TASCAM DP-02

I wanted to do a preliminary review. I just got this about a week ago, so I am still learning. Bought it on sale for $100 less than street price by negotiating with GC.
I immediately built a nice wooden stand with a slanted platform that has just enough front board to hold the unit, but still let me gain access to the inputs and CD drive. This made the display crystal clear and the controls much more ergonomic. I would at least suggest a high quality music stand. Tabletop, it just is not friendly.

All the controls are fast, tight, well placed and well thought out. The Shift function is a bit of a nuisance, since it requires two hands in some areas, but livable.
No meters, just clip lights.
Standard plug-ins
Metal case, nice.
Physical controls all the way around save for things like noise gates, and most effects.
Most mixing is physical.
This is a stand-alone unit, producing a CD when mixed down and finished. But I am sure that many people will transfer individual tracks to computer software for real, professional mixing. For me, I am looking for a way to listen to initial cuts of what I am writing and training on. Things like timing issues when I am recording. I am OK with just playing back my efforts into the home theater system I have the outputs hooked up to. I use the headphones mainly for listening to other tracks while adding additional tracks.
I don't know why someone would want to take this on the road, save for putting a couple mics into it and recording a whole session for some reason. I know one band that does that during practice sessions, should someone come up with the golden riff!
But it's tough enough, I think, to travel. Get a case for it if you do, a padded one.
For me, I am really glad I saved up and bought a higher end beginner's unit for my humble purposes, rather than skimp out on a lower end model with a SD card, or those little swival mics thingys that are showing up on the pocket units. I don't play guitar on the beach, at least not that I would want to record.
Overall, it does everything that I want it to, save for one, ridiculous problem, the weakness of the preamps. Someone at TASCAM HAD to say to someone, "these suck", but they sell it like it is.
Still, I would buy this one again and again for the price I paid.
It also features a tuner, metronome, and bar/beat display, although that is limited to the little screen.

It's a big USB key, like the one reviewer said, which happens to have the ability to also put it to a CD if you so desire, with limited mixing and effects qualities. That is why this falls right in the middle of the pack - not professional, not a toy-like unit as in the lower priced pocket models.
So for people like me, aspiring, learning, not gigging but wanting to write or hear myself and just be totally creative, this is wonderful. Teachers will use this. Maybe sometime down the road I will drop my stuff into mixing software on my PC. For now, it's great. USB 2.0, I believe is the main output to a computer.

Preamp quality -sucks.
Dedicated instrument inputs - Guitar/Mic switch on input #1. Not much difference but it's there. Input #2 is either mic or 1/4" plug.
I believe only USB on I/O to the computer.
Midi - yes. Also TOSLINK and S/PDIF
Send/Return, I believe so on the Midi.
Cue/Mix is awkward, but there is a punch capability with a footswitch. Kind of crude, but there. I will try a number of switch pedals I have lying around rather than pop $39 for their pedal.
Surround mixing is limited, bouncing multiple tracks to one is onboard to "cheat" beyond the 8 tracks, but I would think sound and effect levels would become a real problem doing this.
Headphone out for listening to other tracks while recording, and also listening to playback. One headphone out, independent volume control.
Again, this is not professional, but middle of the road. A great, great starter unit, but not true mixing pro stuff.

AC powered with a nicely done power supply. I am plugged into a separate power strip which goes to my main surge supressor. This way, I can turn off the transformer after I turn off the main unit.
Phantom power for mics, but I use Dynamic. Listed as 48V, have not metered it.
No batteries, you must plug into a power outlet.
I like the way they handled the power supply - good and rugged with a noise coil in the line.

Oh, please just go to the website, or any major online supplier to get the complete stuff. Too much to type here.
Let's just say not bad for what you pay, save for the damn preamps.
I like the physical controls. Nice to have a slider or knob in your hand rather than a mouse. Old school.

No bundled software. Considered a stand-alone.
No turntable input, although you could go through the two guitar jacks while recording in stereo, record both tracks and drop whatever if you must. Then save it and put on your stuff on the other tracks.
No ground lift switch.
No grounding post that I am aware of.
Stand-alone, or drop to a computer.
Probably with just a little more effort, maybe a nice bundle of software, preamp unit/mixer, this could make the jump to almost professional.
Not overly laden with features, but again, not a professional unit. And you don't pay the price, either.

What this is, and the price reflects, is a high-end beginner unit. Plain and simple is the key here. It has shortcomings that a first-time recording person will not mind, but I am positive that an experienced, or even mildly experienced recording artist will not be satisfied with this. It will NOT cut your demo. Your garage band will NOT be able to put together a good demo with this. It WILL get you ready to cut your demo, tighten up your band or individual player.
Teachers in schools of music and even high schools should revel in this unit, especially in small group settings for playback while practicing, and individual instruction for playback. And you can give the student a CD to take home and study their shortcomings and strengths when you're done. If I was TASCAM marketing I would be hitting that aspect really hard. I can see every music department, high school level and grade school level, using this for one reason or another.
But it is NEVER going to produce a demo that I would want to send to a producer. That would be musical suicide.
So if you apply it properly, it's wonderful. If you ask too much, you'll be dissapointed.

Although the unit is desktop, I put mine on a sturdy rack with a tripod (like those to put music sheets on) and it works great that way. All the specs are on the Tascam website so here are my likes and dislikes.

The design is sleek and simple, straight to the point. The rotating devices are fast and convenient features. The pots are tight and stay in place. The connectors hold well. The external power supply is top quality with thick wires and features an anti-interference coil along the DC wire.

I think my biggest dislike would be the fact that you can use the effect send/return only when playback or mastering and not thile recording.

There is a USB port but its only for dumping/uploading files. Think of the DP-02 as one giant USB key. There is a MIDI out for triggering external devices like a drum machine.

There is one input with a switch called GUITAR/LINE but honestly I can't tell the difference. The integrated reverb is ok. The numerous onboard preamps have variety over quality and almost always I have to EQ my tracks to give them more 'bite'. I mean, the distortions are too weak or too thin to my taste. The 'clean' effects for electric guitars mostly suck and some are noisy. Maybe one or two bass effects are useful and same goes for vocal effects. I don't think I will ever use those for drum as my drum machine, a Boss DR772 already has better ones.

On the other hand its nice to simply plug the guitar in and catch some ideas on the fly. You dont have to worry about overloading your inputs or other possible misshaps that can happend when you have an external preamp.

Noise? Not on mine. I would say that it is its best feature overall: noiselessness. Quality of recording: 10

There is a noise gate, a tuner, a metronome and an integrated CD burner. Hurray!

I researched the product well before I bought and I knew what I was buying. I have been playing music and recording for about 14 years so I know what sounds good to my ear. I would recommend this product and would buy it again.

I connect all my instruments into a 10-input mixer which is connected as a dual mono device into the DP-02 through XLR cables. Although the DP-02 is a fairly decent machine by itself, I think one will be best satified it is used stricly for recording and all the FX/EQing is done externaly. As we say here, "if you want it to sound like a ton of bricks, it's got to sound like a ton of brick right at the tip of the input cable

"If it doesn't sound like a ton of bric

The Tascam DP-02 is very solid and has a metal skin. Sturdy with easy access to all controls. The LCD view is a bit small but not a show stopper.

The onboard preamps are disappointing as there is no punch and you have to turn the preamp all of the way up for micing acoustic guitars and vocals. But when a decent preamp is plugged in to the DP-02 there it is. All good. Also an external preamp cures the DP-02 of it's drive access noise.

AC powered and is a wall wart but most all are.

The DP-02 is a standalone unit and is not computer based.

I am not a professional producer by any means. Overall this is a very fine hard disk based multitrack recorder indeed. I would surely recommend it to others. There is a device called a Book Chair which allows the DP-02 to be tilted up to 45 degrees and solves the LCD problem quite nicely. If it were stolen I would replace it. There is also a model DP-02CF which has no effects and uses compact flash rather than a hard disk and costs much less money. The DP-02CF is worth a look I am sure.

This is a review of the Tacsam DP-02 Digital PortaStudio. It has the capability to record 2 tracks simultaneously, uses onboard effects, has a 40GB hard drive and a CD burner. It's physically well-built, with a metal case and decent faders. Unfortunately, the cosmetics of the machine are it's greatest strengths.

This is the area where the machine totally failed for me. The preamps are very weak, requiring you to turn them way up to get a decent signal to register. Seems to kinda defeat the purpose of a machine that is marketed as an all-in-one solution, if you have to go out and buy external preamps for it :(

The literature is misleading regarding the EQ knobs, in other words it is NOT just a simple matter of turning a knob to get the desired effect- you must first select a parameter for the knob in the menus, then adjust.

The absolute worst part is the NOISE! Every time this unit accesses the hard drive during recording, it generates an internal noise, which is then recorded as well. Completely unacceptable! I've made way better recordings on casette tape, for cryin' out loud.

It's got an AC adaptor, and phan tom power for the mics. Too bad it's not individually controlled; if you're wanting to use 1 condenser and 1 dynamic mic, then what do you do?

If this product was destroyed, it would probably have been my doing it in a fit of rage over the poor sound quality and overall disappointing performance of this machine. I've used Tascam casette 4-track decks in the past, and was able to turn out some pretty good recordings with them. The DP-02 is just not quality where it counts. Looks good, records terrible!