Tascam DR-60D vs Zoom H6

[Al Gardner]

Bob,
I 'd actually like to know how the preamps stack up to my Tascam DR 100 MKII.

Hey I see you are in Abita Springs. I'm in Slidell.
AL

[Bob Krieger]

Yeah, you right! (Slidell is soooo far away. At least I'm near the Abita brewery!)

If the preamps of the H6 are better than the DR-60D, then I may go that route. I find I'm using more than 2 XLR inputs more often than not... The DR-60D, while nice, would require either a some sort of kludge to get a third XLR mic setup or I'd have to use a mic with a 3.5mm plug.

I said it before, and I'll say it again. I'd like to see a side by side by side comparison of the H4n, H6, DR-60D, and even the DR-100 and let the chips fall where they may.

[Al Gardner]

Actually you would only have to use a xlr to mini adapter cable to get a 3rd mic into the DR-60D.

Bob, what camera do you shoot with? My main is a Sony EX1R. I have Canon 60D that I use sometimes.


As far as the brewery i can just walk there on the Trace. LOL

Al

[Al Bergstein]

Not sure if any of you bump into Pat Floury down in A.S. but say hi if you do know him. Seem to have lost his email.

[Al Bergstein]

Al, I don't think that the mounting unit is much worse than the one that I have on my SD Mixpre-D and slinging a Marantz 661. I can hand hold the Mixpre, it actually gives me a solid brick in my hand to hold. I agree that the Tascam is probably too big to handhold, especially if you have a Zacuto finder attached. But do we really need to handhold it? I mount to a monopod when not needing a true tripod, never handhold if I can help it. I do feel that it's a bit of stretch for the one man band crowd, but I'm seriously thinking of getting it just to see whether it gets me off my SD unit or not. I'm having good luck going directly into my 5D with the SD unit. My sound quality is "good enough" for low budget run and gun video. And having the ability to run my stereo lav mixed down to one track lav one channel and a 'wild' shotgun from the top of the unit on two is worth the effort. I know, this is skating on thin ice, but so far it's worked. Having the ability to dual record onto the Tascam without hauling a separate unit and then feeding the 5D seems like a really nice idea. I'm not wild about giving up SD meters nor it's really high quality specs.

My sound engineer loves Tascam, always has. He thought that out of all the field recorders he and I had worked with, including SD and Edirol that for the money he was sold on the Tascam HD-P2 that I used for about a year. Felt that the pre-amps were superb for the money. Loved having SPDIF out and in. He has spent vastly more on his studio gear and he was crushed that I sold it for the Marantz. But he got over it (G).

Originally Posted by Al Gardner

I don't this is going to be the greatest solution for a solo shooter unless you're on sticks. It would be great to use with a audio person off camera. I like the fact that it records.

But it appears to have flimsy mounting options as noted on B&H customer reviews. This could be a deal breaker.

Tascam DR-60D 4-Channel Linear PCM Recorder DR-60D B&H Photo

AL

[Bob Krieger]

Al, long walk on the trace... but you'd enjoy it when you got there!

I shoot mainly with a 60D and a T2i as a backup/2nd cam. Double system is the way I've done it for a few years, and while it's a pain sometimes, I'm happy with the results. I'm usually a single shooter so the Tascam mounted under, say the locked down T2i, recording into the cam and the audio recorder would be great. That leaves me with my 60D to move around and get other shots.

If I'm doing a short or something like that, I'll have a sound person so the Tascam can be used by them. I still want to hear the pre-amp situation of the Zoom H6. I like the extra XLRs... what can I say? Run a boom mic, a few lavs, and maybe a hidden mic or two; all recording into separate channels sounds pretty good to me.

But first... what do it sound like??? I;ve heard tests of the Tascam here: Tascam DR-60D Audio testing with samples

Interesting...

[Denez McAdoo]

I just just got the DR-60D in the mail yesterday and did some quick tests against the Tascam DR-40, which I was looking to replace.

WAY better pre-amps on the new 60D. I used a Sony 44B wired lav mic, which has a pretty low signal output, and on the DR-40 I got lots of noise and had to have the level turned almost all the way up to get a proper level. On the 60D, with the gain set to MED, I could get the same signal level with almost no noise whatsoever. With the gain set to HIGH, I did get more noise and i hotter signal, but adjusting the level down easily fixed that.

I haven't used this on a shoot yet, and I would say that mounted to the bottom of the camera it is quite large. It's not very heavy, but along with camera and a full set of batteries, it defiantly would be tiresome to hand hold for any extended period of time. I plan on shoulder strapping it or putting in a side bag if I'm one-man-band-ing it.

[Denez McAdoo]

...by the way, in previous tests that I've done, I've found the pre-amps to be just about the same in the Tascam DR-40 as in the Zoom H4N. So even though I haven't done a side by side comparison, I feel confident in saying that the Tascam 60D has much, much better preamps than the DR-40 or the H4N.

[Al Bergstein]

I just got the DR-60D, looking to replace my SD-MixpreD and PM661 (two into one). I turned the unit on, and it immediately showed 2 bars out of 3 with batteries reading 1.46 to 1.4 volts. I did not even format a card in it. within 10 minutes, it had fallen to 1 bar, just sitting turned on on my desk.With a draw like that, it likely will not do well with eneloops. I packed it back up, got an RMA from B&H and it's going back.

I can easily run for over an hour on my PM661 and the Mixpre-D runs through a complete day it seems on two AAs.

This kind of power use means that field use is a constant battle of the batteries. I have enough to think about batteries with my wireless lavs and their receiver (which uses 8 batteries!).

Nice try Tascam! The fit and finish seem good, not great. the mounting bracket is not as robust as the Mixpre-D mount. If the battery life was better, I'd likely have kept it. Price point was great. Really seemed like a winner.

[Denez McAdoo]

humm..... funny.... I just used the DR-60 on a shoot yesterday, with no battery problems. I was using standard Energizer rechargeable also. I did about about 6 interview that ranged from 10-20 minutes each, and the unit was mostly on between takes. I managed to get about halfway through the battery charge, for was I'd say was an hour and a half to two hours of use.

I had been informed that it gets about 3 hours out of a battery charge, so that sounds about on target. Just my experience though.

[Al Gardner]

Originally Posted by Al Bergstein

I just got the DR-60D, looking to replace my SD-MixpreD and PM661 (two into one). I turned the unit on, and it immediately showed 2 bars out of 3 with batteries reading 1.46 to 1.4 volts. I did not even format a card in it. within 10 minutes, it had fallen to 1 bar, just sitting turned on on my desk.With a draw like that, it likely will not do well with eneloops. I packed it back up, got an RMA from B&H and it's going back.

I can easily run for over an hour on my PM661 and the Mixpre-D runs through a complete day it seems on two AAs.

This kind of power use means that field use is a constant battle of the batteries. I have enough to think about batteries with my wireless lavs and their receiver (which uses 8 batteries!).

Nice try Tascam! The fit and finish seem good, not great. the mounting bracket is not as robust as the Mixpre-D mount. If the battery life was better, I'd likely have kept it. Price point was great. Really seemed like a winner.

That was quick. I had a similar experience with My Tascam Dr100 MKII. I was going to send it back but I said I had time , I'll play with it a bit. Well the third day the battery situation was better, but it still goes to 2 bars quicker then I think it should. But it will sit a 2 bars and run for hours, even on 1 bar. Tt's just the nature of the beast. Plus the batteries will switch over anyway.

I'm glad I didn't rush to judgement as I love the sound quality.

[Al Bergstein]

Well, who knows. Maybe my particular unit was defective. The problem with doing a single review of a product is that you have nothing to compare it to. Quick question. Did you use fresh batteries out of the container, and if you didn't, did you happen to put the ones you did use on a volt meter? Perhaps the unit has a specific kind of draw that is not what we would expect. Have you tried using Eneloops at full charge?

I certainly am not saying my own experience was the whole story. Only my experience.

[Al Gardner]

Al, my device has a lithium battery that comes with it. And as you know another compartment for AA's.

The only AA's I have used is enelopes. And they work quite well surprisingly because the only ones I had a round were a couple of years old. But they performed great. I did give them a full charge.

And the ability to start with AA's , and then switch to the lithium and then one more time to the AA's is awesome.

I'm loving it although the bars are a bit confusing.

[Al Bergstein]

No batteries come with the DR-60D and they specifically call out Alkaline and Ni-Cad in the manual. When I put in fresh Lithium batteries, that spike at 1.6 or 1.7 Volts on the meter the unit works for about 10 seconds or less and shuts off. Other equipment that I have runs fine with the same batteries.

I also tried fully charged enlopes. (sic). They came up at 2 bars.

So I don't know what to make of the unit I had, other than it's not a replacement for the SD-MixpreD and PM661 that I already have. I just don't have issues like this with them.

[Rick Reineke]

AA rechargeables are generally 1.2 volts opposed to the usual 1.5 for alkaline AAs.
Most of the portable recorders I've encountered offer an software menu option to select battery type, which may make the recorder's battery meter 'slightly' more accurate.