but that's progress for you!
There have been good products that have come and gone in a flash. There have been product features that were phased out in successive generations. There have been some improvements and some corners cut, on balance I'm not sure what's more, one or the other.
F/I, there may have been people who were absolutely in love with the original 2488's SMF player capability, embedded drum patterns, etc. Gone!
There was a forward looking product called the PS5, Pocketstudio 5. Why "5"? It was a 4-traker hand held that had an embedded midi arranger/player. Next generation never came out, but was replaced by the DP-004, 4 tracker with data format improvements, but the Midi arranger/player feature of the PS5 went "poof"!
... and on & on it goes!
I'm still of the mind that the Tascam 246 and 388 were pinnacles of engineering, gone the way of the Do-Do-Bird ages ago! In technology terms that's ancient history!
The DP-32 has the option to switch every stereo-track to mono (Manual S.42). Total then there are 20 mono-tracks usable. Of course this is really the only difference to the DP-24.
Assigning a input to both channels of a stereo track can make 18 mono (loose 6 tracks) tracks on Neo , 12 real mono. I think is the same on DP-24. Against 20 mono, loose 12, 8 real mono on Dp-32. The difference on DP-32 will be to have only one PAN for that "mono stereo" track ?
On Neo its possible with just one step assign mono tracks to any side of any stereo track once all tracks are really "free to put anywhere" virtual tracks and can easily be assigned wherever you want, and named.
If DP-32 has the same DP-24 concept for virtual tracks, with only 8 mono inputs, to free mono tracks, will be more copy or move to stereo tracks once the 8 virtual tracks belongs to that track and cannot be assign to another. I'm I right ?
I don't believe on throw away what you have and buy the new one. I believe that while it works for me I'll keep it.
Do you know BOSS SE-70 a do everything multi effect, including vocoder and guitar synth ? It last for a few months. (1993, 20 years ago product) Boss stop the production and then launch a few modules that together never did the same SE-70 did and does. SE-70 was TOO GOOD for the price, "let's stop it" Still a great box ! $150 - $200 on Ebay. I will never stop using it.
I'm sure I will have to upgrade my computer, software a few times but still have my Neo running .....
I agree with you on that, but based on what was posted above, the 12 "stereo" tracks & faders can be reassigned as mono, with an accompanying track count drop that it would bring. I've never seen the real utility of "stereo" tracks. Seems like a real compromise to do that. More dedicated mono tracks would have been my design choice, too. Most of the All-in-One'rs seem to dish up a lot of compromises that larger discrete systems do not. F/I, with an analog MSR-24 you may record 24-simul mono tracks, but I know that's reaching pretty far back to show that contrast.Sweetwater says they have it in stock:
TASCAM DP-32 | Sweetwater.com
$899 out the door.
I am still bewildered by the product itself. I guess if you need an excessive number of stereo tracks (multiple stereo synths, etc) it might be worth it. I think I'd prefer the track arrangement of the DP24 (12 mono and 6 stereo). The DP32 has 8 mono and 12 stereo (with no other apparent improvements over the DP24). Weird. Cheers.