DP-24 - I love it (so far)

[cwhowell2]

Spent 2 nights getting familiar with my new DP-24. Lots of things to like. It's smaller, lighter and I like the new color display. Much easier to read than the old green-screen. The biggest improvement is SD card based recording. Their list of "approved" SD cards is quite small, but I found the PNY 8gb Class 10 card works fine. It's on sale at Staples for $15 and holds about 25 hours of recording. Another big improvement is the tracks are now stored in WAV format so you can copy and edit them directly from a computer. Just pop the SC card into your computer and you have full access to the tracks. Or use the USB cable. Just be careful you don't mess up the tracks. I found I can take a left/right pair of standard 16bit wav files and copy them to the SD card and use them instead doing an audio transfer. There are a couple gotcha's however. The song must be created first with a dummy track recorded that is slightly shorter than the WAV file. Otherwise you get a serious file error. There is an import function that I haven't tried yet, that allows you to import a stereo WAV file directly into a pair of tracks. This works for me as I tend to do a lot of "tracing". I start with track from a recording I want to cover, and record all my tracks against it, removing the original from the final mix.

The only problem so far is the built-in effects. Like the old 2488, you can use only one of the three, reverb, chorus or delay, but so far it doesn't work as stated in the manual. I need to keep experimenting. I'm very happy with the interface which, although different than the 2488, is very similar in function. If you know how to use the 2488, you can figure out most of the DP-24's functions right away.

I'll report more as I get some recording done. Hopefully someone can help me with the Built-in effects insert.
- Bill

[SteveAlton]

Bill....

I got up to write my own review this morning after 2 weeks of owning the DP 24....so I will wait until my first project is completed.....I do not own a computer, and i want this as a one stop shop stand-alone...However, my first hiccup was I recorded my first song in 24 bit 48 HZ....The Manual doesn't state clearly you can't Master down to CD in this format, it does not convert it to 16 bit.....the wording was extremely iffy and I had to go to plan B....

Went to a friends house and connected USB to his computer....He was like nothing lines up...well all the WAV files in Music Folder seems to be every event you ever did on the tune....once we got the WAV file from Audio Depot folder we synched up fine.....So make sure that's where you get it from

The first SD card I bought was a basic SANDISK SDHC 16 G......well it worked for a day or so and then it dumped my file....Took it back and I couldn't find the listed SD cards at Best Buy....So I bought one that had similar specs.....SANDISK EXTREME PRO 8 GB (Class 10) and it works like a champ.....it's all about speed I guess....

I too was having no luck with the effects.....Press Select on a channel, go near the screen press Effect...your last effect will pop up Reverb, Delay, Chorus....you change between these 3 choices by Select (F3)...To use the library Sounds press (F2)....don't hit Guitar yet....when you find one you want press (F4) to turn it on....You change ratios by navigating through the Cursor Button....

Now Select MIXER....your track pops up....Navigate Cursor to INSERT EFFECT and dial it until it lights up, next Cursor to Send 1 and turn it from off to POST or PRE ( I use POST).....Swing your Green SEND Button TO DESIRED AMOUNT..... Then just make sure your Master Send is at a Desired number....(I go 127).....gotta have MASTER SEND turned up.....Even TASCAM didn't know that...........In and of itself if you do not have your SEND and MASTER send up and POST or PRE the INSERT EFFECTS don't work....I'm thinking they just think it's common knowledge...So at least for me this is how I get effects.........

you should now have effects to whatever channel you chose or will choose for Send 1....

Here is the key for Guitars, once you get in there you pick whatever you desire, but to navigate BACK to your REVERBS etc you gotta click SEND on (F1) where the Guitar button used to be....

Well that's how I do it....It took me 1/2 a day to figure it out cause the Manual is really veiled....

But the unit is intuitive and I am pleased with it.....

Hope I helped ya

[pbassbob]

Spent 2 nights getting familiar with my new DP-24. Lots of things to like. It's smaller, lighter and I like the new color display. Much easier to read than the old green-screen. The biggest improvement is SD card based recording. Their list of "approved" SD cards is quite small, but I found the PNY 8gb Class 10 card works fine. It's on sale at Staples for $15 and holds about 25 hours of recording. Another big improvement is the tracks are now stored in WAV format so you can copy and edit them directly from a computer. Just pop the SC card into your computer and you have full access to the tracks. Or use the USB cable. Just be careful you don't mess up the tracks. I found I can take a left/right pair of standard 16bit wav files and copy them to the SD card and use them instead doing an audio transfer. There are a couple gotcha's however. The song must be created first with a dummy track recorded that is slightly shorter than the WAV file. Otherwise you get a serious file error. There is an import function that I haven't tried yet, that allows you to import a stereo WAV file directly into a pair of tracks. This works for me as I tend to do a lot of "tracing". I start with track from a recording I want to cover, and record all my tracks against it, removing the original from the final mix.

The only problem so far is the built-in effects. Like the old 2488, you can use only one of the three, reverb, chorus or delay, but so far it doesn't work as stated in the manual. I need to keep experimenting. I'm very happy with the interface which, although different than the 2488, is very similar in function. If you know how to use the 2488, you can figure out most of the DP-24's functions right away.

I'll report more as I get some recording done. Hopefully someone can help me with the Built-in effects insert.
- Bill

Bill - thanks for posting all the good news about the DP-24! There are a few of us, myself included, waiting to "pull the trigger" on one, but have been waiting to see some reviews, and have some questions answered. Unfortunately, I've never even used the effects insert in the 2488, as I prefer to use the effect sends and route the tracks out to my rack, "season to taste", and bring them back in, so I won't be of much help with your question.

It looks like the DP-24 supports effect sends, so I'd be able to continue using the same workflow, but a question that a number of us have been wondering about is muting the monitors - the DP-24 doesn't have a Mute button for the monitor levels, like the 2488 does. If you simply turn the monitor volume all the way down, do the main faders control the stereo outs? I send my 2488 stereo outs to a headphone distribution amp, so if I can roll down the monitors when tracking vocals (to avoid a feedback loop or having the mike pick up the monitors), and still have the stereo outs feeding the headphone amp, then I'd be ready to take the plunge, and give the DP-24 a try.

I still have my original 2488 Mk I, which (knock on wood) works perfectly...I used it to put down some scratch tracks just this morning, so I've been able to hold off and wait for opionions like yours, especially where you also come from a 2488. Your comments about adapting to the interface are very encouraging! I wondered about basic functions like track assignments, and how I'm so used to simply using the button array for that, for mute/solo functions, and so many other things...I just do them without the need to think about it. It'll be a change to use the screen and menus for some of these functions, as far as I can see in the manual.

Thanks again for the positive review....hopefully, someone familiar with the effects insert function will answer your question soon!

Bob

[cwhowell2]

Ok the reverb is up and running. Thanks SteveAlton. There were 2 things I didn't understand. I thought Send1 & 2 were for external effects only. But that said, I tried unsuccessfully to use Send 1 with a built in effect. It finally worked when I used Steve's process. Needed to turn Send1 Master all the way up (127) and Send 1 up past 100 before the selected effect could be heard. I only use the built in reverb for bass, acoustic guitar and vocals. All my electric guitar tracks go through a Boss ME-25. So it looks like I'm in business. Next experiment will be to import a stereo wav file directly into a stereo channel pair. By the way, I've developed a pretty good track sheet for the 2488, to keep track of each recording session. I'm currently making minor changes to fit the DP-24 and will post it for anybody interested. - Bill

[Gdub1]

Hi!

It's great to finally have DP-24 owners posting their thoughts. Thanks. Most informative.
I'd certainly be interested to hear more thoughts, as you develop your first few projects and give the DP-24 a thorough workout.

...and it's great to hear that the DP-24 get's an initial thumbs up.....because I really want one, but I have read a couple of short reviews (in the USA) that mention a few 'bugs in the system', hopefully these are anomalies and/or can be fixed with a firmware update.
Anyway, it'll be interesting to see if you encounter any similar issues.

[cwhowell2]

Yep I still love it. Definitely an impprovement over the 2488 Mk1 I had before. Still trying to get more reverb out of it but I suspect I'll be able to work on that. My track sheet is not completed yet but is available for anyone to download. (Oops - can't post URLs until I've made 10 posts). Let me know if anyone uses it and has suggestions for improvements. Thanks - Bill

[cwhowell2]

My original tracksheet had 12 columns, one for each recording session for a particular project. That was when I used a Fostex VF-16 and had to work harder to bounce tracks around in order to squeeze everything in. After switching to the 2488, I found I had plenty of tracks and seldom needed to bounce, so the 12 session tracksheet was finally reduced to only 4 columns. I also added a column for track/channel assignments. Anyway, I'm just trying to get my 10 posts in so I can list the URL to the latest tracksheet. - Bill

[Cratinus]

Hey cwhowell2! Glad to hear the DP24 is working out for you. Reviews on the unit have been pretty hard to find. I love the look of the unit but am most concerned about the transferring of tracks to a computer (and back). The old 2488 made that process fairly time consuming. Do you have to send the tracks to a FAT portion of the SD card FIRST (before importing into the computer)? I've been trying to make sense of the manual and Tascam refers to this partition of the SD card as the AudioDepot Folder. I am not sure if the procedure only applies to USB transfers or not. It sounds like you just recorded some tracks and then popped the SD card into your PC. Did you export to the AudioDepot Folder first? I guess I'm just wondering if that process is significantly faster than the 2488's export to FAT procedure. Any thoughts appreciated. I am currently saving pennies for my DP24. Cheers!

[cwhowell2]

Good news - The DP24's internal format is now fat16 or fat32, depending on the SD card size. I suggest you immediatly get a larger SD card because the one included is a 2GB fat16. Staples has PNY 8gb cards on sale for $15. Note: cards must be Class 10 in order to work. Anyway, format conversions are no longer required. You can pop the SD card into your computer and access all the files. A USB cable is also included and that simply connects you to the card in the recorder with Widows Explorer. Either way, you get full access to all files. CAUTION: Don't mess with the recorded tracks. Apparantly there are control files that keep track of track sized etc. Although I haven't tried it yet, I believe using the AudioDepot folder is the solution to keeping everything in sync. So lengthy format conversions are no longer an issue. Backups are simply a copy & paste operation. Regards - Bill

[cwhowell2]

4 more posts and I can post the link to my tracksheet. :-)