Twenty-five years after the introduction of the first Portastudio®, the new DP-01FX 8-track Digital Portastudios make hard disk recording affordable and simple enough for all musicians. Continuing TASCAM's "Capture Your Art" campaign of making recording approachable to all musicians, the DP-01 FX features the one-knob-per-function design that has made TASCAM cassette Portastudios the choice of thousands of musicians. Both workstations shatter the confusing page-shift-menu interface popular with most other digital recorders. And at a price that starts under

Extended information

"Cassette Portastudios continue to be among our most popular products," says Jim Mack, Division Manager of TASCAM. "While much of the reason is their low price, musicians also appreciate how easy they are to use. We approached the DP-01 by trying to make it as uncomplicated to use as our other Portastudios, and I think we've succeeded. When you combine that simple interface with its low cost, I believe that the DP-01 is a breakthrough product for musicians who are ready to break into recording."

The DP-01 has two mic inputs on 1/4" TRS jacks for dual mono or stereo recording. Its eight tracks record at uncompressed CD quality to an internal 40GB hard drive, and a stereo master track is available for recording a mix. Each channel of the DP-01 has a 45mm volume fader, plus dedicated controls for pan, effects send, high EQ and low EQ. An LCD display shows meters, editing settings and locate points. The DP-01 has a USB 2.0 jack for file backup and transferring mixes to a computer. There are analog RCA line outputs, a headphone out and S/PDIF line output.

The DP-01FX adds XLR microphone inputs with phantom power for connecting professional condenser microphones. It has a multieffects processor for adding effects to an instrument during recording and a reverb processor for adding effects during a mix.

Technical specifications

8-track recording at CD quality 44.1kHz/16-bit
2-track simultaneous recording
Dedicated stereo mixdown track
Dedicated controls on each channel for volume, pan, effect send, EQ high and EQ low
Eight 45mm Faders plus a dedicated Master fader
Two-band semi-parametric EQ per track
Two 1/4" TRS mic/line inputs
Two phantom powered XLR microphone inputs
Guitar level input
Built-in reverb processor
Built-in multieffects processor
Effects send and stereo return
RCA line outputs
S/PDIF Digital Optical output
Headphone output with level control
MIDI Timecode and MIDI Clock Output
USB 2.0 port for computer backup
Track editing: copy, paste, move, erase, silence
Built-in 40GB hard drive