![[photo of]](images/tascam-dr40-small.jpg)
I bought this, new, in October 2017 for $289 (AU). So all those rip-off artists selling second-hand ones on fleabay for extreme prices should hang their heads in shame (old, second hand goods are devalued, and should be well under half the new price).
I had bought a Zoom H1 first, as that was the only thing I could actually find in local shops at the time. But there was a variety of things I didn't like about it, so I decided to try and get something better, the Tascam DR-40. While something larger has some inconveniences when stuck on a stand, it makes up for them with ease of use and extra features. And I ended up using both of them, placing a couple of recording mikes where I needed them on gigs, and not having cables running all over the place.
Having said that, the problem with placing uncabled mikes is that you tend to plonk them down where it seems like a good idea, but you're not actually listening to their output to confirm that it is.
It has four channels. You can record the in-built mikes at two levels, letting you have a high-gain recording for quiet things, and a low-gain for louder things, not having to fiddle around with recording levels as you record things, then work with the most appropriate one in post production. Or you can plug two normal mikes into the standard XLR connectors at its base, and do a four-channel recording between the internal and external mikes (and there's adjustable delay compensation, in milliseconds or metres, for those occasions where the external mikes are far away from the internal mikes). Or, use it as a two-channel recorder with internal or external mikes. Or plug ¼″ TRS jacks into it and record instruments (it has balanced inputs). Maybe record a signal from a timecode generator on the extra channels, make multi-machine recording far less of a pain to sync up. It's very versatile.
It has a plethora of features, I'd say too many. Most of which you can figure out how to use them from the menus, but there are some features you'd really need to refer to the manual. And there is the opportunity to mess things up with finger fumbles and not realise what you've done. It does have a master reset, but then you'd have to reset all your customisations that you want (since defaults often have annoying settings). There's something to be said for the simplicity of the Zoom H1.
Like many older Tascam products it has built in editing, mixdown, and over-dubbing features. I've always found those kinds of things extremely convoluted and restrictive. It's far easier to just record something, then edit your files on a computer which gives you far more logical control (in some cases, though there's plenty of DAW software that has what I'd describe as an insane workflow).
There's a level-dependent auto-recording mode, where it acts like a glorified dictaphone (and that would be the only case I'd use such a feature), and can be set to trigger at a few different sound levels (-6, -12-24-48). And it has options for automatically placing markers where it starts and stops.
It has a pre-recording feature, where a few seconds of the moment before you pressed the record button is included with the recording.
The mike capsules are on pivots, so they can be pointed in for X-Y stereo recordings or outwards for A-B mode (which offers a less mono-compatible mode, but wider stereo effect, though the mikes are still very close together), and it nicely offers to do a left-right swap when you change the positions of the mikes while its turned on but not in the middle of recording.
When it comes to mono-compatibility, that's regarding mixing the two channels together for a mono output with minimal phasing errors between them. But considering how close together the capsules are, and they're not all that directional (certainly not much of an issue for close work), I think it's probably a better idea to simply ignore one channel if you needed a mono signal.
For the internal mikes you have a controllable low-cut filter that can be switched off, or set to 40, 80 or 120 Hertz.
With external mikes, it has an option to support mid-side stereo miking.
It can record in BWF, WAV and MP3 formats. BWF is a broadcast wave format, which supports more meta information than WAV does, and chaining several files together for long recording and playback times. I'd only bother to use plain WAV if your software didn't like BWF WAV files (though the only difference is supposed to be extended meta info in the file header). And I'd only use MP3 if you do not intend to edit your recordings in any way.
There's a variety of level control options. You have full manual control, where you have to set the level appropriately. There's a limiter that will temporarily tame overs (though you still need to set up the input levels reasonably). There's a peak level reduction mode where loud sounds will knock the gain down, and it will stay at that gain level (which will mess things up if an accidental loud noise happens and you don't manually turn up the levels again, afterwards, though you could use this mode to automatically set a level during a sound check then switch over to another mode). And an auto level mode where it will vary the gain according to the sound levels it receives (which is rarely a good idea, hearing levels continuously going up and down, and the background noise, too). I always use manual levels with a reasonable amount of headroom (bearing in mind that I will post-produce the recordings), and the limiter switched on so that loud moments shouldn't produce horrible distortion.
There's built in reverb with a few choices of type and a level adjust. Again, something better to do after the fact, where you can properly listen to what you're doing, and may have more options to choose from in your DAW.
There's a built in tuner, but getting to it is a chore, and most people who need a tuner already have a small clip-on device that's convenient to use.
It has an option for you to add markers into your recordings as you're doing it, yet only a few other things can find those markers in your files, so I've never bothered. It's usually easy enough to spot the breaks between sound recordings by sight, and quickly skim around those points to find the start of things in a DAW. But would be handy for if you want to replay parts of a long recording on the unit, without trying to spool through it (which is not very convenient). Unfortunately, there's no feature to add markers to a file being played.
Related to marking while recording, it can also split recordings into separate files while recording. You can do this manually at the touch of a button, and there's options for doing it automatically based on file size (which will help if you have to deal with editing software with file size limits) according to the manual (but mine only seems to have recording time options for 5, 10, 15, 30 or 60 minutes). Looking at two different manuals, whether it divides by filesize or running-time appears to be dependent on the version of software on the device (which can be updated).
From information on a page on Tascam's website, it can use SD cards from 64 MB to 2 GB, and SDHC cards from 4 GB to 32 GB. I'd say the smaller sizes aren't much use unless you're recording in MP3 mode, or doing very short recordings. I've gone with using 32 GB cards as something that gives me plenty of recording time (several months worth, for what I'm doing, typically recording a 1 hour session, continuously from start to finish, once a week) at a reasonable cost (considering that I don't reuse the cards, I copy off the files I want then archive the cards, since they have a lifespan and can suddenly fail). Even then, it's really too much. It becomes a bit of an organisational issue with that many files on a card, plus it adds to the start up time of anything reading the card as it fills up. 16 GB cards are probably more practical size, but 32 gigs may be the smallest cards available in some retailers.
There is no internal memory, a SD card is required. The manual doesn't mention anything about hot-swapping, so I'd always do card changes with the device switched off to play safe. It does specifically say not to remove a card when it's connected to a PC.
Oddly, it uses three AA batteries, and normally I'd consider that a pain, but I also have a Zoom H1 that uses just one AA battery, and I use them both. So, in one of life's ironies, that suits the number of batteries my charger holds and how they're sold in even numbers. The unit can't recharge batteries, you need to manage that externally.
It has an adjustable auto-power-off feature (always on, or switch off after 3, 5, 10 or 30 minutes of being idle). Likewise for the backlight (always off, on for 5, 10, 15 or 30 seconds after pressing any button, or always on), though no brightness adjustment.
The USB connector can be used to supply external power to the device, or to connect to a computer for bi-directional file access. But it doesn't act as an external USB sound device. The manual cautions you to connect directly to a computer and not go through a hub, but does not say why.