Great product.

Awesome little pocket mixer/recorder.
I had it up and running in about 30 minutes (I had to spend 15 minutes finding my cables in the junk box first LOL)
Sweetwater are just great people to deal with.
Big thumbs up. !!!!!!

Simple to Use

It's very simple to use. It has all the basic components needed for a track recorder. I can take it anywhere. It's super light and has A-OK battery life.

Great Recorder!

The recorder works just great but just remember to save your work before recording another track, or you'll be recording over your previous work. The sonic quality is digital - enough said! I hope it never quits working but if it does, I'll just get another without even looking at the competition!!

great for demo's

To supplement this review, you should call Sweetwater and chat with them... my guess is that SW doesn't sell bad products, and their comparison knowledge is astounding - when you are thinking about what to buy, they can help you narrow down choices based on your style of music and what you are recording. That's my experience with my dedicated sales engineer (who now remembers my style of music and what I've previously bought from them).

For this 4 track, after a few basic tests, I find myself liking this unit quite a bit. I need a very quick way to get down ideas with simple multi-track... so I just tested the on-board mic's and they were quieter and fuller than expected. I was able to get down a 3 track idea, make a quick mix, and export to my computer without reading the manual at all.

I used to own a Boss BR-8, and this sounds better to my ears (probably because of advances in converter technology over the past ~7 years), which is great.

A few reviews cautioned that the mix-down was complicated, I didn't find it complicated. Sure, you have to record all the multi-tracks to one stereo file with real-time play-back - but I find that process fine, it's nice to listen to the play-back again while it's copying. Then it's drag and drop to a computer via USB. I did goof this process up one time before guessing the right way to do this (note again that I didn't even look for the manual).

I also own a Mac and an Apogee Duet, and this definitely won't replace that set-up, or come close . But I find the simplicity of this unit inspiring... and somehow having a recorder that only does audio is nice. When booting a computer, it asks what you want to do - when booting this 4 track, it's ready to record audio. I like that.

Initial recording stage

So far I have been able to produce a decent 3-track recording, featuring piano, guitar and voice. As I haven't yet learned how to mix it down, I happily anticipate the final product which I suspect will sound very good. I will probably eventually use my Fender Amp for effects like echo and reverb, as I think that this will make a significant difference on the voice track. Otherwise, I am satisfied with this affordable portable studio!

very easy, very cool

Excellent little piece of easy to use, portable equipment. For the price it should get a five, but there are only quarter inch ins and outs... some mic connectors would have recieved the five... of course then the price goes up and so on... Nice piece of equipment to get some ideas out quick so you don't forget.

Great for individuals, not, so much for group.

I bought the DP-004 with the idea of doing remote recordings. I tried it on a single voice and it sounded great, but it was not as useful for my choir in a large building. I couldn't get the signal loud enough with the external mics (I used SM57 condensers). We are going to retry, this time taking the signal off the P.A. speakers and miking the choir.

It is a little complicated to learn, so I suggest figuring it all out before you get inspired and need to lay down a track pronto. The other issue is that you need a larger SD card for a long session, and the finished files take a while to bounce.

Great pocket recorder

Excellent for grabbing tunes in live jams. Also use it for Practice to see what I really sound like. The onboard Mic's are pretty good. Over 3 hours time recording, using Rechargeable Batteries. The description is Wrong, It requires 4, yes 4 double "A" batteries.
I use an 8 gig card, Over 10 hours recording time. About the SD cards: Your songs are recorded on a Hidden partition on the Card, NOT viewable or Playable, Even when Fitted to A computer. You must use Wav Export function to move your song to the Viewable partition of the SD Card. The SD Card is hidden behind the batteries for a reason, You need total power Disconnected to remove and Insert the SD Card. Card writing Speed: 2 works OK, 6 works OK. Very good for making and sharing demo's and practice tracks among your band mates. I Carry a set of Ear Buds to monitor what I am recording.

Tascam DP-004

The Tascam DP-004 recorder is just the right recorder I needed for my apartment studio. I actually recorded my part of my original song, and the guy from comcast that comes by the apartment complex to work on the cable is my keyboard player, and plays his part of the song, when he was in the area. then, my nephew came to play bass, and everything worked out just perfect!! I didnt' need any more then what the DP-004 puts out. it is just right!!! thanks Sweetwater!

Really Cool for what it is!!

This is really cool for what is. I purchased this a while back because the look of it made me nostalgic for the old Tascam Porta-One Cassette 4 track I cut my teeth on. This thing runs rings around the Porta-One in terms of sound quality and features. I think the Porta-One costed me about $600.00 in 1986(I'm dating myself) and was not capable of doing what this thing will do(The two hundred dollar price tag is quite a shocker considering all the features this thing has under the hood). The built-in mics are not my favorite. I prefer to use external pre-amps and quality condenser mics. I suppose if you were to drop it in the middle of a loud band rehearsal, the external mics would be o.k. Don't really care for them for recording acoustic guitar and vocals. This thing is convenient considering it is smaller than a paperback novel and you can take it with you just about anywhere. It sure beats lugging one of the many mobile hardware recorders around with you. I'd still recommend using a really good condenser mic/mic-pre-amp with it. The sound comes out a lot better.

Not a direct WAV recorder

This may be a good multitrack recorder but I expected something way different from this unit. I expected to be able to record two tracks, left and right off a mixer as a stereo signal to WAV format and then transfer that file to a computer... not a chance! Not without sooo many steps and so much time.
Records only to its own proprietary format. Mixdown to a useable format is in realtime... no speedy file coversion here... two hour recording = two more hours for mixdown, at least. Produces two seperate files, not one stereo file.

Ate my 16gig HDSD card; the Tascam formatted it, couldn't read it after that. My computer and camera can still read it... they see it as a 4gig card now.

The unit came with a wrong button... a play button ">" was in the stop button place so I had two play buttons instead of a play button and a stop button.

The front of the unit has a nice feel. The knobs feel solid. The battery cover on the back doesn't feel right at all.
You have to remove the batteries to get to the SD card slot.
Didn't find the user interface intuitive at all, but then I wanted it to do something it wasn't designed to do.

Like I say, maybe a perfect unit for desperate multitracking... wouldn't call the thing a recorder in any practicle sense.

I did not buy this unit through Sweetwater.
Am looking at the Zoom H4n to replace it with.