TASCAM Portacapture X8 - Portable 6+2-Track High-Resolution 32-bit float/192-kHz Recorder, usb2.0

Product Information

The firmware releases seem to be mainly concentrated on operational stability, which is quite important to get right.

For customers in outlying areas of the country, the price of the Extended Warranty may be marginally higher, due to the potential for higher collection and redelivery transport costs.bit floating point recording means you don't need to set input levels before recording, and you won't have to scrap audio that was recorded too loudly or quietly Note: When using phantom power, the operation time might be reduced, depending on the mic being used. The right‑hand side has a slot for the micro‑SD card (not included; up to 512GB micro‑SDXC models are supported). There’s a USB‑C port that both acts as an external power inlet (you’ll need to provide your own PSU for that) and caters for file transfer to/from a computer. There’s also the on/off/hold switch. The end just has a slot for the optional Bluetooth adaptor, and peak and recording indicators. Underneath, a quarter‑inch threaded insert enables mounting on a camera tripod; if you’d prefer a mic stand then adaptors are widely available.

Two detachable large-diaphragm (14.6 mm) condenser microphones (can be set for A-B or X-Y configuration) The Portacapture X8 comes with two large 14.6mm diameter built-in condenser microphones. With the TASCAM developed HDDA mic preamps, these microphones are well suited for high quality audio recording and can easy be set for A-B and X-Y microphone patterns. Internal recording to SD card is available while the unit is functioning in USB audio interface mode You should get an instant answer on whether your application has been successful, though in some rare cases Klarna or V12 may need to look at the application in more detail. Wireless remote. Adding the AK-BT1 Bluetooth dongle allows the unit to be controlled by tablets and mobile phonesIf an item can not be repaired, a similar alternative product or cash discount (as defined in this policy) will be offered Another issue I found happens when recording at 32 bit 192 kHz with the detachable mics and phantom powered mics plugged into all 4 inputs. The first few times I did that I got weird low frequency bumps on all channels. It took turning phantom power on and off and rebooting the device several times until this issue cleared. It’s still not clear what’s causing this but I imagine it must either be a phantom power or a card writing speed issue. Voice. Tascam say that with this app you can “record vlogs, interviews, voice messages (mono‑mix recordings)”, and that’s pretty much all there is to it. Select the app, adjust the gain by touching the microphone icon, drag the level up and down (you can adjust it pretty precisely using the physical wheel), and you can start recording. Note that if using the 32‑bit floating‑point recording format there’s so much dynamic range available that you don’t need to be at all fussy about the recording levels: just set the gain so that the loudest noises won’t risk clipping the input circuity and you’re good to go — see the separate box for more on 32‑bit recording. Please note that this extended warranty is currently only available on products sold within the UK, EU or EEA, and is subject to the terms and conditions as detailed on the extended warranty certificate provided.

With its 2 built-in large format stereo mics, 4 XLR inputs with support for both mic and line-level, AUX-IN, LINE OUT, and CAMERA IN/OUT terminals, the Portacapture X8 provides an abundance of IN/OUT choices for multiple recording scenarios. The 3.5mm CAMERA EXT/IN connector also supports audio input of wireless microphones and more. Additionally, the Portacapture X8 is equipped with a CAMERA/LINE output with an attenuation function that allows for sending audio to external devices such as cameras. Of course the touchscreen is much smaller on the X6 than it is on the X8, but the designers have got round this in some clever ways — for instance the aforementioned X6 menu button, which replaces a menu icon on the X8’s screen, thus freeing up a bit of screen space. They are also assisted by the fact that there are two fewer recording channels but they’ve shown a lot of ingenuity in remapping the screen objects in each app to fit the available space. In fact the only app where I felt significantly constrained by screen space was Manual. However I found a neat workaround for this via Bluetooth, as described in the box. The simplified hardware interface veers away from the complexity of former gear: the prominent gain trim and diminutive transport controls are localized to the lower part of the unit. The Portacapture X8 can accept Micro SD cards up to 512GB in capacity, while power can come either from four AA batteries (alkaline, Ni-MH or Lithium), a USB power cable, or an optional AC adaptor. If you're running on external power but your mains or power supply fail, the unit will automatically continue recording on batteries if you've got them fitted. Oh, and when you're not on the move, the X8 will also function as an 8-in/2-out audio interface, via USB.

Supported OS'

Collection and delivery costs are included for the first 2 years in the event of an item becoming faulty As you can see in the photo, I mounted the X6 and X8 next to each other and set them recording using the Manual recording app, with similar settings in both cases. I recorded one instrumental tune (fiddle and concertina) and one unaccompanied vocal harmony song together with my wife Anne Gregson. I transferred them to my DAW (Logic Pro X) but, apart from normalising the volumes to make comparisons easier, I did no other processing on them. I then had a listen... Multitasking unit with fast touchscreen access. Multiple inputs eliminate the need for an external mixer with several recording options. Really love the built-in effects (i.e. Noise Gate, Compressor, EQ, Reverb etc...), they're pretty good and useful and alot of more expensive units don't include all of these things. How will the X8 perform? In the end, the quality of its microphones and preamps will determine its success with field recordists. There’s no way to know this until its release later this year.

Field: This is another stereo recording app that this time offers a set of presets appropriate to field recording tasks, such as City, Nature, Bird etc. Will the Portacapture’s cool display be durable, and handle the dings that will inevitably come its way? I hope so, but only time will tell. THE SOUND Portacapture X8 provides a preset level setting to achieve a wide dynamic range, thanks to top-quality A/D converters and recording technology with 32 floating-point resolution. The result is impeccable audio content, even with low-level recordings.When editing the audio data later, you can increase the level without deteriorating the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N). Also, the internal normalize function can automatically align the level of the stereo mix file after recording. USB Audio Interface for your Computer All the files in a project share a common filename that’s derived from a root name you can specify (otherwise it defaults to ‘Tascam_’). There will be a mono audio file for each active mic, or a stereo file if two mics are stereo linked. There will also be a file for a mix of the active mics. New projects will take the current root filename and increment a number to identify it uniquely, eg. ‘Tascam_0023’. For naming things there is a neat on‑screen virtual keyboard.The Portacapture X8 has some interesting features right out of the box. Firstly, the two built-in microphones come detached from the main unit. They plug in as needed and can be positioned swapped to allow for both an XY stereo pattern and also a wide stereo pattern. This is a very interesting approach. The device also lets you plug in any other microphone into these inputs via 3.5mm plugs and they also support phantom power. This provides a greater level of flexibility than most units with built-in mics. The device itself is quite sturdy in construction and the large touchscreen makes it easy to see what is going on — more on the touchscreen later. INNOVATIVE DESIGN The Tascam Portacapture X8 is a great idea that suffered from poor execution with cheap parts and was rushed to market without being tested thoroughly. Tascam sent demo units to a handful of people that spoke about it in glowing terms, but I find it surprising that none of them identified the problems I mentioned in this review. On the underside, a quarter‑inch threaded insert enables mounting on a camera tripod; if you’d prefer a mic stand then 1/4 to 3/8‑inch adaptors are widely available. There is also a cold shoe adaptor, should you want to mount the Portacapture directly on a camera. The Portacapture can function as an eight‑input, two‑output audio interface. App Appeal Supports wireless timecode sync with supported devices from Atomos with the optional AK-BT1 Bluetooth adapter (from V1.20) Wireless remote control is possible via the TASCAM Portacapture Control using the optional AK-BT1 Bluetooth dongle with your Android or iOS device.