About 5 years ago I played guitar in a garage band in Northern California, and we were always trying out new ways to record our practices. It’s a difficult problem and we went through a lot of different solutions.

I think we started off with an old-school Tascam 4-Track Cassette Recorder with a lameass mic plugged into it. It sounded about as bad as you would expect. Then I invested in a Multitrack digital recorder. Although the sound was very good, the setup and babysitting was not worth the effort – it was taking all the fun out of practice.

Later, we tried a single mic going into an iPod-like device – that worked better. Eventually we used a really nice Rode NT4 Stereo Condenser Microphone into a PreSonus FIREPOD into a laptop – which turned out to be the best balance of simplicity and quality.

What I really wanted, however, was a Sony Digital Field Recorder, which was basically a recordable iPod-like device with a high-quality stereo mic fixed on top, but it was like $2000. Just put it in the sweet spot and press ‘record’. When you get it home, just drag and drop the files onto your computer. Perfect. No cables, no lugging, great quality.

Like any good gadget, the design of the Sony Digital Field recorder was copied and now you can get a very similar product from Tascam that only costs $150. Every band should own one.

These devices are not designed to help you make a CD – for that, you really need to mic each instrument and vocalist separately and mix the track together – a colossal task. However, if you want a decent ‘live’ recording of your band for any reason, this is by far the best way to do that.

I purchased this unit for my aunt, who takes voice lessons. She records on cassette now but needed something her instructor could copy to her computer, this is just the ticket.

With the DR07, the instructor can either plug the device in via its mini-USB jack, or take the included 2GB SD card out of the side and plug it into her laptop. Mac, PC, whatever, it’ll work.

The Tascam DR07 runs on two AA batteries (included), or uses an optional AC adapter.

On the right hand side of the unit are line in/out, input and output level adjustments. On the left, power and control hold switches,a compartment for the SD card and mini-USB port, and DC jack. The main controls are probably my only gripe with the device. Pressing play + record starts recording, that was intuitive enough, but it took me a while to figure out (without reading the manual) how to browse and delete files, which is fairly simple but not as intuitive as I would have liked.

The back of the unit has a tripod mount, which is kind of weird, because you don’t mount microphones on tripods, you mount them on mic stands, which have a different threading. A great accessory would have been a simple piece of plastic which screwed into the tripod with a fake mic shaft underneath, which would allow you to pop the unit into a mic stand. It would be even better if the adapter had a little vibration damping.

The top of the unit houses the stereo microphone and a 1/8″ mic-in jack.

Thoughtfully, Tascam also includes a windscreen for the mic and the USB-mini-USB cable.

In my brief tests I found the sound quality to be very good, but I am in no way a sonic expert. I was also impressed with the range of recording level input adjustment – definitely the hardest manual part of getting a good live recording is recording it as loud as possible without it ever going into the red – if in doubt, always record it lower and amp it up in post.

Of course, if you want you can plug your own mic into the Tascam for better results. I plugged in my Rode NT4 using its 9V phantom power and 1/8″ adapter into the mic jack, and the results were excellent as I expected. Sound was much less harsh, more transparent, deeper, and natural.

A great feature for a recorder like this would be a swivelable display for the input meter. If you are facing the mic from the top as it is designed, you cannot see the input meter, which is important.

Similarly, it would be nice if it had a big red light that an entire band could see when they go into the red. A lot of recordings get scrapped because the band got hotter than the mic check and no one knew it until playback.

The Tascam DR07 really is one of those devices which has finally replaced a lot of expensive, cumbersome, or sonically inferior alternatives that musicians have had to deal with over the long history of sound recording in a perfect little package.

One note: I didn’t get the optional AC Adapter, but after seeing the battery meter drop after not a lot of usage, I definitely recommend it!