Tascam DR-60D Audio Recorder Review

When Tascam released the DR-60D I thought it looked like a great idea but I couldn't justify buying it since I already had the Tascam DR-100mkII recorder. Now that it is priced at less than $200 USD, I think it is a fantastic option to get great dialogue audio for your video and film projects!

Since lots of other people have reviewed it, we won't rehash everything with a full review here, but take a pretty quick look at the features and talk about how well it works for recording your audio into your camera (like a JuicedLink or Beachtek pre-amp unit).

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Tascam DR-60D Audio Recorder and Pre-amp at Amazon:
http://amzn.to/1fjRXt0

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Tascam DR-60D Audio Recorder and Pre-amp with PluralEyes at B&H:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/929347-REG/tascam_dr_60d_4_ch_track_linear_pcm.html

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RODE NTG-2 Shotgun Mic:
http://amzn.to/1jlYi5S

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GLS Audio 25' XLR cable:
http://amzn.to/1fnlv8N

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3.5mm to 3.5mm Cable (to connect pre-amp to camera):
http://amzn.to/PJHpqC

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Atomos Ninja II HDMI HD Video Recorder:
http://amzn.to/1dZTeyV
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Juiced Link 2 Channel Riggy Micro Pre-amp:
http://amzn.to/1pFxpzr

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Beachtek 2 Channel Pre-amp for DSLR Cameras:
http://amzn.to/1lmybga

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Anker USB Power Pack (10,000mAh):
http://amzn.to/1h5touP

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limefuel USB Power Pack (13,000mAh):
http://amzn.to/1lZqXBJ

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Music copyright Curtis Judd 2014

Ethics statement: The Amazon links above are affiliate links which means that if you click on them and buy, I get a small commission. You don't pay more by clicking these links than if you just went to Amazon on your own. I use all of the proceeds to buy additional gear to review and help you improve your sound, lighting, and video. Thanks for your support!

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Closed Caption:

in this episode of let's have a quick
look at the tascam dr 60d audio recorder
and mic preamp check this out if you're
looking to improve the overall
production value of your videos and you
need to improve your sound this is a
great way to do that it serves not only
as a recorder so you can record
separately but it also can feed the
signal into your camera and has much
better preamplifier than pretty much any
camera in the consumer range the dr 60
does not have built-in microphones you
need to bring your own microphones
however you get a lot of versatility on
this front you can use pro level XLR
input mics and you can use
consumer-grade Mike's with 3.5
millimeter inputs includes lots of
lovely mics and plenty of shotgun
options as well so overall it a price of
about two hundred dollars us in april
2014 now price may change some more
it's a really good bye and it does have
nice clean preamps so it definitely
improves your overall sound quality
first let's run through the pros or the
positive aspects of this device four
smalls a price i bought it in early
April during the national association of
broadcasters show and it was a hundred
$75 us and it came with pluralize which
is software that allows you to sync your
audio and video after the fact that you
record your audio separately and then on
your computer you merge them together
using this software great deal you don't
normally that software alone is two
hundred dollars now in late april 2014
you can still get the recorder 495
dollars us on amazon and for $215 on bh
with the pluralize software so links for
those down below
probably one of the biggest features
from my point of view with this unit is
that the preamps are relatively clean
and they have plenty of game for almost
any Mike normally with a shotgun mic i
shoot with the rode ntg-2 and that Mike
does not have the strongest output level
so it really needs a lot of game from
the preamplifier and i found the tascam
does a great job amplifying that signal
i can actually set it to medium gain and
the input level knob i can set to
halfway and I get a great clean signal
with my task MGR watermark
to which I actually liked and is still a
great great record i actually had to
turn this one too high game and the
input level 25 out of 10 so halfway as
well I've actually heard a lot of people
that are using the h4n with the rode
ntg-2 same shotgun and they complain
that they typically get a pretty noisy
signal a lot of history the signal
because i have to push those preamps
practically to the top to get it you
know to me to get the dialogue so that
it's loud enough so how does this
compare to something like a beach tech
or a juice link preamplifier those guys
out on the market are doing a great job
I think they're creating those are those
products are a little different there
just preamplifiers they're not recorders
so the idea what those is that you put
your professional level Mike into a very
you know their high-quality preamp and
then you feed that signal into your
camera so the camera's not doing the
heavy lifting of creating a good audio
signal the preamps doing that i would
say and i get i have not used either one
of those juice link or b.tech my senses
at least on the juicedlink they're
probably a little bit cleaner those
preamps but I haven't found this task
and preamp to be a problem it's actually
has more clean game then my dr 100 more
to had in this case i'm actually feeding
the rode ntg-2 shotgun mic into the
tascam and then I'm routing the tabs can
line out into my utmost ninja to you can
do that or you can route it into your
camera either way is it works fine and
I'm actually found that the signal is
really surprisingly clean coming out of
the task can and then going into the
Atomos ninja to it is only a 16-bit
signal to the outermost just like most
cameras will do the analog-to-digital
conversion and record it to a 16-bit
audio file wav file but I'm not finding
that to be a problem at all it seems to
sound really pretty good now I know in
the past I've been a big preacher of you
know you really should record your audio
24-bit when you can and I can still do
that i can record to the tascam and the
animals at the same time without losing
anything so that works out nicely and
we're going to play around with that my
workflow for a little while here over
the next few months and see how that
works out I'll get back to you on
whether or not 24-bit is really
necessary for dialogue I know Robert
over
this link is is definitely a performance
saying you don't need 24-bit for
dialogue for other things maybe but for
dialogue you don't so we'll get back
with you do some more tests
one of the things I really like about
the task MGR 60 which I did not have my
previous recorders was safety track
recording what
tascam calls dual mono or dual stereo
the idea here is you plug in a
microphone and that microphone is
recorded by the tascam to two different
channels on a stereo track in one is
recorded to the game level that you set
the unit up to and on the second one it
records it at some number of decimals
lower so it's it's a little bit quieter
and the idea there is that if you get to
a point where your talent
laughs really loud or talks really loud
louder than the than the preamp can
handle and it starts to distort clip
you'll have that safety track to drop
back to so you won't have problems with
having to reshoot and things of that
nature
this is a huge feature which my has my
other tas kappa dr 100 didn't do and i
believe that the new zoom h6 does that I
don't remember whether or not the zoom
h4n did that or not I don't think it did
but I couldn't be sure
in any case on the tascam got it and
it's great
another great feature of the tascam is
that has a built-in limiter that works
beautifully now on the dr 100 it does
have a litter but i never used it in the
reason I never used it was it didn't
work very well for two reasons number
one it did let some clips through still
and number two when it did engage in
catch you know catch the clips it wasn't
very transparent which means that it was
very obvious that something was
happening
you could hear something happening on
the dr 60d I'm finding that it's very
transparent and it works really really
well so you could you'll have much
higher success rate of capturing audio
that doesn't clip and distort another
nice little feature is that the screen
is readable in full daylight it is in
just a very simple LCD screen it's not
as fancy as the new zoom h6 screen and
while the zoom h6 screen is very fancy
it doesn't work very well in the
daylight
not a problem on the dr 60d one other
thing i love that it has all the buttons
and knobs that you need so it's very
easy to operate that you know you don't
have to go diving into the menu very
often
unlike most of the zoom products are
going to have a test the zoom h6 yet
but I know for example is doom h4n zoom
h2 you have to do a lot of menu diving
and that got pretty annoying at times I
loved also that i can record to both the
camera or my utmost ninja 2 and 2 the
tascam at the same time so i get the
insurance of a backup file i also get
the benefit of being able to record 24
bit on the tascam and replace the audio
in the camera clip if I need to if I
need you a lot of post-processing for
example now of course
whereas with anything there are a few
cons to this device number one is
battery life for a lot of people
complain about this i am using an Aleut
batteries it takes for double a's and
i'm getting about three hours of record
time when I'm powering Mike's with
phantom power so you have to decide for
yourself whether or not that's an issue
for me
typically I'm not shooting anything
longer than that or if i do i'll bring
another pair another set of four
batteries and swap them out at some
point when I can for some of you that
are doing long-form video I maybe that
could be a problem and so you'll
probably need to find another solution
altogether or or find a way to work
around there are a couple of things you
can do
tascam site says that with a tent with
the eneloop pro batteries and I think in
the united states are called in a loop
XX you can actually get a little more
time so i get about three hours they say
you get about five hours when you're
recording without XLR phantom power
I don't know Mike's require phantom so
I'm using it and then if you use these
eneloop pro or anti lupex batteries you
can improve that to about three hours
and 45 minutes with XLR phantom power or
you can improve crease it to about six
hours without so that's pretty good for
my purposes that's plenty for some of
you that may be an issue so something to
consider
there is another potential solution a
lot of people are using these USB
battery packs that are primarily
designed i believe to power actually to
recharge mobile devices but you can plug
it directly into the tascam and power
the tascam with one of those and those
have much higher know wat our ratings
and so you can usually probably get a
lot more time out of those if you if
that is an issue for you
another issue that other reviews have
decided is that the the input level
knobs where you kind of set the trim for
the input level for each Mike
is not a smooth continuous nah but it
actually steps so as you turn it goes
dudududu kind of like that and I know
for example Robert over juicedlink when
he did his comparison of the task MGR 62
his preamps that was one of the things
he cited i actually don't think that's
as big of an issue as some are making it
out to be for a couple reasons if you're
using this primarily to record dialogue
dialogue doesn't seem to be as affected
by that if it's a continuous you know
sound yeah you'll obviously hear it but
if it's dialogue it's not it's a little
bit more transparent you can't really
tell
and typically i'm not writing the game
that much so for me not an issue and
then finally as we mentioned before
there are no built in mics with this i
don't see that really is a con but it is
something you should know if you're
looking for something has built-in mic
this is not the unit for you
I what I love about this is that they
before they covered the but the built-in
mic switch save them some cost in terms
of building the overall unit and instead
put some features in that I think are
probably more worthwhile in terms of
versatility and so overall I think it's
a great unit
so what kind of workflows is this work
well for I think this is actually
helpful for me because this is the first
time I've really got to a point where I
could more seamlessly capture all of my
footage and sound at once without having
to do any thinking and post so we're
gonna try this for a while and see how
it goes so far as looking very promising
where I could potentially streamline my
workflow by not having to do that
sinking and post anymore yet is
prominent and i'm shooting mostly in
studio or settings where we're not
moving the camera alone around a lot if
you're moving the camera around a lot
I don't know how well this is gonna work
you're gonna have to rig something up if
you're using wireless systems you could
put the tascam and your wireless
receiver all on your rig and I suppose
that could work pretty well i think it
was really it's probably better suited
for use on a tripod i don't know maybe
you guys have a different opinion I'd
for me I think if it fits my workflow
pretty well which is mostly interviews
and kind of head and shoulder
talking-head types of shots so I think
for me it's a it's a great fit into my
workflow and hopefully the things we
talked about here today will help you
you decide whether or not it fits your
work flow nicely as well so thanks for
checking out this episode if you haven't
subscribed already go ahead and do that
we'll be sure to get you more great
videos on how to put your lighting and
sound for video
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