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moosers
Published on 02/17/11 at 13:09
The Tascam DA-88 is an old eight track DAT machine. These used to be pretty popular before the DAW age and you can still see some floating around out there. Of course, this is pretty obsolete technology at this point, but it's still worth discussing a bit. The DA-88 uses digital audio tape that can handle recording eight tracks at a time. It's an all in one system that's rack mountable and takes up about four spaces in a traditional casing.
UTILIZATION
I don't have too much experience using the Tascam DA-88, but the studio I work at does indeed have one. It certainly doesn't see very much use but it was recently brought out for some tests to see it's state. I think the owner of the studio is going to sell it and he asked if I would test it out. I didn't find it to hard to navigate around it as it's easy enough to playback tapes and shouldn't be hard to record right over them as well. I can't say that I know anything about a manual for the DA-88.
SOUNDS
The sound of the Tascam DA-88 is by no means bad at all. In fact, it's a pretty good sounding medium as it's digital just in a different form. The problem with DAT really comes with editing and manipulating. If you recorded on this and transferred it to Pro Tools it would be easy of course, but using the DA-88 as an all in one recording device is not exactly convenient by modern standards. So while it sounds good, in the modern day it's really not worth using.
OVERALL OPINION
While good for it's time, the Tascam DA-88 is pretty obsolete at this point. Those who do still have them have most likely been keeping them in storage for years as it's just not reasonable to work with in the day of the DAW. If you're interested in learning about it and can find one super cheap it would probably be fun to mess around with, but not really ideal for modern recording.
UTILIZATION
I don't have too much experience using the Tascam DA-88, but the studio I work at does indeed have one. It certainly doesn't see very much use but it was recently brought out for some tests to see it's state. I think the owner of the studio is going to sell it and he asked if I would test it out. I didn't find it to hard to navigate around it as it's easy enough to playback tapes and shouldn't be hard to record right over them as well. I can't say that I know anything about a manual for the DA-88.
SOUNDS
The sound of the Tascam DA-88 is by no means bad at all. In fact, it's a pretty good sounding medium as it's digital just in a different form. The problem with DAT really comes with editing and manipulating. If you recorded on this and transferred it to Pro Tools it would be easy of course, but using the DA-88 as an all in one recording device is not exactly convenient by modern standards. So while it sounds good, in the modern day it's really not worth using.
OVERALL OPINION
While good for it's time, the Tascam DA-88 is pretty obsolete at this point. Those who do still have them have most likely been keeping them in storage for years as it's just not reasonable to work with in the day of the DAW. If you're interested in learning about it and can find one super cheap it would probably be fun to mess around with, but not really ideal for modern recording.