TASCAM DP-01FX Digital 8-Track Portastudio 

I like it. First the bad news, I was disappointed that it had no pitch control. My old tape one did and I got used to fidgeting with the key on there. I'm a baritone so I need help finding where it?s ?singable? to me. I bought the TASCAM DP-01FX and didn?t even think to look if it had that feature. It doesn?t. But I?ll keep it anyway and transpose the old fashioned way.I also don?t like the LED display with no back lighting. I bought a little book light and have it clipped to the back so I can see the read out.The good news is it sounds great. I make demos on it and it does a great job for that.I?m going to keep it.

I have been using this machine for about a year and have produced 4 CDs and 2 radio commercials. I sometimes use a 16 channel mixer ahead of this machine which may seem odd to some people. I will agree with other reviewers. This machine is only as good as the person and ears using it. People have been totally amazed with my recordings and assume they were done in a big studio. To be fair I output the master optically to an external CD burner, Also have made Wav files on a computer and compressed to mp3 format for emailing. Be careful here! Otherwise for the price this machine is hard to beat. I understand the DP-02FX is slightly better. I'll keep this baby till it dies and it doesn't appear like it will.

I've had this product for 2 1/2 years, Once i learned the basics, then i was on my way! I really like how simple the manual is, 2 weeks i was good on everything. The sound quality is good enough for me, It's all about what kind of music you put into this product! Best money i've spent on any tascam product.

Much bigger than I thought. It will be a while before I can patch down everything this thing can do, but the simple recording was done the first day. I'm glad I didn't save more money to get an expensive one because it would have been to difficult. This is more than enough for a first time recorder and plenty for an experienced recorder to set ideas on.

I've had this unit for about 3 years and love it. I write songs and the DP01 is great for capturing your ideas and fleshing them out into arrangements. I used AT2020 and 2021 condenser mics run through a preSonus mic preamp, which boosts the warmth of the recording. The unit is easy to use and intuitive. Editing is easy as well. Highly recommended.

i've had this unit for a little over a year now, it is very easy to use...as far as the effects go, i never ever use any of the guitar effects bc they don't provide a loud enough signal and sound very muddy most of the time. i rarely use the bass effects as well, the drum and vocal effects are pretty useful though, as well as some of the acoustic guitar effects. this machine will not give you studio quality sound because you probably don't have studio quality musicians and studio quality instruments, as well as all of the pro audio tools that come with a production like that. however, with just a mixer a 16 band eq and several above average microphones im able to record some pretty good demos.

I am very happy with this unit, very easy to use. I had to keep the owner's manual close at hand for the first couple of days, but after that I was breezing through it solo. Great piece for a solo artist's home studio.I don't get a lot of people's harsh criticisms about this unit. I guess if you are used to having a multi-million dollar recording studio in your basement then this piece would seem inadequate. But for the rest of us struggling artists, it's a lot of bang for your bucks.

This is a great recorder for the price. I've had it for about 3 years. Before this I used a tascam cassette tape 4 track. This model is a nice transition to digital.The only thing bad I can say is that the play button kind of wore out recently; it takes a little love to get it to play or record.

My first multitrack recorder was a Fostex cassette based recorder back in the early 90's. I loved it - used it nearly daily to work out arrangements or learn new songs. When it finally quit working, I was a little heartbroken.At that time, someone had turned me on to multitracking software - which was a suitable solution, until I started upgrading. I found that certain programs wouldn't work with certain operating systems, conflicts with various attached devices would cause recording errors. I felt like I spent more time troubleshooting my system than actually recording.After much research, I settled on this unit. As a solo artist this is an excellent machine - I mostly record acoustic arrangements, with some electric guitar and drums. Although I've used this for a week, I couldn't be happier with the results...far superior to my old cassette unit, and much easier to use than software. The sound is much better than I hoped for...and the menus are easy to navigate.The guitar effects are OK, but not great. I don't expect I'd use them at all...the sound I get when I mic my amp is far better. The vocal and drum effects, on the other hand are more useful. Overall, I expect I should be able to make very high quality demos.You can only record two tracks at a time, but as a solo artist, that's not such a big deal. For bigger arrangements, such as with my band, I have a 14 channel Mackie mixer that I run into the unit that allows me greater flexibility, and also solves some of the probems some have complained about regarding the sound the get when they use the inputs provided on the DP-01FX.The unit is easy to learn how to use, and the user's guide is written so that my 11 year old can figure it out. I had no trouble recording, mixing and mastering...following the instructions in the guide, I was able to successfully transfer the final mixdown of my music to the computer without any hangups.Overall, I'm very satisfied with this unit.

This is an amazing recorder to get if you're on a tight budget and don't wanna spend any more than you have to. Yes, that excludes media cards. A smart trick I belive Tascam is applying here is making a ridiculously easy menu system and mixdown controls more expensive, where you'd think that cheap little knobs would be LESS expensive than digital ones. This being said, aside from that, this machine is a dream. I was disappointed at was sound quality. It didn't seem as crystal clear as I would want, but then again, you can always buy a rack processer for that. Effects in general were simply great, but always put the volume up-recording volume is limited, but not drastically. However, I was very disappointed in the bass effects. The reverb processer is great-my only gripe is that you can't choose different "flavors" (as they call it) on different tracks, but that's also minor. The menus are very simple, you won't get any more than 3 pages to back through to get to where you want. Like others, if you are brand new to any type of recording, there will be a bit of learning curve or so. In fact, within the first 2 days of using it, you may hate its guts, but after a week or so, it's so easy you can commit it to memory and do the entire thing without the manual at your side. Mixing and bouncing is a breeze, EQing and Panning is easier than I ever dreamed. Now for the surprise on just how easy it is-I am 14 years old, and it's automatic for me, without any recording expirience whatsoever.Bottom line-Great Effects, Simple Controls, Rugged Quality, And a decent value gives new recordists start to dream.