TASCAM DR-05 Version 2 Linear PCM Portable Recorder Including 4GB Micro SD Card

So simple to use and great quality sound. This arrived today, 4GB card already installed, 2 x AA batteries included, 1 x USB lead included, put the batteries in, press and hold the off button, within a few seconds the unit had fired up. I did make a point of going on YouTube to look at reviews of this which included a brief tutorial, this thing is so simple and intuitive to set up its brilliant, menu navigation is a breeze, everything is simple and straightforward. To record, you press the record button once, this gives you your levels which are adjusted by the forward and backward buttons then press record again to start recording, sound quality is excellent, obviously better if you are actually facing the mic but this is a great recorder which is a worthy addition to my camera bag, haven't tried an external mic on it yet but I will, on-board speaker is tiny so is very quiet but plug earphones/headphones in and you are away to the races, you can also monitor your recordings with earphones as well. Also has a tripod screw on the back of the unit which I would advise using as any handling of the unit while recording is picked up by the mics. Really nice recorder at a great price.

Absolutely brilliant product. I need a good quality recording device for my YouTube channel. I have tried many different microphones on my laptop, but never been able to achieve a good quality sound, whether this is the fault of my laptop, or software, microphones etc I just could not cure my problems whatever I tried. I even bought some very expensive microphones which just wasted my money. I saw this Tascam being reviewed on a YouTube channel and thought that I would give it a go (still cheaper than a lot of the microphones out their) This cured all of my problems, I now have a rich and clear narration, even my subscribers have noticed a vast difference in quality. On live streaming it holds up well using just as a microphone, so now I have the best of two worlds. I didn't play with the settings, just left it in automatic recording mode, so it might even be possible to make things sound even better once I have learned all of the functions. I use it plugged into my laptop with the USB, so I can save the files straight to where I want them to go, plus it is powered by the USB so no batteries to buy. This now sits permanently on my microphone boom above my head, It's my main sound source, I wouldn't change it for the world. I hope this helps someone out their. Update,,,,,,, After using the Tascam DR05 for a few months I can find no faults or problems with the unit, I already had a Zoom H1 which is a good recorder but the Tascam has a much warmer sound to it, and a better layout, more functions Etc. I have just bought my narrators a second tascam DR05 to replace the Zoom. I am seriously thinking of buying another 3 for outside recording mounted on my cameras instead of the Rode mics we use at the moment. Cheers, A happy Ray.........now a happier Ray,,,,,,, this is not a sponsored review, I have never been approached by Amazon or Tascam to leave a review.

The Tascam DR-05 is light, small and portable. It's easy to use and for that it can be referred as an “entry level” recorder, but is still a professional sounding audio. Yes, it doesn’t have XLR/TRS jacks like other higher-end multi-track recorder, this is to use an external mic via the 3.5mm jack, or for who wants to record directly into the built-in mics. The design's great, simplistic and feels great (you can control everything with one thumb). The quality of the sound also depends on your external equipment. The recording directly from the built-in mics has capability to give great vocal recording. In conclusion, if you are looking for a high quality recorder, easy to use and at a fantastic price, THIS IS FOR YOU!

Nice unit and easy to use but beware because it is easily damaged. Be careful not to drop and make sure you buy a case! Otherwise it’s amazingly good sound quality even if you’re recording a really loud band

Wanted this for my wife who likes to record her choir's practice sessions for later reference. Previously she had been using the record function on a Zen mp3 player. This was relatively poor quality, was a bit of a fiddle to start and stop and then began to malfunction. The TASCAM DR-05 looked a relatively expensive alternative, but I wanted something that would be simple for her to operate at a time when she was trying to concentrate on the tasks and directions given to her and her colleagues. I also like the battery being two AA which can be replaceable or rechargeable and the memory being an SD card rather than internal. Both of these I think give more flexibility and control of the system. So far it has worked out very well and my wife is well pleased with its performance. The paper instructions are a bit sparse, but a full manual can be downloaded easily as a PDF. It was easy and quite intuitive to get going with basic operations, but it soon became clear that this device has a VAST and impressive range of capabilities going well beyond our current needs!

Summary: Sound quality 6 stars: Menus and screen 0 stars, averaging to 3 stars. Can't fault its sound but the unit needs an feature upgrade. The menus and user interface are dated and feels like you're setting the alarm on your first digital watch, press press press back back press. The screen is dated too - LCD and touchscreen would be a nice upgrade!! It's worth spending the time to learn how to use it for instance to get the gain right on one setting and to learn how to mark tracks etc. However every time I go back to it after a few weeks break I have to relearn how to use the thing. It likes batteries too so bring a pack with you - and the battery life remaining indicator is haphazard. I use it for band practice and leave it on a chair a few metres away. It can handle the range from drums to quieter guitar finger picking, without adjustment, no problem. The memory card is useful. I pull the sound files into freebie audacity using a card reader on my laptop (without needing to fiddle with USB cables etc), remove the obvious spikes and just normalise the volume. Download is really fast and whole process takes just minutes for 2+ hours of music. The sound is perfectly adequate to share music around and because of the stereo mics even sometimes sounds like I went to a lot more trouble! I also got the "Hard EVA Travel Case for TASCAM DR-05 PORTABLE RECORDER by Hermitshell" and it works perfectly for slinging it in the gig bag. Great fit and great quality. I went for black but I'd get a different colour next time to find it easier among all the other black!

I purchased the Tascam DR-05 handheld audio recorder for two purposes. I recently bought a Veho Muvi K2 4K action camera and wanted to record my music performances audio visually. The DR-05 seemed the obvious choice as I am familiar with Tascam from more than 30 years ago doing home recordings. This product is much more than I anticipated, it has fx (5 different reverbs) which can be added during recording and at playback, a vari speed and eq settings along with limiters and low pass frequency cut offs and much more besides. You can even over dub on it. It has great sound quality, records in WAV as well as MP3 . I am really excited at the prospect of playing with it along side my camera to get great videos of my practice, rehearsals and shows what ever size. I'd recommend this to anyone wants a professional standard recording to capture all of those moments where magic can happen on a stage.

The TASCAM DR-05 is absolutely amazing!!! For it's price, it's great value for money. The sound is crystal clear and sharp and it does pick up a lot of detail. It's very easy to use and does not take long to get used to. I love the fact that you can preview how it will sound when you press the record button once and then you press it again to start recording. One think I didn't like about this product is that the speakers are extremely quiet and you really have put it up to your ears to hear, but not to worry, you can connect headphones to it to monitor and play back. DEFINITELY USE HEADPHONES TO MONITOR AND PLAY BACK! Would not recommend listening to how it sounds through the built in speakers. Apart from that, this product has surpassed my expectation with out a doubt. I would definitely recommend this product.

I purchased this recorder to capture guitar and vocals on the spur of the moment. It's not always convenient for me to record onto my laptop. So far I've recorded in two of the available formats, WAV and mp3. I find the menu easy to navigate. I plugged the Tascam into an external speaker and the playback quality was very good. It's also easy to download audio files that I've recorded onto my laptop with the USB provided. So I am happy with this product. I can't comment on battery life as I've only just started using it. But the batteries and USB cable are included.

Good product like all of their product range.

これまでZoomのH1を使ってきましたが最近目を患ってから操作が辛くなったので本機を購入しました。以下はH1との比較です。 まず操作性は遙かに良いです。最初の設定さえ済ませれば後は前面のボタンで全て操作可能です。録音時のレベルもその都度調整できます。オーバーになるとピークランプで知らせてくれます。 マイクはミドルレンジがよく乗るのでドンシャリにはなりません。ハードロック以外なら十分使えます。 特筆すべきはノイズが乗りにくいことです。歌の場合、結構マイク近くで録音してもブレスノイズや雑音を余り拾いません。勿論譜面めくりのノイズは拾いますが。 H1も録音操作はボタン一つで簡単ですが、その場で再生して音を確認するときはボタンが見にくく面倒です。その点本機は暗い部屋でも問題ありません。画面を見なくても十分操作可能です。生撮りなどやり直しがきかない時は本機がおすすめです。 マイクが無指向性のためかステレオ感は比較的小さいです。PAでドラムを左右に飛ばす時などは効果が薄くなるかもしれません。この点はH1の方が左右の開きが顕著です。好みが分かれるところですね。 一つだけ面倒なのはUSBでパソコンにつないだ場合、毎回モードをバスパワーからフォルダーに変更しないとファイルが転送できません。これもメニューから設定できればなおいいです。 コストパフォーマンスはかなりいいと言えるでしょう。

Belle surprise que ce petit enregistreur numérique. Exempt de souffle sa sensibilité, en ce qui me concerne, me permet d'enregistrer les bruits de la nature qui faisaient l'objet de mes projets. Certes c'est est un peu compliqué, parmi l'arborescence des menus et sous menus, de maitriser toutes les possibilités qu'offre l'appareil. Le manuel de référence, à télécharger sur le site de Tascam.,est une aide précieuse. Le son, bénéficiant d'une bande passante très étendue, est saisissant de naturel et de qualité. Quel silence de fonctionnement comparé aux enregistreurs DAT de type walkman. L'autonomie du DR-05 est sans commune mesure avec celle que l'on rencontre avec ces machines à têtes tournantes et bande magnétique, sans parler du poids... Seul défaut à signale sur le DR-05: le faible rendement et la bande passante étriquée, du minuscule haut-parleur témoin, dont il est équipé . Ce Tascam est tout à fait recommandable pour un budget abordable. Je suis tout à fait satisfait de son achat.

I LOVE THIS RECORDER! I had heard horror stories about the competitor, Zoom H1 (about audio drifting off-sync after a while, the built quality of the Zoom, etc), and I took my chance on this wonderful product! I know there are Zoom lovers but I have a budget and don't want to spend $100 twice so I went with the best option for my situation. You can definitely hear the (good) difference in this. I have a Rode Video MIC GO and most of you know that the GO doesn't have many settings to turn down the hiss and everything in the audio, but if you plug it into this recorder, it just goes away, especially if you re speaking and there is no surrounding noise. I even tried recording ambience/sound effects with my Rode directly into the Tascam and it was so amazing! I am amazed and know for sure that I made the right choice! You can clearly hear the difference from the audio with the Rode into the camera and the Rode into this Tascam recorder. Now, I am no one to judge on the internal MIC of this system (the top two channeled MICs) because I haven't used it yet, but I have a couple projects with required voice-overs and will update this review to let you guys know how it sounded and I am sure it would sound great! All the buttons are easy to click, access, and use and the settings are WAY too simple. I am no man of sound/audio and I only do it because I am currently a one man band film maker (15 years old; I have no other choice) so I'm forced to learn all of these settings and stuff but I was really surprised at how the settings were clear, simple, and short! I also love the additional headphone jack to listen to the audio because being on set a couple times, I have always wanted to look like a boom MIC operator with the boom pole and headphones, haha! So that is a great touch! Well, I've said everything I know about this recorder and I hope you take my word for consideration in choosing what field recorder you should buy!