New Tascam DR-100 Mk III (1 Viewer)

Just added a DR-100 Mk III to the stable. Less handling noise than I expected but the internal mics are independently shock mounted which must help.

I am mildly concerned at the total recording time available with the rechargeable battery, but I do have Tascam BP-6AA battery pack that holds 6 AA batteries that can be clamped onto its base, so what with that + the internal AA cells + the rechargeable, some experimentation is needed to understand the best way to use the alternates.

Otherwise it seems to be everything it should be. It doesn't come with a charger - so unless you want to hang it on a pc or another charger of similar capacity ther new PS-P520E charger is needed - the older PS-520 variants don't have a suitable set of connectors for this and won't fit.

One stupidity from me was doing a quick functional test on delivery I could not get anything like the recording level I would expect. Doing a quick re-check I realised that the recorder is delivered with the PAD switch set ON, I had somehow missed this, but it is hardly catastrophic!

The big lcd screen is good, and I am pleased to say that the recorder is boringly easy to operate which is good news.

The carousel of buttons for menu etc on the DR-05 and DR-40 have been replaced by individual buttons that are clearly labelled and much easier to use in low light and with gloves.

The phantom power switches are a bit on the small side, but they aren't normally changed unless you are planning to use a mix of mics on location for some reason.

The directional internal mics are fixed in the A-B configuration - despite the housings pointing straight forward and I have yet to heart of any shortcomings with phantom power - the DR-40 wasn't happy with a few mics.

It takes all the Tascam accessories I own, remote - control (wired only) , power supplies etc.

About the only advantage the DR-40 has over the DR-100 is the ability to switch to X-Y stereo configuration with the internal mics. The omni mics will probably never be used by me, but you never know. Stereo configuration is rarely a consideration for birds anyway and if you are using external mics you can point them wherever you want!

In most other respects the DR-100 is much nicer to use than many other recorders (I like chunky and straightforward), which taken with quieter pre-amps should make for improved recordings.

Most of my recorders are also used for music so other features not mentioned will be important.

N.B. In a quick comparison with the slightly cheaper Olympus LS-100 I prefer the DR-100 in many ways. The main possible advantage of the LS-100 is that you can bring a number of pre-charged rechargeable batteries and swap them as required, the DR-100 battery is not field replaceable. However, the DR-100 is in its third iteration and it shows.

Anyway my trusty Sony PCM M10 (now discontinued) will continue to be my favourite pocket sized recorder, its main 'shortcoming' is the lack of xlr connectors, but that is what makes it pocketable.

Great to find this post. I recently purchased one

Last night i had my first test recording. I'm used to Sony PCM M10 and the differences on first hand are:

- Batterylife is a lot shorter, but that's no surprise. This night i'm hoping to run all night (6:00 pm - 6:00 am) on a fully charged internal battery plus 2 fully charged AA duracell rechargeables. Will put an AA battery in my external Rode NTG2 and switch the phantom power off.

- Sound quality is better (more 'full sounding' etc.) but i also hear a lot of unwanted noise (wind, cars etc.). I've got the feeling this noise is overruling the Redwings etc. more than when using my Sony... Is there any way i can get a better 'signal noise ratio'? Switching on the LCF?

Since the microphone is presumeably the same as the same as you used on the PCM-M10, which is very sensitive with good pre-amps for its time, both recorders will be getting much the same signal. I noticed a similar effect years ago when first comparing my PCM-M10 with a recorder with lower quality pre-amps, I was getting all sorts of stuff I didn't want merely because I could get a cleaner and stronger signal. It is an unfortunate fact of life that things you don't want get recorded better as well as what you do want. The reason why some folks get driven to using parabolics.

I tend to use Audacity a lot, it has a lot of useful tools, that need practice to maximise their benefit. You can filter your recordings down to a very narrow audio band, which should help to clean up your recordings.

You can use your headphones to get a good impression of whether the LCF filter is having any useful effect, it won't hurt anyway.

Quite a lot of folks prefer the ME66/K6 microphone.

The DR100 MkIII can also take the Tascam BP-6AA external battery pack or presumeably anything else that can provide a suitable USB type of power. Unfortunately unlike using both the built in battery and the removable AAs, it won't switch automatically between the external pack and the internals. By not drawing phantom power from the recorder, something you couldn't do with the Sony, battery life will be much improved as you state.

Thanks a lot. I'm going to purchase a battery pack. The battery life (internal + 2 AA's) was just enough to get it through the 12 hour recording session.

I used to set the recording level of my Sony to (almost) max. Is that also the best for the Tascam?

The problem I have always had was that there is a lot of variation than many people realise between people in the frequencies their ears will pick up. Mine have biased to the higher frequencies which is a nuisance as I pick up all sorts of irrtating noises that the average person doesn't hear (I was tested for it - so its not my imagination).

As a result I am a bit inclined to run any system that genertates high frequency noise at a lower setting than many other people. The MkIII DR100 can be run high as they upgraded the pre-amps from the Mk II, but you will also potentially hit the signal to noise limitations of the microphone, itself which you will be amplifying, however good the recorder itself is.

In cases where I need everything running flat out I simply filter out the noise subsequently in Audacity or something similar.

I would suggest that you see what works best for you as I am a bit hypercritical in this area.

And no - I am no use as a bat detector, which is just as well as for many years I had a large roost of pipistrelles living in my attic, just above my bedroom.

Good luck with your recordings

Thanks again iveljay. In contrary to you i've had 'bad ears' since i was young. Especially the higher frequenties need some work on Audacity to become audible for me.

Two nights back i did my first complete nocmig session with the new Tascam. I used the battery pack which kept the thing running from 6:00pm till 7:30am. It seems that the battery pack serves as a charger for the built in battery...

The results are great. The presence of louder background noises (compared to my Sony) is something i got used to pretty quickly. The quality of the recordings appear to be better too.

:t:

iveljay said:

The DR100 MkIII can also take the Tascam BP-6AA external battery pack or presumeably anything else that can provide a suitable USB type of power. Unfortunately unlike using both the built in battery and the removable AAs, it won't switch automatically between the external pack and the internals. By not drawing phantom power from the recorder, something you couldn't do with the Sony, battery life will be much improved as you state.

Click to expand...

I have not used the BP-6AA with my Tascam DR-100mkiii but I can tell you that if you use a USB power bank it DOES automatically switch over, first the the power bank will keep the internal lithium battery charged, when the power bank becomes depleted the mkiii simply runs on internal power. This can be set to use the internal lithium battery and then seamlessly switch to the two AA batteries.
Tascam also publish the battery recording times in the manual, these vary dependant upon Bitrate and use or phantom or plugin power, it’s also important to consider ambient temperature too. With a 20,000mah usb battery pack you will easily manager a 12+ hour recording at any configuration.

Astounded said:

I have not used the BP-6AA with my Tascam DR-100mkiii but I can tell you that if you use a USB power bank it DOES automatically switch over, first the the power bank will keep the internal lithium battery charged, when the power bank becomes depleted the mkiii simply runs on internal power. This can be set to use the internal lithium battery and then seamlessly switch to the two AA batteries.
Tascam also publish the battery recording times in the manual, these vary dependant upon Bitrate and use or phantom or plugin power, it’s also important to consider ambient temperature too. With a 20,000mah usb battery pack you will easily manager a 12+ hour recording at any configuration.

Click to expand...

When my BP-6AA runs out it also switches automatically to the internal battery. I'm using rechargeable batteries in the BP and together with the internal batteries it will last me about 2 nights of recording (have not noted the exact time yet) Since i record a lot the rechargeables run out a lot faster and i will have to buy a new set soon. I'm wondering if a power bank will be more economic in use...