The Snapshot
Reasons to go digital:
* Improve recording quality - No hiss!
* Save time! - No rewind and fast forward time – instant reset to exactly where you want to be on the track
* Preserve your material – No degradation of quality or disintegration of material like you get with tape or vinyl
Who should use it?
* Young bands who don’t want to spend more money paying other people to put together their recordings or demos
* Anyone wanting to upgrade from analog to digital
* Professionals who need a simple, yet high quality way to produce demos before going into the studio
Strengths of the Tascam 2488:
* Tascam is a company known for its solid Portastudio home recording range
* Value for price – Currently retailing for less than A$100 per track, this is by far the most affordable 24 track digital recording equipment on the market
* Not bleeding edge technology – Tascam didn’t introduce this model early – they waited a few years more than others - the result is reduced bugs and improved functionality at a great price
Weaknesses:
* It’s not “point and shoot” – the advanced functions bring a level of complexity to running the system – but it’s not for beginners
The Detailed Review
The Metro Gnome went to The Guitar Hive in Ashfield to meet with professional musician, Ben Little, and to talk about his new toy, the Tascam 2488 Digital Portastudio™. When I arrived, Ben was leaning over the Tascam tweaking a few levels and punching a few buttons while his freshly recorded song was playing.
We do unconventional reviews at The Metro Gnome. We also publish more conventional ones. And we invite manufacturers to provide information about their own products in this section of The Metro Gnome.
Since the early 90s, Ben has recorded on a Tascam 488 – an analogue 8 - track unit that has served him well. The limitations of the older technology and the advantages of digital are what made Ben invest in the 2488. Besides only having 8 tracks, the unit only had 2 effects loops – a limitation the 2488 completely eliminates. Ben still uses the 488 and plans to for some time to come. “I have 12 years of songs and ideas recorded that can only be played on that machine. It’s a great archive.”
If he needs to, Ben can record the songs (or the individual tracks) from his analogue system to his computer as wave files and then can upload them to the 2488. This is a benefit of the set-up that Ben uses – he doesn’t use the Tascam 2488 alone – he uses it in conjunction with a program called WAVELAB on his computer.
We talked for a little while about how Ben is learning to use the 2488. His first bit of advice, simple and obvious, in a clear, unwavering voice, was to, “Read the fucking manual.” But even so, it seems that the only way to really learn how to use it is through trial and error.
Online forums are a great way to learn about the intricacies using of a new piece of equipment (or for investigating what equipment to buy). For the Tascam 2488 I found quite a few worthwhile forums. Here are 2 that had some pretty good content on them….
* http://www.tascam2488.com/
* http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/forumdisplay.php?f=11
So far Ben estimates that he’s spent about 5 hours on one song (including some general getting-to-know-you time) with the 2488 and he’s pretty happy with the results. But he knows that to record an album of his own material he’ll need to be able to use the 2488 as if it was second nature. So he plans on scheduling some time each week to dedicate himself to learning how the 2488 works. “I will be really confident with the functionality before I invite other musicians to record. Recording time should be spent on creating great music – if I have to concentrate too hard on the basics of capturing it – well, it’s a waste of everyone’s time.”
In each issue, Gnome Recording will cover different elements of the How To’s of recording. We’ll cover engineering, recording, mixing, mastering, producing, and (importantly) marketing. We’ll show you the best websites to visit and take you from the basics through to how the Pro’s do it. Stay tuned. And make sure you’ve subscribed to The Metro Gnome so you don’t miss out.
Ben then showed me how it all worked. His recording has 1 track with lead vocals and two with backing vocals. Then he has four tracks of guitar; one lead guitar, one guitar with chorus effects, and two grungy rhythm tracks. One track for bass and finally, three tracks for drums. One carries the bass drum and the top hat, which Ben says is a bit unconventional, but he did it this way this time…. The other one is for the snare drum. All done with an Alesis SR-16 drum machine, which Ben uses to create demos.
Ben can manipulate each track extensively, and he demonstrated a few techniques to me. For example, he isolated the bass guitar and the lead guitar and showed me how the lows on the rhythm guitars were conflicting with the bass line. So he tweaked them to eliminate the lows. This is basic recording stuff and I expect that every system can do it, but the Tascam menus were easy to understand and the interface was really easy to use.
I learned that each track can actually hold up to ten ‘virtual’ tracks on the Tascam, but once you want to “lay it down”, you choose one.
Ben wrote this song with particular vocal artist in mind and the Tascam 2488 is giving him to opportunity to share his vision for the song with that artist. “When he [the other artist] heard the song, he said that he liked it. He asked me to add some fiddle and take out the lead vocal – that way he could add his own vocal to it.”
The only trouble Ben has had with the 2488 was in getting the CD writer to write. He worked around it for now (again he has the advantage of being connected to his computer and can easily send information from the 2488 to his DVD burner) and he’s convinced that it is a user problem rather than an equipment problem. But it was a frustrating roadblock and one he hadn’t expected. “I’ll figure it out,” he said, but you could tell he had spent more time on it already than he wanted to.
Overall, Ben is very pleased with the Tascam 2488. He knows he has a lot more to learn about how to use it, but he’s confident in his purchase decision. Based on what he’s told me so far, I reckon it’s a good machine for the money and that musicians experienced in recording will get a great deal of value out of it. It certainly isn’t for a novice – functionality-wise or budget-wise.
I think we’ll have visit with Ben again in a few months to see how he’s going on his album.
The Manufacturer’s Feature List for the Tascam 2488 Digital Portastudio
* 24-track recording at 44.1kHz/24-bit
* 36-channel mixer
* 3-band EQ on 24 channels, 8 inputs and tone generator with high and low sweepable shelving bands and full parametric mid band
* 3 aux sends on all channels except the effects return
* Loop effect provides reverb, delay, chorus and more on an aux send and return
* Up to 8 assignable dynamics processors for compression during recording or mixdown
* Assignable guitar multi-effects processor for distortion, flange, and more
* Dedicated stereo compressor on the stereo output
* 8 inputs: 4 XLR with phantom power, 4 - 1/4" mic/line inputs
* 20 - 45mm faders including master fader
* Large LCD display for viewing meters and edit parameters
* CD-RW drive to record mixdown, import/export WAV files and backup hard drive
* 64-voice General MIDI sound module
* Standard MIDI file player
* High-speed USB 2.0 jack connects to PC for data backup and SMF/WAV file transfer
Do you have feedback about this review? Or do you want to ask a question or make a comment about the Tascam 2488? Click here to go to the Musician’s Forum and post a comment.
Gnome Links:
* For more information on the Tascam 2488 Digital Portastudio go to:
o http://www.tascam.com/Products/2488.html
* You can read about the Alesis drum machine that Ben uses for demos here:
o http://www.alesis.com/products/sr16/
* Wavelab 5 by Steinberg is audio editing software. The manufacturer’s specs are here:
o http://www.steinberg.net/ProductPage_sb.asp?Product_ID=2181&Langue_ID=7
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