First Impressions of the Tascam DR-60D

I just found out about the new Tascam DR-60D camera-mountable audio recorder. I read the description and specs thoroughly on Tascam’s website, and I figured I’d share my initial impressions with you. First of all, let me explain exactly what this thing is

: it’s a four-channel digital audio recorder that’s designed to mount to the base of a camera. As you can see in the picture above, it can also be mounted elsewhere on a camera rig. The DR-60D features two locking, combo-XLR inputs, and a stereo 3.5mm mic input as well. It records high-resolution audio onto SD cards.

The very first thing I looked for on this recorder was four XLR inputs. Sadly, it only has two. That’s a bummer. The next thing looked up was the price. The DR-60D is going to sell for around $349. That’s an appealing value, and it explains why there aren’t four XLR inputs. The additional XLR inputs would drive up the price, and drive away a large portion of potential customers.

You can set the DR-60D to record in 4-Channel mode from its dual combo-XLR inputs, and stereo 3.5mm input. The DR-60D can also record a Safety Track when in a “Dual” mode (this is disabled in 4-Channel mode). The Safety Track functionality simultaneously records a backup of your audio at a lower input level. This way, in case you experience a spike in volume—and your audio gets overloaded and distorts, the Safety Tracks will be recorded at a lower volume, they will have more headroom, and they likely won’t distort when that volume spike hits. This is something that often happens when an actor goes from an ultra-soft whisper—to a loud scream really quickly. I’ve personally experienced many actors pulling this move, so it’s great that the DR-60D lets you always be prepared for it.

 

 

Another really cool, yet slightly unusual—and therefore potentially confusing feature is its CAMERA IN and CAMERA OUT jacks. Used in combination, these jacks enable you to record the audio from the DR-60D directly into your camera.

If you’re lucky enough to have a camera with a headphone output, such as the Panasonic GH3 or the Canon 5D Mark III, what you do is connect the camera’s headphone output to the CAMERA IN jack on the DR-60D using a standard 3.5mm stereo male to 3.5mm stereo male cable.

The opposite side of the DR-60D has a headphone output with a volume dial. You connect you headphones there. When you push the MONITOR SELECT button on the face of the DR-60D, you can switch from listening to the audio that the DR-60D is recording, to the external audio from the camera.

You connect the CAMERA OUT jack to your camera’s 3.5mm mic input using the same kind of standard 3.5mm stereo male to 3.5mm stereo male cable. The dial next to the CAMERA OUT jack lets you adjust the level of the signal going into the camera.  This whole process is very similar to using a Sescom cable to send an attenuated audio signal from a portable recorder into a camera (for complete information about this technique, check out this post).

Why would you want to do this? In case something bad happens to the audio that you recorded with the DR-60D. For example, say you accidentally formatted the SD card from the recorder and erased all of the sound files—the audio that you recorded directly into your camera would be very good to have. People also like having a nearly identical copy of the audio on their camera for using sync software like Plural Eyes. It’s also nice to have this feature if you’re doing somewhat unimportant work, and you want to be lazy and not sync your high-resolution externally recorded audio in post. I’ll admit it. I’ve been guilty of doing this a number of times.

Side Note – if your camera happens to have dual XLR inputs and you want to use this feature, will need a stereo 3.5mm male to dual XLR male Y-cable.

There are lots of other little things that make the DR-60D an appealing new option. For one thing, it has a built-in slate. This is simply a BEEP sound that gets sent out of its outputs and recorded into the audio. It’s not there to bleep out curse words. Slate tones are useful for setting the recording levels on external equipment (more on this in the next paragraph), and for syncing in post. You can set the slate button to just beep when you press it, or it can briefly beep automatically when you start and stop recording. This is useful for syncing in post if you use the CAMERA OUT feature. The beeps will be visible as square blocks in the audio waveforms of your post-production software. The visual blocks and the audible beeps make it easy to line up your externally recorded high-resolution audio files with your lower-resolution camera audio.

I also like that in addition to the headphone output, the DR-60D features a LINE OUT as well. This is useful for attaching a second portable digital recorder to the the DR-60D. Many recorders, such as the Roland R-05 or the Sony PCM-M10, feature 3.5mm line inputs. I personally always use two recorders on shoots. Sure, you can have a Safety Track recording on the DR-60D, but what if the whole recorder encounters ugly digital errors in the middle of a shoot? Having a second recorder attached to this LINE OUT jack may save the day. Again, you would connect it with a standard 3.5mm stereo male to 3.5mm stereo male cable, press the Slate button on the DR-60D to set the recording level on your second recorder (here’s a post on How to Set Audio Levels in case you need it). The slate tone is a constant signal, which makes it useful for setting audio levels with it.

The top of the DR-60D features a 1/4 20 camera mount, so it can screw right into your camera’s tripod thread. The base of the DR-60D has another 1/4 20 tripod thread, so it can screw into a tripod. The DR-60D is somewhat large, and it takes four AA batteries, so it will be a bit on the heavy side. It’s not going to be the easiest thing to work with while mounted to your camera. But it’s still nice to have this ability as an included option. It also appears that you can remove the camera mount if you don’t need it. Again, that’s a nice plus because I would likely use the DR-60D in my audio bag, so this will save space.

The DR-60D also has all of the useful stuff you need: phantom power, plug-in power, high-pass filters, limiters, line-level switching on the combo XLR inputs, a hold switch, etc. The LCD is nice and big, and the controls look decent. It’s pretty darn nice for $350. However, it could be argued that the DR-60D has too many features. When you really dig into its capabilities, it can be a bit overwhelming, especially for a beginner. However, most of the people who buy this thing are likely into filmmaking. If you were looking for an “easy” hobby, you should check out this fun yard activity called Cornhole.

The 3.5mm input on the DR-60D is advertised as a mic-level input, however, when you look at the specs, the Maximum Input Level is rated at +10dBV. This means that you can also connect line-level signals to this input, such as the output from a mixer. This is good. This means that you can potentially plug two mics directly into the XLR inputs, and then use a mixer to plug two more mics into the 3.5mm 3-4 input on the DR-60D, and then record all four channels of audio. Nice.

Missing Features:

There are no built-in microphones on the DR-60D. So, if you’re comparing this to a DR-40 or a Zoom H4n, this is one big pointer to consider. The DR-60D is a recorder that’s dependent on external microphones and line-level signals. Personally, I don’t think it needs any mics, but there are certainly going to be comparison shoppers out there that will need to think this over.

Wrap up:

My very first impulse was to be skeptical of the DR-60D, but as I read on, it kind of won me over. There are just lots of nice features that aren’t available in other similarly-priced recorders. It also has a surprising, camera-like look… which I dig. I could see this thing blending in nicely on an elaborate camera rig next to a Sony FS100.

However, I’m a bit unconvinced on the overall quality of Tascam’s sonic performance. I recently tested the Tascam DR-40 in a shootout against the Zoom H4n, and to my ears, the Tascam DR-40 sounded noisier. You should listen to it yourself at this post. Now, keep in mind that my test wasn’t exhaustive nor scientific. However, I was still not terribly impressed with Tascam’s audio quality.

That said, I think the DR-60D is really compelling. I’m fairly certain that I will be purchasing this one. Not 100% certain, but fairly so. To the people at Tascam, I applaud you. This appears to be a really nice new tool. I’m looking forward to getting my paws on it.