Before You Buy, Tascam Model 12 Honest Review

We pour our hearts and souls into this project. We won't be stopping anytime soon. That said, any donations made along the way go straight to furthering our creations.

Thank you again for your continued support! Much love, Josh & Aerin

[kickinballistics]

v1.30 sorted out the headphone pre and post fader issue, and also the direct DAW connect to Studio One, Reaper etc. Tascam ARE listening to us 👏

[blackprophesy]

It looks like the headphone issue is now fixed in firmware 1.30. You can select headphone out pre or post (default) main fader.

[bun]

I got the model 12 last July and love it. Was using a Tascam 424 mk iii (cassette 4 tracker) before and the things I miss from my 424 are the pitch control and not having the ability to rewind and punch in when I make a mistake. Going to be experimenting with sending tracks out of the model 12 back into the 424 to give it that special tone (tape compression) and comparing the mixes. I love the clean sound of the model 12 but also miss the way tape analog gave it a little something special.

[garyclement]

Honesty is the best policy, and helps me make a better decision about a purchase. I appreciate you.

[hoodiedee]

Nice tutorial and thank you very much for your time in pointing out problems and fixes for this Unit. Have a blessed day and don't forget to Enjoy Life

[LoucasAndreou]

Hi great video!! Just bought it and i am trying to find a way to customize some buttons on the console for daw controller mode on studio one. Also, I can't move to the next channels to control them with the faders.. i can control only the first 8 channels. Did you find any way to make this work? Thanks for your time and your video ❤️

[solojim]

Appreciate your con points - we need more of this type reporting. Thanks. Am wondering if there is input routing? A must feature when using one mic to lay down harmonies in different tracks. Plugging and unplugging not good.

[positionnormal]

My gain knobs are just too loose and even rattle as if there's loose bits in there. Looks great though but still has to go back.

[dannycarmelo]

Definitely appreciate the honesty on your negative points, but just curious to hear more about the positive features that gave it such a strong score of 8/10. Thanks for the video, I'm going to keep all of this in mind before purchase.

[thetruthexperiment]

you can just buy a booster for your ribbon mic. It runs off of phantom and doesnt send power to the mic itself.

[AxeRocker]

You missed the most obvious fix on the headphone issue. I run the sub out to my monitors and only use the main fader for headphones. Works perfectly! Not ideal, I agree but no extra pieces needed.

[obshaky]

the headphone vs speaker monitors bums me out. I have a Yamaha mg82cx and the headphone volume is dependent on the monitor speaker output. If you were to use the headphones you need to put the monitor speaker volume to 2-3 and then the headphone volume would work. Of course you need to lower the monitor speaker volume on the speaker itself. The problem is that if you turn on the monitor speaker volume and you have the headphones plugged as well it would blow the headphones speaker if you left it at high enough. You would need to remember to turn whatever you wont be using down.

[artyomdonka]

Hi, thank you for the review. I know I'm late - you already sold the unit. I'm still figuring out that monitoring issue (don't have unit yet), but for those who just came, here is what I've cut from the manual and might be helpful:

"Connecting headphones:
Connect headphones to the PHONES jack (standard stereo).
The following signals can be monitored according to the SOLO
and AFL switch settings.
* Signals output from the MAIN OUTPUT connectors
* Signals output from the SOLO L/R bus
* Signals output from the AUX 1 bus
* Signals output from the AUX 2/FX bus"

And about monitoring, looks like the SUB output is intended for this:
"Monitoring is important when recording and mastering.
With this unit, monitoring is possible using an external
monitoring system (powered monitor speakers or an amp and
speakers) or using stereo headphones.
Use the SUB fader and PHONES knob to adjust the level of the
monitoring system."

[RecordingStudio]

Another question if I may, any chance you can demo the way the DAW controller works? How does the system manage non-motorized faders? Do you lose your fader levels in your DAW if they don't match or it locks when the level matches the one in your DAW? TIA

[rogerp]

Compared to the 16 and 24 this model has a feature that High End Audio Equipment has, and no reviewer has spoken about it (yet - that I have seen?). I might have to do my own review after I buy one. And reviwers say Sweepable Mids, but I prefer cause it sounds better 'Quasi Parametric'.

[clarity_muse]

I'd like to use this board for live shows. Specifically for running open mics. I'd like to bring music in and out from my laptop between performers. But I want to be able to use my headphones to cue a song without that song coming through the main speakers. Is there a way to do this without having to buy an extra amp to go through sub? Can I send my laptop audio to aux and monitor that way?

[latexgeneration]

I still can't use headphones properly because I use tracks 7/8, which even on the latest firmware won't respond to any channel settings when in live mode. The sub output method seems to be the closest solution.

[lumberpilot]

I have Mixcraft and have yet to get the Model 12 to interface correctly with it. Otherworldly sounds or one channel out and so forth. In effect, this unit is pushing me toward DAWlessness.

[ruffiankick]

They updated the headphones pre fader & post fader feature. Works like it should now lol

[nickylarsen]

didn't know a switch could be either digital or analog, i thought they were all mechanical...
but nothing to say about latency, jitter, thd+n, bandwidth or routing possibilities ?
maybe the haptic feeling of the input switch is more important...