31 thoughts on “TASCAM Intros DP-24SD Digital Portastudio”

1. That is roughly what I paid for their 4-track cassette Portastudio. I’m old, and technology is wonderful.

   1. yeah holyshit i was prepared to laugh because i was expecting 1,400

   2. Hehe, me and a collegue released an one-copy cassett album last year, and auctioned it of, all softsynths recorded on an old cassette portastudio 🙂 Great gear. Sound is great from them.

2. obviously this is aimed at guitarists and live recording, but it’s not really a portastudio for most producers or modern electronic musicians without midi sequencing potential. Then it really might be able to stand in the place of a PC!
   That said, this’d still be a huge bargan for $400, and I’d definitely buy one if it weren’t for huge price hikes on import into Australia.

   1. MIDI sequencing? Come on…

      1. Why not?

         I’d buy it in a heart beat. I have waited such multitracker ever since I saw Korgs touchscreen multitracker back then.

         Of course, at this price I am not going to complain, but I would pay a lot more for a complete portastudio.

         Now to think of it…what does this have, that the predecessor didn’t?

         1. It sure doesn’t seem like it would be nearly has heavy a CPU hit to handle MIDI in the same box. We can dream, can’t we?

   2. It’s pretty mindblowing at this price. I don’t care about MIDI sequencing – I see your point but I don’t want to arrangements in the digital mixer, I would rather use it for tracking and then import the audio into a DAW if necessary. As it is I run everything into an old Mackie whose sound I like and tweak ax sends and EQ a little bit to record in stereo. If you’re making music for fun rather than work then too much mix automation is a bit soul-destroying IMHO. I rely on it for doing film sound mixing in Pro tools but the nice thing about a machine like this is that your options are a little limited and you just have to focus on your tunes.

   3. I dont understand why this studio would need mdid sequencing to be complete. Cant you just use a hardware sequencer and still use this to record your outputs? That is all I use Ableton for. I don’t use the sequencer in it at all….just record the final studio mix down. This is awesome. I wish I had gotten this instead of my presonus studio 16.0.2….it is about half the price and I could have completely ditched my mac and ableton completely.

3. Dude I’m pretty sure I spent $300 to RENT a 424 mk2. $400 is crazy.

4. Yeah. That price isn’t right. Seems far too cheap.

   I hope it is right. Looks like a bargain.

   EDIT. Just looked at Sweetwater and it’s listed at $399. Amazing.

5. No MIDI, that’s a pity…

6. Man, I’d love something like this w/ MIDI – then I could go computerless. I realise how silly it seems to the more disciplined musician but with the promulgation of small instruments and effects at low cost I am compelled to go in this direction…without the webby / presetty distractions…great for jams too…nothing kills it like when three guys are sitting in front of a computer monitor.

7. Hmmm. Now if this can be had for as little as £380 – as I have seen it advertised, with all its knob, sliders and LCD, it makes me wonder why the likes of the Korg Odyssey and MS20M are up in the £700-800 price bracket. Maybe its not a fair comparison or maybe someone is trying to rip us off…

8. Don´t need MIDI sequencing, but a easy way of syncing it with other stuff would make it superawesome and irresistible to me.

9. Tascam just stopped putting MIDI on their recorders. Weird. Like, who just ignores MIDI in 2015? You got Recorders from back in the 90’s with midi. Its like a Tesla car with no AC.

10. After the Roland VS series of fifteen years ago, someone is still making these things only with SD instead of CD. And apparently leaving out some things many people would like. It looks as if Tascam have replaced all their DAWs with DIN-MIDIless SD models. It would be just as easy to go to eBay or Craig’s or VSE or Matrixsynth for some of the original at a comparable price.

11. I can see that many modern mixers has the option to adjust levels etc. from a tablet..
    Could be interesting if this has too!

    Midi or least, some “punch function”. Many of the older multitape recorders from Tascam of the Portastudio series (Example Portastudio 244) had SMPTE, so you could sync it with your Akai MPC or DAW (Cubase, Logic ..etc)

12. No CD drive I understand. No MIDI seems a glaring omission.
    Looks like we’re getting less for less.
    (Disclaimer – I own a DP 24 with both a CD and MIDI)

13. I have abandoned midi sequencing and computers for music to a large extend now. I bought a pristine second-hand Korg D16xd last year (for very cheap) and this is the best purchase I’ve ever made, music-wise. Recording audio forces me to be a better, tighter player. No more “is it me or midi lag?” No more endless menu diving and mousing around. And that old Korg has a CD burner and a touch screen. Having USB 1 only is a bit of a drag for computer back-ups, however.
    At any rate, this new little Tascam looks sweet indeed.

14. I think no midi is exactly the point! A recorder like this removes all the barriers between musician and recorded performance. Not even a bpm setting to worry about. Just press record, be natural, and let the magic happen.

    Don’t forget you can always do it old school and midi sync all your gear to each other and record them as a performance all at once. And of course all these tracks can end up in your DAW for finishing.

    1. Dude, this is synthtopia. What do you think you’re doing PRAISING a piece of new gear???!??

15. I’m still rocking my Korg D3200. I added midi sequencing to it by slaving an Elektron Octatrack with it. Awesome combination. D3200 kicks midi clock to the OT. The OT drives all the synths and my Machinedrum. Sync is TIGHT. And best of all, no midi over stinking usb!!!! Now my iMac is used for mood lighting.

16. These started with the TASCAM 2488, then the 2488 MkII, then the 2488 Neo. All three have MIDI in and out with Master / Slave sync, digital I/O and CD. I still have and use my 2488MkII.

    Replacing the 2488 Neo was the DP-24 and DP-32 which record to SD, have MIDI and CD, but no digital I/O. These were smaller, lighter, quieter (the 2488s had an internal PSU and used 3.5″ IDE drives) and had great screens and improved ergonomics compared to the 2488. (I have a DP-32 and can attest to it’s being much more fun to use.)

    What became a big issue with DP-24 / DP-32 was that could only act as a MIDI master. In fact, the MIDI functionality kept being reduced from the original 2488 which actually had it’s own MIDI GM tone module. You could play SMF on the 2488 as backing if you liked. The MkII lost the GM, but still allowed you to play SMF to an external module. By the time of the DP-24, all it would do is act as a MIDI master. The manual made little mention of the MIDI support, so there were a lot of questions in the community about making it work. Still, the DP-24 / DP-32 were (are) nice bits of kit. The screen is huge improvement over the 2488 line, and they are smaller and lighter – but you lost digital I/O.

    Maybe around early 2014, Musician’s Friend (exclusively it seemed) started offering a DP-24SD – which was the same as the DP-24 sans MIDI – so, this is not really a ‘new’ machine as it’s been kicking around for about a year or so. My personal opinion is that it was easier (and probably cheaper) to drop the MIDI than fix/update the OS to provide better support for it.

    Still, even without Midi, they are nice recorders for the money.

    And you could always go old school with a Philip Rees TS1 MIDI Tape Sync Unit. 🙂

17. pardon my ignorance but what are the advantages of using a recorder such as this one (besides getting away from the computer). it looks like a nice recorder for a band setup, but in electronic music production is it practical? Would one record a whole song in one take on to it and have an end product from it, or would ne then move those separate tracks to a DAW for post production? I am curious how this would fit in a modern electronic music setup.

18. I have the older DP-24 with MIDI and the CD burner. The MIDI is just start stop type stuff, it is not a sequencer.

    I use it for recording my modular and analog gear – sometime through effects and pre-amps, other time snot. It is excellent for this.

    The unit sits to one side of the top tier of a three board stand and the workflow is great!

    For MIDI sequencing REnoise is about he best software, if you like scrollers….

19. It’s work mentioning that with other similar (but more expensive) products, MIDI could be used to automate mixes and used to remote control a DAW. That would be one advantage. I suppose if they had designed it this way, that USB port on the back COULD allow some of those functions– however, it looks like they only implemented it as a storage device access port.

    For the price, it is impossible to complain. That is, unless it was assembled by children who were whipped if they took too many toilet breaks.

20. tascam dp24sd has drum machine?

21. no drum machine in tascam dp24 sd?

22. Regarding Midi: of course, you could have your midi already sorted out on your computer or wherever, and simply import it as an audio track. I know that’s not really what you mean (you want midi editing within this unit, fair enough), but it’s obviously an option for those who naturally do their Midi stuff on a big screen and don’t mind exporting it when it’s right.
    I’m seriously thinking about getting this (in Australia, even with the ridiculous exchange rate), as I’m moving into a mobile recording venture where I need fast setup and fast tracking capability.

23. I’m tired of software recording. . . Dongles, subscriptions, buggy updates, crashability, Plug-ins, clicking everything etc.etc. I’m really ready for this “Straight in” approach. I still have my old 238 Syncasette which – by the way – made me very good sounding recordings all those years ago. Definitely after one of these this year.