New Tascam Model 12 announced, Now with Midi in and out! (which makes it an electronic instrument and ok for this subforum?)

This seems more geared towards electronic studios with the midi in and out for sync'd recording. Great feature set for the price. Compact studio recording device/mixer/interface for $599.




https://tascam.com/us/product/model_12/top

Awesome it has midi.

The thing that annoys me with the zooms is lack of midi despite a stupid proprietary iOS only Bluetooth app (so clearly remote/automation is possible).

Thanks for posting!!! This would be a great paring with the Behringer Roland clones.

PS: You should update your title to include MIDI.... it’s so rare on stand alone recorders I think most of us gave up on one being released with it!

It looks great but no bouncing without doing it phisically? So you can't really do serious work with just this? So you either get the portastudio and not have midi, or this but no real overdubbing, editing? I don't get why they can't just make something with it all?

While yes it has midi ports, I don’t see a manual or any verbiage that actually says how they are implemented. I wouldn’t be quick to assume that there’s any midi functionality standalone. My guess is it’s only there for when plugged into a computer as a usb interface.

Tascam website says:
"Standard MIDI in/out connectors allow connection with a wide range of keyboards, drum machines, controllers, and other sources that employ MIDI connectors. The Model 12 can also be used for synchronized operation of multi-track recorders and other external devices like drum machines."

I'm still not 100% convinced, but the words "synchronized operation" looks like it has midi in standalone too.
I hope so..
It also has metronome with various settings, so they could have made it sync/follow a clock

has midi the model 12 generates it's own click and timecode with song position pointers for midi too.
i WISH this was also on their model 16 and model 24.... maybe we will so a mkII of those this year but the addition of MIDI is VERY welcome!

I was also thinking to get one.
I am building a new set with just hardware so it would be great to record all in real time on sd card.
Anyone has experience with it?
Converters are good to record wav files?
Does it record pre or post faders, eq, comp, fx?

I glanced over the manual for the bigger Model mixer/recorders earlier.
As I recall the compressor is pre everything (gets recorded), and the eq's and fx are only for the main mix and busses (so not recorded on each channel).

But you can make your own stereo bus, and route your channel out through the bus with eq and fx and back to a stereo channel and record that instead.

That's what I plan to do.
Then it's easy to select which channel should have eq/effects etc. recorded.
Not perfect, but very acceptable workaround for a mixer this size.

And I'm also pretty sure it records pre-faders, as they are for what-you-hear.

It appears the TS unbalanced INs are Hi Z only... So Mic XLR, Balanced Line TRS and Unbalance Guitar TS Hi Z only, but no TS unbalanced line level and no RCA unbalanced line level INs for unbalanced Synths. You guys are probably OK with this as you may use DI Boxes on your unbalanced line level stuff but for a small desk studio with short runs it seems a missed opportunity...

Another thing this and many mixing desks miss is unbalanced outs... Really useful to have in addition to Balanced outs...

Too small for any inserts or sends, I expect. A couple of sends with dedicated stereo returns would be more useful for me. I've got some nice pedals, but I don't always want a different reverb and delay on every track.

Also, Tascam's "acceptance of spyware" popup takes up over 80% of my phone screen. That's not a very nice first impression for potential customers. I think I'll read the specs on a vendor site.

Arrrgh! Thanks. This is not the droid I'm looking for.

It handles unbalanced in via TS just fine. I have 8 of them coming in from TRS to dual TS Y cables out of my Analog Rytm.

I just received a Model 24 yesterday. Multitracked my first full beat from the individual outs on my Analog RYTM, octatrack, Prophet X and Minilogue XD. Recorded it all into session view in ableton, and then returned the daw mix into the last two channels.

Worked flawlessly, and the board sounds amazing. Huge thumbs up to Tascam! Plug and play on OSX, did not even glance at the manual. Pristine sound. Again, could not be more pleased. I would highly recommend any of these, the 24, 16 or new 12 to anyone. I paid $799 for a b stock from Sweetwater and there are no blemishes at all.

Just use unbalanced cables. If you mean the XLR out, it will use XLR to TS or TRS fine. If you need RCA use an adapter.

How does that relate to this

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...B&gclsrc=aw.ds

A quick search gave me this from Sweetwater about balanced/unbalanced:

"If you use an unbalanced cable that doesn’t carry the inverted signal, the initial signal is still carried across the cable, so it will work. It may just be noisier and the level may be lower than if you used a true balanced connection."

Can anyone confirm this?

I'm also under the impression that balanced plugs can run unbalanced without problems.

It works fine.

Maybe some get it wrong here because the Model 12 doesn't have literal "bal/unbal" printed like many other mixers etc. usually have.
It just says "bal"

Ok great.
So what would you say about converters?
The recorded audio was good as with audio card and daw?
I don't understand what's wrong with that guys talking about issues with line levels.
I am just reading the manual, it does say it works fine with line level.
Do they really think Tascam would make something like that?
It's 30 years I use Tascam mixers, I guess they don't have experience with it.

Man, what are you talking about?
An unbalanced cable is just a balanced cable without noise invert cancelling.
Did you ever worked in a studio?
And XLR outputs means balanced.

Balanced output plug doesn't mean you can't use unbalanced cables.
Please read up on it, so you don't spread any misinformation

I will let you be the judge.

The file attached is an unmixed track, other than a bit of delay automation and a fade out on a one synth track.

This is 16 channels multitracked. Clean other than one delay.

8 channels from analog rytm, 2 from octatrack, 2 from prophet x, 2 from minilogue xd.

Just wanted to test everything. New to the octatrack and Rytm too. First track.

Edit: 10 of 16 tracks also recorded using unbalanced cables

The All-In-One Mother Ship --- why do you think our studio has been with Roland since 96 .. We have 48 automated channels ( with midi sync) at mixdown .







&& *** 24 channel of INPUTS .. SPDIF/ Optical / XLR / Balanced ~~ through out ( add a digital I/O rack for 8 more channels of analog )

You can bounce (export) the main mix (whatever you choose) to a file, and you can import/assign a file to a track.
And yes you can really overdub.
You can even punch-in overdub using a footswitch.

Great, tonight I listen to it, thanks a lot.
It seems you like that recording mixer, that's a good news

I like it because it’s a very simple way to track 22 simultaneous inputs to ableton with zero set up, and it sounds good. The SD recording is an additional bonus.

How do you track out? Using Model 12 as audio card with Ableton?
My idea is to record all in real time to sd and then make the final mix on Studio one.
But actually I could also connect Tascam to computer with usb and record all straight in Studio one channel by channel, isn't it?