This thing is tiny, has screw jack connectors, records a safety track, has a very good belt clip.

How did I not know about this??

The style these days is for grooms to wear fitted suits and increasingly I've come across resistance to putting even my small Sony recorders into pockets.

This is exactly what I've been looking for!

Tascam DR-10CS Review & Comparison - Little DARling alternative - YouTube

Looks like a brilliant little device. Trying to figure out why they aren't available in the US though... Anyone have any idea?

I think I heard something about a patent dispute.

I know JuicedLink announced the very similar Little DAR-Ling way last year at some show, but for some reason, it has yet to make it to market.

I have one on order from GAK - i'll use it for the groom and still use my little sonys for my other lavs - great little device :)

I purchased 2 and used them for the first time at a wedding last sunday and was most impressed. The safety track records at 6DB less than the main track which is a nice touch

I saw these announced last year and was very excited about them, but I then saw that before they were even released they were discontinued in the US. I did quite a bit of research and it looks like Zaxcom sued Tascam for patent infringement and Tascam had to stop selling them in the US. Zaxcom has a similar device but it's over $1000.

I ordered mine from this company and they arrived in Virginia within a week:

Tascam DR 10CS Micro Linear PCM Recorder For Sennheiser Lavalier Microphones at Juno Records (http://www.juno.co.uk/products/tascam-dr-10cs-micro-linear-pcm-recorder/554266-01/)

These have made audio during ceremonies SO much easier for me. I was using two Sennheiser G3s and while the audio quality was decent, I often had dropouts while using both transmitters at once. Tascam includes a rubber belt so that I can strap the DR10CS to the G3 transmitter, and this way I've got 3 audio tracks to work with in post:

Track 1 is the main audio track from the Tascam
Track 2 is the safety track at -12db
Track 3 is the audio from the G3 sent to my camera

The quality of the Tascam tracks is much better than the G3 audio because there's no loss of quality due to wireless transmission. Also, there are no dropouts or interference issues.

It's usually been unnecessary for me to even use the G3 system because the quality is worse, but I like to have an audio track that I can monitor through my camera during the ceremony. Overall they've been one of the best audio purchases I've made and I wish they had come out when I first started shooting weddings!

I purchased 2 and used them for the first time at a wedding last sunday and was most impressed. The safety track records at 6DB less than the main track which is a nice touch

Also used mine for the first time last weekend. So small and light I decided to mic up the bride during the morning prep. I used it with a Sennheiser ME2 lav and got great results.

Art

This thing is tiny, has screw jack connectors, records a safety track, has a very good belt clip.

How did I not know about this??

The style these days is for grooms to wear fitted suits and increasingly I've come across resistance to putting even my small Sony recorders into pockets.

This is exactly what I've been looking for!


Clive mine arrived today and will be using it for a wedding next week - Clive are you using full manual levels for general vows use?

Peter - I've used mine for two weddings so far and have had it on auto which seems to work fine. I found myself using the safety track in post so I have some headroom to work with.

Art

...well having read the manual (rare for me) It seems there is no true 'manual' level setting, just 3 choices of microphone gain, auto (on or off) and limiter (on or off) I can't quite see how the auto level works in conjuction with the 3 preset mic gains vs the limiter - lots of experimenting!

It's a great little unit though - Ideally I'd like another 3 but I'll stick to the one - this will be for the groom

I have one for the officiant and I set it to "mid gain" which tends to work well since they often speak pretty loud. I put another one on the groom and put in on "hi gain" so that the main track picks up the bride at a decent level and the safety track picks up the groom's audio at a good level as well. It's nice not having to worry about audio during the ceremony :)

It's nice not having to worry about audio during the ceremony

That depends, the batteries could die, the recorder could malfunction, it's never a failsafe solution. Even if you have a way to monitor the sound from that tascam, if it dies mid ceremony you have no way to do anything about it anyway. A back up at a second soundsource, like a soundspeaker, is always your best friend. :)

That depends, the batteries could die, the recorder could malfunction, it's never a failsafe solution. Even if you have a way to monitor the sound from that tascam, if it dies mid ceremony you have no way to do anything about it anyway. A back up at a second soundsource, like a soundspeaker, is always your best friend. :)

Hi Noa, I mentioned in an earlier post on this thread that along with two DR10CS recorders I have my two Sennheiser G3 systems which send the same audio to my camera:

Track 1 is the main audio track from the Tascam
Track 2 is the safety track at -12db
Track 3 is the audio from the G3 sent to my camera

So for both the groom and the officiant I have three separate tracks and these run into multiple devices so that even if one of the micro sd cards in a recorder were to fail, I would still have backup audio running to my camera from the G3 system.

Of course there are always things that can wrong with any audio or video setup, but I feel much more confident in this setup than any other one that I've tried and the quality from the DR10CS is much better than I've ever gotten by placing a mic near a PA speaker.

I didn"t read that far back about your Sennheiser G3 back up and thought you where referring to the tascam as only "safe" option together with the safety track. Without a extra backup solution you would never be safe but I see you have covered that part.

I saw these announced last year and was very excited about them, but I then saw that before they were even released they were discontinued in the US. I did quite a bit of research and it looks like Zaxcom sued Tascam for patent infringement and Tascam had to stop selling them in the US. Zaxcom has a similar device but it's over $1000.

I ordered mine from this company and they arrived in Virginia within a week:

Tascam DR 10CS Micro Linear PCM Recorder For Sennheiser Lavalier Microphones at Juno Records (http://www.juno.co.uk/products/tascam-dr-10cs-micro-linear-pcm-recorder/554266-01/)

These have made audio during ceremonies SO much easier for me. I was using two Sennheiser G3s and while the audio quality was decent, I often had dropouts while using both transmitters at once. Tascam includes a rubber belt so that I can strap the DR10CS to the G3 transmitter, and this way I've got 3 audio tracks to work with in post:

Track 1 is the main audio track from the Tascam
Track 2 is the safety track at -12db
Track 3 is the audio from the G3 sent to my camera

The quality of the Tascam tracks is much better than the G3 audio because there's no loss of quality due to wireless transmission. Also, there are no dropouts or interference issues.

It's usually been unnecessary for me to even use the G3 system because the quality is worse, but I like to have an audio track that I can monitor through my camera during the ceremony. Overall they've been one of the best audio purchases I've made and I wish they had come out when I first started shooting weddings!

Thank you. I just ordered one from there, too!

Anyone know if there is a way to disable the automatic gain function? Seems silly to include auto levels in a device aimed at professionals, especially in one that records a secondary, quieter backup track.

You have auto level which can be switched to on or off.

The Mic gain can be set to low med and high, I have found low to be way to quiet. At my next wedding I will be setting it to high. I am hoping the lower DB track will be okay for the groom where the lav is and the high will be good for the bride whodoes not have a lab and is coming out quite.

I have a DR-10CS on the groom and I set it to High. I also have a second unit placed on the officiant and I set it to Mid. The reason is that the first officiant that I put this device on spoke loudly enough that even the backup track clipped at times. It seems that most officiants I work with tend to speak more loudly than the bride or groom since they know they need to project, so the Mid setting works well.

I use my Sennheiser ME-2 lavs with these and I noticed that they are much more sensitive than Countryman B3s or Tram TR50s (at least when hooked up to the Tascam DR-10CS). Because of this, I prefer using the ME-2 lavs because I can set the gain to High on the groom and I get a very nice level for him with the backup track, and the main track sounds great when the bride speaks since she's usually quieter.

Whats the battery life like? I've just been reading the specs and it says up to 8 hours, is this about right? I usually leave all my Zoom H1s just running all day (that way I only have to sync them once in post). They run all day even on the longest shoots (15 hours plus).

Matt

Whats the battery life like? I've just been reading the specs and it says up to 8 hours, is this about right? I usually leave all my Zoom H1s just running all day (that way I only have to sync them once in post). They run all day even on the longest shoots (15 hours plus).

Matt

That's an interesting approach. Whilst I do leave my audio devices on for the Ceremony, Speeches and 1st Dance, they're turned off in between. The only exception is if I'm plugged into the sound desk, then I'll leave it on but do random checks to ensure its running.
Whilst it adds time to syncing, only by say 15 minutes per Wedding at most and benefits me in smaller file sizes, batteries less drained so takes less time to recharge (useful for multiple day Weddings) and less time to upload to Premiere as it conforms the audio.

Whats the battery life like?

I've never let the battery run down all the way so I'm not sure how long it go for until it dies. It seems to run down a bit faster than I expected, so I would be surprised if it lasted more than 5 hours. It only uses a single AAA battery so I just replace it after each ceremony in order to ensure that it doesn't die on me.

Really grateful for this thread, been looking for something smaller than the H1 for ages and this really is tiny! Also love it has a Sennheiser screw adapter as I'd been having issues with the H1 mic socket. Seems from the manual that came with it it will run for about 15 hours with the right battery which is great. One question - on the website description it says:

"The recording switch uses a sliding mechanism. This prevents misoperation from accidentally pressing a button. In addition, the hold function can prevent recording from being stopped by accidental contact with a button."

But I can't see a hold function, or anything about this in the manual. Is there any way to stop the buttons on the front accidentally being pressed while in someone's pocket for example?

Mathew

You really don't need a hold, it would be almost impossible to accidentally switch off as they are heavily sprung, in actual fact I struggle to switch them off at times as it takes concentration.

I do however miss a red light to tell me it's recording - a white blob somehow is not comforting

Tested it with alkaline and rechargeable batteries - battery life 5 hours. Tested it with a lithium battery - lasted 15 hours of continuous recording :) Very impressed, ordered another couple. Thanks for the tip!

That's good to know that a lithium battery will last 15 hours in it. I haven't tried lithium batteries in any of my devices but it may be worth it for 3 times the battery life.

Tested it with alkaline and rechargeable batteries - battery life 5 hours. Tested it with a lithium battery - lasted 15 hours of continuous recording :) Very impressed, ordered another couple. Thanks for the tip!

Are lithium rechargeable or throwaway, thanks for the tip

Lithium batts are not rechargeable. I think you can get lithium-ion batts that are rechargeable but don't have quite the capacity of lithium - also seem very hard to come by and expensive.

So how does the Juciedlink DAR123 compared head to head with the Tascam DR-10CS for the same price, what is the pros and cons of each??

Seems like they are out of stock at Juno: vinyl, DJ & studio equipment from the world s favourite music store (http://www.juno.co.uk) , on ebay it's double price!!!

Anywhere else I can buy this in north america? (Canada)

Thanks

So how does the Juciedlink DAR123 compared head to head with the Tascam DR-10CS for the same price, what is the pros and cons of each??

Uncertain as to how to answer this one. The biggest difference between the two (correct me if I'm wrong), is that the Sennheiser connection / non-standard jacks are needed for the TASCAM, whereas the Juicedlink can power a COS 11D or other mics with the standard jack - and also provide power for them to run! This alone puts me in the Juicedlink camp. I'll be picking up two or three of those eventually. TASCAM is coming with a mic for £5 more in the UK though, and Juicedlink is around £50 more expensive.

If you already own a sennheiser wireless system, then the Tascam represents good value. I've recently added one and its been a godsend both as a backup to the wireless audio for Corporate work and as a standalone for Weddings. The dual audio recordings has given me peace of mind and being able to screw the mic in, whereas my old audio recorder was just slotted in gives me more confidence in the recording not being affected by tampering. I've had a look at the Juicedlink; offers much the same, though looks slightly bigger than the Tascam and I'm less sure of the led display.

Battery life could be better - i usually have to change it before using it again for the speeches but my sony recorders will run just about all day on a AAA

Peter, you might need to get better batteries. I use Eneloop Pros. On Saturday I forgot the Tascam on the groom and left it on all day. Pretty much from 12.30pm to 6.30pm - it was still recording and was still showing about a third battery!