Tascam 788 ?.....

Jim Landers · Post by **Jim Landers** » 26 Mar 2005 8:07 pm

I finally took the plunge into digital recording and bought a Tascam 788 which won't arrive until the end of next week and I have a couple of questions for any of you guy's that have used the 788.

I will be recording mostly accoustic instruments through SM 57 mics. Will I need to pre-amp, or will this unit record running the mic straight in?....If I will need a pre-amp, do you have any suggestions as to which one's would do the job, that can be had for a reasonable price?....

And for monitors, have any of you tried the Behringer MS-16s?.....They are cheap but, they seem to be getting good reviews. If the MS-16s would not be a good choice, do you have any recommendations for reasonably priced monitors?....Thanks.

Jim

[This message was edited by Jim Landers on 26 March 2005 at 08:10 PM.]

Shaan Shirazi · Post by **Shaan Shirazi** » 26 Mar 2005 10:54 pm

The Tascam's 4 balanced inputs have pre amps but they are not very high quality. The price range for pre amps seem to be from almost nothing to as much as you want to spend. I've been using the Behringer Ultragain Pro that are low priced "pro-sumer" pre amps that are good enough for my humble attempts. Tascam used to have the best forum for questions and problems but they took it off their website. The 788 Refugees have moved here:
http://cmoore.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=14

Good luck, the 788 is still a great machine even with the march of technology.

Shaan

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The Pickin' Paniolo

Jim Landers · Post by **Jim Landers** » 27 Mar 2005 7:08 am

Thanks for the input Shaan, especially the forum link.

Jim

Shaan Shirazi · Post by **Shaan Shirazi** » 28 Mar 2005 6:57 am

No problem, there's a link at the very bottom of the 788 tips and tricks page labeld "Nadir's Site" it is an amazing tutorial about effects routing done in flash. Highly recommended

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The Pickin' Paniolo

Joey Ace · Post by **Joey Ace** » 28 Mar 2005 8:31 am

Nadar's site didn't work the last I checked.

The Cmoore Forums are great and have many of the FAQs from the old Tascam site posted.

I've been using a 788 since 2002.
It's a great recorder. I found the learning curve steep, but worth it.

The Auto-Punch feature is wonderful.

If your's isn't v2.02 you should upgrade.

There's pdf's of the manuals at Tascam's site.[This message was edited by Joey Ace on 28 March 2005 at 08:33 AM.]

Jim Landers · Post by **Jim Landers** » 28 Mar 2005 10:54 am

My popper stopper was blocking Nadir's tutorial. I disabled it (popper stopper) and then it worked fine.

Lots of good info on the Moore site.

Jim

Joey Ace · Post by **Joey Ace** » 28 Mar 2005 12:14 pm

Nadir's works now; http://www.nadir-novelties.net/portfolio/index-fs.htm

Cliff Kane · Post by **Cliff Kane** » 28 Mar 2005 2:05 pm

Here's a great web resource for the 788. It's a nifty machine and sounds great...I wish I still had mine.
http://cmoore.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=14&sid=96c3d526ea055327922dbda666bb3b47

ajm · Post by **ajm** » 28 Mar 2005 7:47 pm

The Tascam forums have been back on line for a few months now. I believe that I posted here when I found out.
http://www.tascamforums.com/

Congratulations on your purchase. I hope you got the CD drive with it.

You are going to want to upgrade the firmware to V2.02 or whatever the latest is. Then you're also probably going to want to get a bigger hard drive. The standard HD (7.5 GB??) will fill up after a while.

As for mic preamps, for spending few $$ IMHO you can't go wrong with an ART Studio V3 (the one with the meter and the 20 or so position switch). I thought it sounded good when I tried it out. I bought the rack mount 2 channel TPS instead, but if I had it to do over I'd buy two of the V3's. I am convinced that the circuitry is NOT the same.

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Artie McEwan

Jim Landers · Post by **Jim Landers** » 28 Mar 2005 8:14 pm

Hi Artie. Yes I did get the 788CD with it. I'm not sure if it's the V2.02 or not. But, from reading some of the forums, my understanding is that with the 788CD I will be able to upgrade to the latest version. Is that correct?...

I will check out the ART Studio V3, it sounds like it might be what I'm looking for, at least to start with anyway. Thanks for the input.

Jim

ajm · Post by **ajm** » 29 Mar 2005 5:41 pm

When you power up the unit it will show you what the version is.

It has been a while since I upgraded, so I'd have to refresh my memory. I'd suggest going to the Tascam site and seeing what documentation is available first.

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Artie McEwan

Buck Dilly · Post by **Buck Dilly** » 29 Mar 2005 5:46 pm

Do yourself a favor. Get a decent microphone or two. YOu have adynamic mike. Get at least one condenser mike.