doing enhancements in post, I can say confidently that using uncompressed audio is worth the additional cost of this recorder.

The only thing I wish Tascam would add is the ability to record from more than 1 input simultaneously. For example, I can record 2 channels from the omni mics, OR 2 channels from externals or unidirectional mics. I would really like to be able to use ONE external mic while using ONE omni mic or line input. For some reason, I thought that this was an option when I purchased (maybe that's the H4N??? Not sure).

Overall, I'm very satisfied with this recorder, and I would highly recommend it to anyone that just wants quality recordings.

Comments about Tascam DR-100mkII - Portable 2-Channel Linear PCM Recorder:

From the amount of features, and the many reviews, I thought that this would have been amazing for price-value. The sound was good, and it mixed well. However, the XLR and the built-in speaker didn't work. Those were deal breakers. It might have been just a rare lemon, or, the brand's poor quality control, I'll stick to more familiar brand names next time.