Tascam Studio Bridge -- for standalone and hybrid recording and flexible workflow

[mhschmieder]

https://tascam.com/us/product/studio_bridge

Not sure if it's allowed to link the GS topic, which has the information more consolidated in one post than visiting the website for Tascam's product info directly.

It’s about time someone comes out with something like this, with good ergonomics for standalone recording rather than the menu-driven tiny-screen solution that some rack-mount multi-track audio interfaces offer (like the RME Fireface UFX that I sold during COVID), that also support standalone thumb drive or smart card recording. Glad I held out and didn’t buy other solutions in this problem space.

Although Tascam often disappoints with crippling specs, such as nothing above 44.1 kHz (a bad sample rate for recording but semi-acceptable for downstream final mastered audio), and often just 16-bit (completely unacceptable) and/or S/PDIF-only RCA cable connections (not reliable!), this one supports 24-bit 48 kHz recording and 24 channels of input, all directly controllable vs. menu-diving, and can connect to analog mixers such as mine (though a bridging cable from standard 1/4” to D-Sub will be necessary, and one has to be careful to get the correct polarity for the latter as it varies between vendors).

I’m pretty excited as I didn’t want to spend big bucks on the SoundDevices MixPre due to ergonomics and limitations. As I still have two high quality mic channels for critical overdubs such as vocals and the like, with my RME Babyface Pro FS, after selling my high-end rack gear during COVID, I figure the Tascam quality will likely be good enough for multi-track drums etc.

Overall, I am very impressed by the feature set they chose to implement, and the layout of the board. I think this is going to sell in huge volume. And it will make recording at home fun again, unlike the PITA of moving a computer based setup around for location recording (even within the same building ). Just upload to the computer for overdubs and production.

Note that Digital Performer compatibility is listed on the product page. Yay!

[James Steele]

Not sure if it's allowed to link the GS topic, which has the information more consolidated in one post than visiting the website for Tascam's product info directly.

I don't mind direct links to other forums. MOTUnation (and before that, UnicorNation) has never been a commercial enterprise so I don't care about traffic going away from me or not. There's no economic upside or downside to me... in fact, it remains simply downside ever since Sweetwater bailed on me!

[mhschmieder]

Here's the Gearspace announcement and discussion:

https://gearspace.com/board/new-product ... ridge.html

I think Gearnews is in the UK?:

https://www.gearnews.com/tascam-studio- ... ding-live/

On the main Tascam product announcement page, here's the product specs, which are better than for their hybrid mixers:

https://tascam.com/us/product/studio_bridge/spec

Strangely, Sweetwater has it listed for $1000 while the product announcement says $900.

[mhschmieder]

Someone who downloaded the user manual (I haven't had time) said it can only record ten tracks at a time.

[James Steele]

Someone who downloaded the user manual (I haven't had time) said it can only record ten tracks at a time.

You suppose that’s a limitation of the media it writes to? Doesn’t it use an SD card or some type? Perhaps the write speed is the reason for it? I’m totally guessing here. Haven’t looked at the manual.

[mhschmieder]

Ironically, someone else said the SD card is why it's limited to 48k and 24 channels, but that person was corrected by someone else who said the SD card specs should be sufficient for high sample rates and track counts, so I don't think it relates to the number of simultaneous punch-in tracks (which presumably affects initial recording track count, but I haven't seen the user manual myself and the GS forumites may not have been careful with their terminology or their reading).

This could be a deal-killer for me though, except that ten channels still matches what I would get if I bought the Studio Devices MixPre10, and I decided near the beginning of COVID to go a bit old school in drum miking going forward vs. the 14 to 20 channels I had been using for SF Bay Area heavy metal bands I was producing. I haven't been able to test my revised drum recording theories though, as all of my multi-track (vs. overdub) projects since COVID have been in hired pro studios.

[James Steele]

Ironically, someone else said the SD card is why it's limited to 48k and 24 channels, but that person was corrected by someone else who said the SD card specs should be sufficient for high sample rates and track counts, so I don't think it relates to the number of simultaneous punch-in tracks (which presumably affects initial recording track count, but I haven't seen the user manual myself and the GS forumites may not have been careful with their terminology or their reading).

Yeah... I don't know for sure. I was into DSLR cameras quite a bit for a while and there was a special hack OS for Canon cameras called Magic Lantern that enabled all sorts of additional features... one of which was recording RAW video on cameras that weren't designed for it. I do remember that cameras that only support SD cards instead of the faster CF cards couldn't do RAW because the write speeds of the SD cards could not keep up, whereas the CF cards could. But then again, then I don't know offhand the data rate of video versus multi channel audio at 48k.

[mhschmieder]

Of course, we also don't know if it writes to disc in real-time or has sufficient memory to write at intervals or when recording finishes. The latter is less likely due to the stated continuous record time, which I think is well over two hours at 24-bit/48k.

[mhschmieder]

It has finally been clarified (after much confusion!) on Gearspace that you can INITIALLY record 24 tracks but simply can't OVERDUB that many at once. I thought that might be the case, and now seem to recall that even some of the 1980's and 1990's consumer/prosumer multi-track home studio solutions had different overdub limits vs. initial tracking.

[James Steele]

It has finally been clarified (after much confusion!) on Gearspace that you can INITIALLY record 24 tracks but simply can't OVERDUB that many at once. I thought that might be the case, and now seem to recall that even some of the 1980's and 1990's consumer/prosumer multi-track home studio solutions had different overdub limits vs. initial tracking.

Well, if that is the case it doesn’t seem like much of a problem. I can’t imagine punching in normally on more than a few tracks at a time.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[mikehalloran]

The specs are contradictory in a few places. While it states 44.1 under the Recording section, it also lists the following

Recording time (hours: minutes) for 32GB card
…
24-bit/48kHz WAV, 24 tracks 2:33

The manual does state the following:

• 24-input/24-output USB 2.0 audio interface function (USB Type-B, UAC2.0 compliant)

• 24-track simultaneous recording and playback possible using SD cards

Since 1TB SDXC cards already exist, I'm surprised that the max capacity listed here is 512GB — that's only 40 minutes at 24-bit/48kHz WAV, 24 tracks.

Here's the 10 track limit:

Punching in/out on up to 10 tracks possible

I suppose we'll have to wait for some hands on reviews to see how real any of this stuff is.

At least Gibson doesn't own TASCAM anymore.

[mhschmieder]

Whew, glad that Gibson tossed TASCAM into the hands of someone who makes an effort to keep companies alive!

Thanks for catching the discrepancies. We will have to wait, for sure, for hands-on experiences, but I definitely agree that there's no need for concern about the limit on overdub track count. I think the people making criticisms were thinking in terms of in-place punch-ins of an entire drum kit for a flubbed snare roll or something. I don't work quite that way; I have a few tricks that avoid the need.

[mhschmieder]

Unfortunately, I don't think this device will do me much good after all, as I finally took a look at the output stage of my Allen & Heath ZED 16FX mixer, and it only has stereo and aux outs, not individual throughputs or per-channel outs.