I just bought the Tascam DR-60D for $179 during B&H's NAB sale and it did come with a coupon for PluralEyes 3. I haven't had a chance to play with it yet (just came 2 days ago) but I'd be happy to perform any tests or answer questions. It was a deal that was too good to pass up.

~jr

Great JR, would like to know what you think of it once you've had a chance to try it.

Paul

Tip: buy lots of batteries

I got the B and H deal a month or so ago, and I love the DR60 and Plural Eyes (although I had to read the manual for both).

The DR60 has a ton of features, but it does go through a lot of batteries, especially if it is supplying phantom power. There is a power supply you can buy for it, turns out it is a mini USB charger.

> "Tip: buy lots of batteries"

I had just picked up one of these last month: eneloop Super Power Pack, 1800 cycle

My Marantz PMD660 was said to have a 4 hr battery life but I never used it more than 2 - 3 hrs at a time and I never needed phantom power because I mostly used it to get audio from the mixing desk. I do plan to use the Tascam DR-60D with a condenser mic that requires phantom power but that's not a fair comparison. I also have condenser mics that supply their own phantom power via in-line battery. That would be a more fair comparison.

The spec sheet says that the DR-60D gets 5 hrs on eneloop batteries without phantom so that's better than my Marantz PMD660 so we'll see.

~jr

Just watched a few youtube videos now and they all seem to mention battery life as a potential issue (2-4 hours max). However, using the right batteries seems key. I use Eneloop AA cells for everything from camera flashes to radio packs, quite simply amazing battery life from these compared to others like Duracell. And i believe in one of the videos, a user mentions using Eneloop Extreme's which go even further. Think he said even with phantom on he was getting almost a full day of use.
Seems a bit strange these days to be thinking of battery life in a unit like a sound recorder. Its fully digital with no moving parts, you expect battery life to be long. Well, the Dc-Dc converters take their own power for phantom generation and i guess the high quality pre-amps in class A (biased on) are wasteful energy wise, but thats the price you pay for quality!. And its why its sounds amazing with very low noise figures compared to any Zoom (which are noisy imo).

Paul.

Ha, posted about Eneloops at the same time jr.

Drat.. can't find this deal with PluralEyes in the UK... Looking like £200 ish without it.
Anyone?

Paul.

When switching to rechargeables, the user should be aware that AA rechargeable batteries are actually only 1.2 volts and the meters are usually not be very actuate (despite the NiMH software setting), so it should be known how much run-time can safely be expected. Additionally, it takes a certain coordinated workflow to organize the battery sets and a recharging regiment. If this is not for you, alkaline or other predicable battery types would be a better choice.

If anyone is interested, here's a discussion about the recorder on JW Sound, a pro audio recording group.
Introducing the TASCAM DR-60D

Here's a review of the unit by Ty Ford, a production sound mixer. Battery life is one of the issues discussed in this review. I have and use the Sanyo Eneloops in my Sennheiser G3 wireless and am very happy with their life expectancy. I understand that the Tascam recorder puts a much heavier draw on them but I will never go back to using alkalines. The cost savings and environmental impact make them, in my opinion, a much better deal.
TASCAM DR-60D Four-Track Digital Recorder for DSLR and other uses

Mike

Just heard back from Tascam via Twitter, yeah this deal is only from B&H in the US. So UK is out. (due to taxes and shipping).

Paul.

This thread has me very upset. You're making me go out and buy something I don't need (we won't even talk about afford).

Question.. I have a Sony HXR NX70 that has XLR inputs. I do a lot of recitals/music recording. Would this give me better quality sound ?

(I have been using a Zoom H1 for external audio)

I have been using a DR-60D for external audio recording for some time now. This is it mounted on my camera rig:

http://www.hollywoodfoundry.com/images/whole%20rig.jpg

In that shot, it is not cabled at that time, however I power it from the large 95 Watt/Hour battery on the back of the rig. I found some very cheap USB power cables from China, unbelievably they only cost $2.60 each with free shipping. I already had a cable that plugged into the D-Tap on the battery V-Mount, so I connected them together and the Tascam is now powered from the V-Mount battery via its USB port.

I can run it all day on that battery, and phantom power is always on.

Geoff

I received the Plural Eyes 3 deal some time ago with the purchase of a Tascam DR40. That cost was more than the D60 whch seems like a very good price for so much.

Is the Tascam DR60D something that would be better suited for recording music events than the internal recorder on my Sony HXR NX70 with xlr mics connected ?

"Is the Tascam DR60D something that would be better suited for recording music events than the internal recorder on my Sony HXR NX70 with xlr mics connected?"
- If you desire more than two tracks. The Tascam likely has better preamps and converters than the camera, however you get what you pay for, so don't expect top-shelf quality. Another option is external preamps/mixer plugged into the cam. This wouldn't require the resynchronizing process in post.

fosko, the Zoom H6 might be a better choice, as it comes with both x-y and mid-side mic capsules and has 4 xlr inputs, each with its own vol and phantom.

it has great battery life as well. using eneloops, i recorded an hour and a half of material with two phantoms on, and still had two out of three bars left.

you can also have a -12db backup track, in case you get unexpected spikes on your main track.

Yeah.. I did look at the Zoom also. It's twice the price (although no mics needed) and I was really intriqued by PluralEyes

OK Even though this isn't the place to ask I'm going to ask it anyway.

One of the assigments I have is an African Dance and Drum troop. Do you think PluralEyes3 is sensative enough to pick up the waves of the drum beats? They have anywhere from 4-12 African drums going at a time.

@fosko, you should try... in redgiant's web site you can download a free 30 days trial to see it for yourself.

If you're not satisfied with the default option, there is another one in pluraleyes for tough cases: "Try really hard"