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Tascam HS-P82 Users


jrd456

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I'm thinking of buying a Tascam HS-P82.It doesn't have all the function options of the 788T but I don't need them. no over the shoulder work---will be coming out of mixer direct and a mix trk. It looks like it needs to have an ext. keyboard ?Also concerned about how quickly you can change scene&take #'s

IS IT DEPENDABLE ?

J.D.

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t is a pretty intriguing machine with a great price-point. I saw this machine at the AES a couple of years ago and was impressed.

Since then there has been about a 1K price DROP, which makes it even more attractive. I'd like to get my hands on one, to play with

MetaData entry and get a feel for it. I am aware of a couple of top-shelf mixers in L.A. that have them on the cart as second decks.

One difference is that it only has a max of 5 sec pre-record - I wish it had the full 10 that I'm used to -- I still get on projects that have such poor process - "roll camera - action! - roll sound??? " - 10 secs is needed with that stuff...

I'd like to really put one through the wringer ... all 8 inputs, all phantom pwred, 10 tracks being recorded on both CFs, ext pwr @ under 12v - all the things that might stress a CPU. I am also curious about how long it would take for a large 8 track file to "finish" - the time required to go from pushing "stop" to getting back in record again.

I am also very curious about the file recovery feature, if power is lost. A great attribute of the Zaxcom line is MARF recording and the

fault-tolerant recording process they pioneered.... If you need that even ONCE a year, there's nothing like the comfort of knowing it's there.... this Tascam recorder does have some sort of file recovery built in, according to the manual. How robust that is, and whether or not there is a limit to file size, number of tracks, recording time / length....

I think you are in L.A. right? I'll bet you can get your hands on one over at LSC ...

MF

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  • 1 month later...

So I have been using this machine for quite some time now. I have the HS-P82 and the fader panel to go along with it. Here are my thoughts:

The recorder actually holds up really well under a lot of conditions. I personally have never had a recording fail on me (knock on wood), but I have heard of a friend who lost a take that just decided not to write after it was over. I believe he was using an older firmware, though. I have taken this machine to the high wind desert for 12 hour days and aside from sand in the faders on the panel, the unit functioned flawlessly. It was on all day long and powered with NP-1s and Pelican batteries (I've done a few in the desert). Mike, I was recording up to 10 tracks at a time with not really any extensive delay on the write process. As for phantom powering all the tracks, I only had 1 boom op, the rest were lectros, so no phantom (although, I feel like you're not usually phantom powering 8 tracks).

The unit, as a recorder, sounds really good. I love the ease of soloing each track. Super quick and easy to check everything. While you can't read the LCD in direct sun, I don't know of many recorders that actually let you do that. (sound devices only, I think). I also love the full sized XLR inputs. Makes life nice. You can't really beat the price (although, now there is the Zaxcom Maxx which might be a contender with not quite as many tracks). While it is heavier than sound devices or zaxcom, it feels about as heavy and cumbersome as a Fostex PD-6 (used to carry this in a bag). It's not the end of the world, just not ideal. I think the battery system is great and the automatic switching between sources is dead on. The timecode is quite good. As is the entire menu system, I think.

Here are the things that are really dumb about this recorder.

It is essentially unusable as a bag mixer. The only way you can control the trim is with the knobs on the front. I believe there is a way to switch them to fader pots, but then you have no way to quickly control gain on the isos. You need to be able to do both to do an actual mix in the bag. For that reason, the only way to mix with this machine is by using the fader panel. It works well (except for a weird gain jumping glitch on my recorder that has yet to be addressed by Tascam), but only on the cart. For this reason, I leave it on my cart and have a Nomad 8 in a bag right next to it.

Other dumb things:

While mirror recording, when false taking a clip, it doesn't erase the clip on the mirror card. This means you have to false take the clip, switch to the opposite card, delete the clip there, and then switch back. All of which takes time, especially when production is yelling at you. I'm always having to decide whether or not to false take or just keep rolling on a bunch of crap which will confuse the editor in order to not slow down production.

YOU CAN NOT RENAME TAKES AFTER YOU HAVE RECORDED THEM. This is really dumb. Unless you're gonna go the Zaxcom route and name everything sequentially and have a sound report on paper, this makes life hard. If you are naming each clip and the script supervisor messes up and decides to change last minute, you are screwed and you have to make a note and change the file name on a computer after the fact. This is not something you want to do after a long day. It's just plain annoying.

The preamps are a little funky. You get used to them, but there are some quirks. There is almost too much gain and the pad switch is right around where you want the meters to sit. This makes whisper scream scenes a little annoying. Additionally, when the pad is engaged, the preamps are significantly noisier, so I never want to use them. So I find myself using in line pads often.

I have talked to Tascam and mentioned these things, but haven't seen any results as of yet.

Ultimately, this recorder is fantastic as a recorder. It's lacking somewhat in the mixer department. With a firmware update and a nice panel mixer in front of it, I would happily use this for a long time.

-danny

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The problem with false takes not being erased on the mirror card is fixed in the upcoming V1.20 (we're testing this now).

Some people are used to not having files delete at all, so we changing it to simply rename the copy on the Mirrored card, so it is always there to go back to.

Also in V1.20

File Renaming!

Trims for Line level inputs (was Mic level only).

Screen access and Transport shortcuts from a PS/2 keyboard.

Timecode Sync Rec (Records when incoming TimeCode starts, stops when it stops)

better iXML tagging.

other minor issues with Mirroring fixed.

We think this makes the HS-P82 a real contender for cart-based recording, while still being a niche choice for bag recording.

Although TASCAM Customer support is the official place to send any future requests for features, I try to keep current here.

Tom Duffy (TASCAM).

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Hey thanks Tom!

That all sounds amazing. I've overall been very pleased with the machine. Do you think you'll be adding more characters to the track name metadata? I'm always having to use only the first four letters of each characters names and would love to give over something more complete in the metadata.

So excited. Any idea when the new firmware will be out?

-danny

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The problem with false takes not being erased on the mirror card is fixed in the upcoming V1.20 (we're testing this now). Some people are used to not having files delete at all, so we changing it to simply rename the copy on the Mirrored card, so it is always there to go back to. Also in V1.20 File Renaming! Trims for Line level inputs (was Mic level only). Screen access and Transport shortcuts from a PS/2 keyboard. Timecode Sync Rec (Records when incoming TimeCode starts, stops when it stops) better iXML tagging. other minor issues with Mirroring fixed. We think this makes the HS-P82 a real contender for cart-based recording, while still being a niche choice for bag recording. Although TASCAM Customer support is the official place to send any future requests for features, I try to keep current here. Tom Duffy (TASCAM).

I just received an email from Tascam noting that final testing of the new firmware is nearly complete and, we should see it by the end of September. We will alert all of our HS-P82 customers when it lands.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

The problem with false takes not being erased on the mirror card is fixed in the upcoming V1.20 (we're testing this now).

Some people are used to not having files delete at all, so we changing it to simply rename the copy on the Mirrored card, so it is always there to go back to.

Also in V1.20

File Renaming!

Trims for Line level inputs (was Mic level only).

Screen access and Transport shortcuts from a PS/2 keyboard.

Timecode Sync Rec (Records when incoming TimeCode starts, stops when it stops)

better iXML tagging.

other minor issues with Mirroring fixed.

We think this makes the HS-P82 a real contender for cart-based recording, while still being a niche choice for bag recording.

Although TASCAM Customer support is the official place to send any future requests for features, I try to keep current here.

Tom Duffy (TASCAM).

Will the line level gain be in the digital domain (would this allow for gain adjustments on the digital inputs - i.e. when using AES-42 mics - with an external phantom power supply)?

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Will the line level gain be in the digital domain (would this allow for gain adjustments on the digital inputs - i.e. when using AES-42 mics - with an external phantom power supply)?

Line level adjustment is in the analog domain. Adding digital input level trim was not included this time, but we are still considering it.

Tom.

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I do love my hs-p82 - much better pres then the SD702/722/744 IMO.

Tom - Are their any plans (or would it even be possible) to add the capability for the hs-p82 to act like a sound card? Similar to the soon to be releases Roland R-88.

Not currently planned. Sounds like a lot of work for not much useful functionality. Why would you want to bypass just the recorder functionality of a dedicated field recorder and instead rely on a computer?

Tom.

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Not currently planned. Sounds like a lot of work for not much useful functionality. Why would you want to bypass just the recorder functionality of a dedicated field recorder and instead rely on a computer?

Tom.

I do recording to a PC on occasion so I can rapidly analyze the audio using a FFT to see if there is any potentially audible anomolies when I am developing my own audio power supplies and pre-amps - I can get some pretty good information out of software such as Wavelab or even Audacity

I know this is not a common request but figured I would ask.

I will probably pick up a format converter and use the AES out > optical in on my macbook for now.

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I also have a question:

I read in the manual, that every scene gets ist own folder what I actually do not really like.

Is it possible (or with the new OS), to have all files of a day within one folder, despite different scenes?

I'm wainting for the new OS to be released (renaming of takes/scenes is very important for me), then I will verify if the HS-P82 fulfills my needs. And if so - I buy it :-)

I'm going to connect my AD-149 8 channel mixer via aes/ebu

still thinking about the best way, as I have ten digital channels going into 8 digital tracks.

channel 1-8 are the direct outs, 9/10 is the master out.

For shoot, I'll mostly need channel 1-7 plus channel 9 to be an iso track (7 isos plus monomix) but I don't want to get rid of digi out 8 and 10 from my mixer, if I hardwired the mostly needed channels

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I also have a question:

I read in the manual, that every scene gets ist own folder what I actually do not really like.

Is it possible (or with the new OS), to have all files of a day within one folder, despite different scenes?

Absolutely. When the manual was written, we referred to the 2nd layer of directories as the "Scene" directories. In V1.02 we changed the description in the User Interface to just "Folder". Either way, you record multiple scenes in a single folder, which can be the equivalent of a Camera Roll or dailies.

Tom.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Everyone

I have a question/problem:

I have a HS-P82 sitting right here, trying out the machine.

When I turn the Trim Pots fast, I hear some sound! digital crackle/clicks like. Not loud but also on the recorded tracks.

No matter if line or mic in.

I updated the machine to the latest OS 1.20, still same problem

has anyone of you noticed this behavior? or a solution

when turning slowly, everything seems fine

thanks for answers, Julian

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