B
Amazing with some real drawbacks and no competition
This is my 2nd X8 since my first one got dropped (not by me) and broke. I've had some time to play around with it and know it pretty well by now.
+ Positives +
- 32 bit float recording with dual rec in 24bit/16bit wav or MP3
- Big touchscreen with a ton of info
- XLR/Line combo jacks
- Low noise floor from the preamps
- Usable as an audio interface for your DAW/computer/iPhone
- USB-C connector allows you to power it with a powerbank
- Supports massive SD cards
- 1/4 screw mount + cold shoe mount
- Ability to do timecode with the bluetooth dongle
- Negatives -
- USB-C is only USB 2.0 speed which makes file transfers painfully slow
- Audio interface functionality doesn't work on all computers and Tascam support is worthless, taking weeks to respond and not solving any issues
- Ultrasonic hum isn't fixed as far as I'm aware, but I don't record in such high sampling frequencies
- No included accessories , no wind protection, not even a USB cable
- Touchscreen is kinda slow
- UI layout is unintuitive and frustrating to navigate at times
- Bluetooth dongle is not included and not secured in a nice way
- Not waterproof/resistant
- Poor build quality, I exchanged the previous one which had massive backlight bleeding and horizontal lines on the screen
- Cheap feeling mic capsules without any protection
- No audio out from the XLR/Line jacks, only USB-C and 3.5mm jack
I bought this on a whim because I needed something to record sounds with on the go as well as an audio interface that wasn't too big and had more than 2 inputs with a mixer. This fit the bill perfectly for that and had 32bit float recording as an extra. I'm very conflicted with this device because it has so much potential but seems to suffer from poor build quality. It's an all plastic build and the plastic of the body doesn't feel too bad, but the plastic on the mic capsules and the gain knob have to be the cheapest I've felt in a while. The gain knob, arguably the largest physical control on this thing feels cheap and doesn't give the feel/feedback I expect from it. The housing also transmits any handling noise, so wearing gloves or using a tripod/shock mount is recommended.
I really had to get used to the UI because it's not intuitive. Even now I find myself needlessly going back and forth between pages and menus to do very simple stuff that shouldn't be that hard to access. I don't know why manual mode has 3 pages, but 2 or even 1 would've sufficed. On top of that you can't really change how the main menu with the apps looks and the organization of it isn't the best. Pair that with a slow touchscreen and it's not always a fun experience. The (not so) optional Bluetooth dongle makes things a lot better and allows you to set it up on a stage and monitor/operate it without having to ever get on that stage.
However, this review makes it seem like it's only bad. When it comes to recording sounds this thing is great, at least if you don't choose too high of a sampling rate because you could suffer from the infamous ultrasonic noise issue. As far as I'm aware Tascam hasn't made a hardware revision for this problem, and at this point I doubt they ever will. If you record at 48kHz however you should be fine. The XLR/Line combo jacks feel good and the preamps in them sound great. You also have a 3.5mm camera in/out path, but that does take up 2 of the channel inputs. As it stands now you can only use 6 inputs at a time instead of all the available ones, but for most people 4 XLR/Line (or camera in/out + 2 XLR/Line) + 2 capsule mics should be enough.
The included capsule mics sound ok but feel very cheap and have zero protection. You have remove them to change from XY to AB config which makes no sense because these use a 3.5mm jack. Why they didn't go for a pivoting design is beyond me. The capsules are very susceptible to wind noise, more than any other mic I've used so far and they need a dead cat to be usable outside. Tascam of course didn't provide this, but you can buy it from them for a cool €30. I went with a €5 dead cat from a big chinese e-tailer which does the job just as well.
I also want to talk about 32bit float. It's great to have in unpredictable situations or for recordings where you have one shot to get things right, but it doesn't fit poor mic placement/wind shielding or poorly set gain at the source. In fact, I've experienced first hand how a singer clipped a mic without wind protection and despite being able to lower that clipped sound it still ended up clipped because he overloaded the microphone. 32bit float is also not compatible with all software, but this is where the dual rec mode shines. As far as I'm aware the Zoom F-series don't have this feature but it's a godsend. If your levels are set correctly you can just take the 24bit recording that's recorded alongside the 32bit float file.
Waterproofing would've been nice on such an expensive device that gets used outdoors a lot. The battery life is around 8 hours on rechargeable batteries (4x AA) and you can also use an external powerbank to power it. Too bad Zoom doesn't have anything to rival this, so despite its flaws this is still the best in its class.
+ Positives +
- 32 bit float recording with dual rec in 24bit/16bit wav or MP3
- Big touchscreen with a ton of info
- XLR/Line combo jacks
- Low noise floor from the preamps
- Usable as an audio interface for your DAW/computer/iPhone
- USB-C connector allows you to power it with a powerbank
- Supports massive SD cards
- 1/4 screw mount + cold shoe mount
- Ability to do timecode with the bluetooth dongle
- Negatives -
- USB-C is only USB 2.0 speed which makes file transfers painfully slow
- Audio interface functionality doesn't work on all computers and Tascam support is worthless, taking weeks to respond and not solving any issues
- Ultrasonic hum isn't fixed as far as I'm aware, but I don't record in such high sampling frequencies
- No included accessories , no wind protection, not even a USB cable
- Touchscreen is kinda slow
- UI layout is unintuitive and frustrating to navigate at times
- Bluetooth dongle is not included and not secured in a nice way
- Not waterproof/resistant
- Poor build quality, I exchanged the previous one which had massive backlight bleeding and horizontal lines on the screen
- Cheap feeling mic capsules without any protection
- No audio out from the XLR/Line jacks, only USB-C and 3.5mm jack
I bought this on a whim because I needed something to record sounds with on the go as well as an audio interface that wasn't too big and had more than 2 inputs with a mixer. This fit the bill perfectly for that and had 32bit float recording as an extra. I'm very conflicted with this device because it has so much potential but seems to suffer from poor build quality. It's an all plastic build and the plastic of the body doesn't feel too bad, but the plastic on the mic capsules and the gain knob have to be the cheapest I've felt in a while. The gain knob, arguably the largest physical control on this thing feels cheap and doesn't give the feel/feedback I expect from it. The housing also transmits any handling noise, so wearing gloves or using a tripod/shock mount is recommended.
I really had to get used to the UI because it's not intuitive. Even now I find myself needlessly going back and forth between pages and menus to do very simple stuff that shouldn't be that hard to access. I don't know why manual mode has 3 pages, but 2 or even 1 would've sufficed. On top of that you can't really change how the main menu with the apps looks and the organization of it isn't the best. Pair that with a slow touchscreen and it's not always a fun experience. The (not so) optional Bluetooth dongle makes things a lot better and allows you to set it up on a stage and monitor/operate it without having to ever get on that stage.
However, this review makes it seem like it's only bad. When it comes to recording sounds this thing is great, at least if you don't choose too high of a sampling rate because you could suffer from the infamous ultrasonic noise issue. As far as I'm aware Tascam hasn't made a hardware revision for this problem, and at this point I doubt they ever will. If you record at 48kHz however you should be fine. The XLR/Line combo jacks feel good and the preamps in them sound great. You also have a 3.5mm camera in/out path, but that does take up 2 of the channel inputs. As it stands now you can only use 6 inputs at a time instead of all the available ones, but for most people 4 XLR/Line (or camera in/out + 2 XLR/Line) + 2 capsule mics should be enough.
The included capsule mics sound ok but feel very cheap and have zero protection. You have remove them to change from XY to AB config which makes no sense because these use a 3.5mm jack. Why they didn't go for a pivoting design is beyond me. The capsules are very susceptible to wind noise, more than any other mic I've used so far and they need a dead cat to be usable outside. Tascam of course didn't provide this, but you can buy it from them for a cool €30. I went with a €5 dead cat from a big chinese e-tailer which does the job just as well.
I also want to talk about 32bit float. It's great to have in unpredictable situations or for recordings where you have one shot to get things right, but it doesn't fit poor mic placement/wind shielding or poorly set gain at the source. In fact, I've experienced first hand how a singer clipped a mic without wind protection and despite being able to lower that clipped sound it still ended up clipped because he overloaded the microphone. 32bit float is also not compatible with all software, but this is where the dual rec mode shines. As far as I'm aware the Zoom F-series don't have this feature but it's a godsend. If your levels are set correctly you can just take the 24bit recording that's recorded alongside the 32bit float file.
Waterproofing would've been nice on such an expensive device that gets used outdoors a lot. The battery life is around 8 hours on rechargeable batteries (4x AA) and you can also use an external powerbank to power it. Too bad Zoom doesn't have anything to rival this, so despite its flaws this is still the best in its class.
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D
Happy User
The Portacapture does everything I expected it to do and we’ll. My only gripes would be the steep learning curve (maybe only to be expected with such a comprehensive feature set) and the size. It’s certainly portable but if you want a more controllable replacement for mobile phone recording it’s worth being aware that the Portacapture8 does not exactly ‘slip into the pocket’. That being said, it’s a solid little machine that will serve the mobile recordist well.
2
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