TASCAM DR-10L Micro Recorder with Lavalier Microphone Reviews

I needed the mic and recorder for a wedding and called Joshua on a Wednesday, 3 days before the event, asking if it would arrive on time and he told me not to worry. Low and behold, it was here that Friday. Excellent service, they really care about their customers. The dr-10l is a great recorder, it records continuously for hours at both 0db and -6db (or -12db) at the same time so you can just mic the bride and groom and be sure to get clean sound. I am not a sound engineer, just a business owner, but I have 3 dr-10l's and they have never failed to provide great audio.

I ditched my Sennheisers for some of these. They have always worked flawlessly and the mic's are good enough for most applications. I've used these for interviews and tradeshows. They're rock solid. I recently worked the Namm convention and I had this on me and let it run all day just in the event I needed footage where I was separated from my camera. I would very much recommend.

I use 2 of these mics for weddings and other events and I have to say I love them. They are small enough to mic everyone up (Groom, priest, bride and everyone giving a speech) without bothering them (weight and size) and we can even mic the bride (it doesn't show under the dress and the bride said it wasn't uncomfortable). The sound quality is crisp and clear, with good enough bass for editing and without noise or interference. I also like that it has the option to record a separate track at -6db or -12db just in case. This mic is good enough to my needs and I am already thinking I need 2 more.

As an oral history program that occasionally films, I was instantly attracted to the utility of having this little recorder handy.

We tested its capability in an interview situation, using our standard Marantz PMD 661 alongside this recorder and comparing results. The overall audio quality was comparable to the Marantz, with the Marantz being more sensitive. As expected, the lav mic audio quality was far better than if just recording ambiently as we do with the Marantz recorder. I was surprised to discover we could also hear the interviewer fairly decently in terms of quality if narrator/interviewer are a comfortable speaking distance apart. The dual track recording is great insurance against unexpected peaks in volume. I found the best level's setting to be one tick above the mid, which causes the second track to record at one level below. Dual track recording is optional by the way. Then when examining your finished audio tracks you simply choose the best track, possibly patching selections if that is required, with the advantage being it is available upon need.

All this little guy does is record. It will record at 24bit/48k at its highest setting, and then all the usual iterations below that. Since we collect archival recordings, we need the higher setting. The idea is that you can put this tiny recorder in places not easy to mic. Enabling this is the fact that the recorder is about half the size of a deck of cards. It will record dual tracks since you will not be able to adjust levels while it is in use with the idea one of these tracks will be satisfactory. Getting it to your computer is very easy by either inserting the micro card in its adapter via a card reader to the computer, or straight to the computer via the USB cable. You can also power the recorder if the cable is attached to your usb port, though not sure how this is practical. Zipping the Tascam's audio back to match/replace the camcorder scratch audio is simple in most post production software, notably Final Cut Pro X.

We have students, meaning easy is mandatory and this recorder fits the bill. Very likely the included lav microphone can be upgraded, but I cannot tell you which ones might be good choices without having my hands on them. The included lav mic should suffice for the most part. The included wire clip allows you to clip the recorder unit to your narrator out of sight, then use other techniques to hide the mic if desired for filming. Navigating the menu and settings is fairly straightforward.

Battery life seems good, the recorder uses a single AAA battery that also powers the mic. I got at least 5 hrs, but cannot report on the upper limit as yet.

I did not give it the highest rating available only because I think the buttons could be revisited, they are definitely for small fingers. Also the strip LED screen definitely requires good eyesight.

Still, love this little recorder and those small details I mentioned are not deal breakers. Best use instances might be when you need to record the interviewer behind the camera as well as the narrator on camera, instances where you cannot use a wireless mic, and so on.

I purchased 2. One works great. Another sometimes refuses to "stop" and sometimes loses it's recorded data, so maybe this particular unit is "defective"... it happens. I am giving Tascam (a great company) another try and I just purchased the "Reporter" version with the female XLR connector. In the mean time I amy return the questionable unit. I trust with my good history with the company, that this is all that it is

I still use wireless, but I've get tired of interference hits destroying great audio, even scanning regularly for clean frequencies, so I got one of these. Nice little recorder and very compact. Good battery life. Good sound and feature set. The provided mic is surprising good. I've used it stand-alone and I've also double-mic - one mic to wireless and one to recorder as fail-safe. Really handy for DSLR shooters like me.

This recorder is a great value for what it does. It does very well and conceals wonderfully without the hassles of wireless. I wish the included mic was a slightly higher quality, but hook up a sernheiser mke2 and it"s an amazing pair! I"d gladly buy more of these without hesitation, just consider doing a little EQ work when your editing or purchase the mke2 mic for drag and drop post production.

Not a bad recorder. Intuitive, easy to set up. Do keep in mind, the preamp in these things is NOISY. Like, it shows up in the audio recordings and that's just how it is. That being said, I believe Tascam knows the preamp is noisy, so the included download code for Izotope's RX-7 Elements Lite is absolutely necessary. I have to use two instances of RX-7 to deal with the preamp noise, which works just fine, so as long as you know this and you're ok with this extra step, you'll be able to use the recorder without issue.