Tascam DM-3200 32-Channel Mixer User Reviews at zZounds

"Why buy anything else for the 3-5 grand mark" submitted November 18, 2008

By a customer from hotmail.com

Overall

Sound

Features

Ease of Use

Quality

Value

Manufacturer Support

The Wow Factor

Musical Background: Musician

Music Style: Trunk Filling Bass, Club Shattering Bass

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Sound: I give it a 9 because there are 100 though boards out there, so this is getting an awsome score, greate sound, the eq's are wicked fun and the FX are top notch. Feature: You can route anythign to anything basicaly, its intimidating if this is your first digital mixer untill you get the hang of it wich comes by pretty quick. Ease of Use: Alittle trickey in the beginning, but that just made it so much more interesting, dont get freaked out by some other reviewers saying the board is hard to learn, once u learn one channel and its options, you know the whole board. Quality: For this price, why would you even get the yamaha dm1000, Its build is solid, looks F***in sexy, realy gave my studio a very proffesional feel and look. I loved the spaciousness of the board. faders with the moterization give them weight, wich feels oohh so nice the level with. Value: None on the market right now! If you want a stellar control surface and 16 ins, this would still be a good price for what your getting, the routing is so sick. Manufacturer Support: THIS IS WHERE I LOVE TASCAM! I bought the mixer and the Firewire card... after alittle wtf mate my mixer didnt read the card, and i couldnt connect with my computer... i emailed tascam and emidiatly they asked me how i set it up yadda yadda deliverd me a new card that same day, it didnt work either. I brought the board to where i bought it, figured out on the phone with a TEAC rep that the board was broken, I went to the TEAC building that was not to far from my home, got a fully functioning mixer while they fixed my mixer. I got the mixer back after a week workign perfect and never had to wait while they worked mixerless. Thanks Tascam! Plus when i was there I was shown some features not in the manual* The Wow Factor: yea man it looks sexy, people walk into my studio and even ask to drop by just to see the mixer, and are blown away by its elegance. its a beaut! Overall: If someone stole it from me id find out and yes get another one in a heartbeat. this will serve me untill 2 dm generations from now then ill get another one

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"Try before you buy." submitted February 14, 2009

By a customer from yahoo.com

Overall

Sound

Features

Ease of Use

Value

Manufacturer Support

The Wow Factor

Musical Background: semi pro

Music Style: ambient, Electronica, drone, dreamsynth....

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Sound: I give it a 7 because it is clean. too clean. It doesn't have that full, rich, deep sound that you get with a Mackie,or say an Allen and Heath (use those as comparisons as they are in same price range). Cannot compare to Yamaha mixers and I have not mixed on them. I know that IMHO, it doesn't have as nice a deep, rich low end as a good analog console with a bus compressor. It cannot touch an SSL or Neve unless you throw in an Xl rack or UAD/Duende Cards in your PC, which is exactly what I did. I am not a big fand of the sound of digital boards, and when guitars, drums and whatnot are run straight into them, they have no depth in the low end and digital EQ is just, well, weird sounding. Unnatural to the human ear. SSL and Neve consoles cost 140,000 for a reason, but hey, I've tracked LP's on a Mackie and it sounded a hundred times better in the low end. This board has great features, unfortunately, its sound, is not one of its highlights and if you mix on it, great, plug into it, great, run and entire mixdown on it with no external processors, and you are getting a thin product on the final mixdown. You will have to spend a little more (say two grand) for some really good DAW plugs or a UAD/Duende Card to process before it enters the DM then set all DM parameters on EQ to mid range. Then, you can get a good sounding mix. The DM sounds clean, but it is just too clean, too digital or 'brittle', in a way that I personally don't like, but others may like. It is a case of try before you buy. Listen to mixes done on the board if it will be your sole audio interface and mixdown device. Feature: This is where it excels. You can route just about anything, anywhere in this board and that is extreme flexibility. Where it lacks in sound, it makes up for with ins, outs, effects processors, really nice faders, DAW automation, ADAT (16 in/out possible with add on card) nice meter bridge and just a great, ergonomic surface. It takes awhile to digest it all, but the manual is well writtten, and easy to follow. It takes awhile to get used to all the different buttons, functions, sub menus, etc. I don't like the white background, tiny resolution LCD,. They could have done a better job there, but for the price, I think the board is OK. Ease of Use: If you come from analog boards, it is not that easy to get into and get a workflow going. I think personally, that the user interface is a bit crowded as some buttons have multiple functions and the shift and alt key must be pressed in sequence to get the desired screen, while other functions are more intuitive. Takes time, but easier once you read along with the manual a few times Quality: it looks more impressive than it sounds, just MHO Value: I am going to give it a high 8 because the board has so many inputs, that it really doubles as a sound card and DAW controller first. I really think it is a glorified FW-1884 with a stainless facadae, as I have owned both and really feel the sonic quality is comparible to its younger sibling, with inputs halved. Problem is with the DM, is if you want more inputs, it cost more money so the board with the options you need can easily set you back 3 grand. All that considered, I'd look seriously into the Allen and Heatch Zed16R if I had to do it all over again, but at the time of purchase, that unit was not available. I added plug ins to mimic warmth, so that is how I got around the stoic and sonically sterile nature of the DM 3200. Manufacturer Support: They called me back, and were nice, so I have to give them props for that The Wow Factor: I is a nice looking board, I will admit. Looks impressive Overall: I chose this board for the sheer number of inputs and its ability to act as a fader layer for my DAW. because I do not depend on its sound alone, I keep the board for the aforementioned reasons as it saves me the cost of a multi fader controller and audio interface. If I had to do it again, I'd have gone analog, but hindsight is always 20/20

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"Looks and Specs are deceiving. Move forward with intrepidation" submitted December 28, 2008

By a customer from yahoo.com

Overall

Sound

Features

Ease of Use

Quality

Value

Manufacturer Support

The Wow Factor

Musical Background: electronic musician/engineer/sound designer for many years

Music Style: Electronica, dreamsynth, ambient.

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Sound: It is clean, like a digital board with compression. It is almost, too clean, and the Mic Pres not punchy or warm enough, for me. It is a digital board and sounds digital, through and through. I think my Lexicon MX 200 reverb sounds a hunder times better than the built in reverb and my Pro VLA II compressor kicks the crap out of this things compressors. I also Feature: IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE IN THIS REVIEW, READ THIS. THERE ARE NO WINDOWS VISTA DRIVERS FOR THIS UNIT, YET IF YOU WANT TO USE IT TO SEND AUDIO TO YOUR DAW. I gave it higher marks here because the unit has alot of ins and outs (read the specs) and the faders mix my Cubase tracks fairly flawlessly either in firewire or midi mode. Problem is, to send the audio to the computer, you have to buy the added IF/FWmkii (about 500 bucks), which the driver (Tascam now only just getting the Mac OSX driver out Jul 08 and still NO Vista driver as of Christmas 2008 going into 2009) has been a voice for major complaint by all users at the Tascam user forum. What is the point of a board that can't talk to the latests Windows OS? Other than that, it has so many features and submenus, it'll keep you reading the manual for weeks. Ease of Use: This board is not easy because nothing is really intuitive except for the transport buttons. The tiny 'enter' button is hidden away, way at the top. mANY BUTTONS are two, sometimes four function. It has taken me months just to get around the intenrnal architecture, which in my mind, is archaic (I am big on analog consoles, analog sound-easy) but hey, I needed to get audio into the computer with alot of analog ins, so it fit the bill and the price. Problem is, it ended up costing me MORE MONEY on top of its own cost due to the firewire interface required, THEN NO VISTA DRIVERS FOR THE FIREWIRE CARD, then, I HAD TO BUY A MAC TO RUN EVERYTHING INTO THE BOARD (Mach 5, softsynths, hardware synths and Mics etc) which I send into a PC running cubase. Now, to mix down I had to use a freakin Faderport, because the tascam has NO VISTA DRIVERS. OK, lets see: 2500 for the board 1750 for an Imac 750 for a Profire 2626 to accept the audio and ADAT out from the Tascam. you get the picture. Quality: It is heavy, has nice pots and faders, faux pas wood (aluminum that looks like wood) panels and isn't too heavy or too light. Knobs are lighted (cool) and sturdy. It is a pretty cool looking unit. Makes you look like you know what you are doing, even if you don't, just by it sitting on your desk. I lifted it out of the box, no problem, and I am no powerlifter, but it was hell I bet, for the shipper and UPS, as the box took me a day to cut up to fit it into that damned recycle bin. Value: If I had to do it over again, I would have gone with the Allen and HeathZED R16 from or the Mackie Onyx series. Cheaper, better sounding, no Vista issues. You can mix with their faders, too, on a PC. Manufacturer Support: Tascam really aren't the best in this area. They are excuse makers like most of the product support specialists out there, save for now Defunkt EMU (they were great). Today, all tech support is about 'plausible deniability'. Won't lie, won't tell the truth, can neither confirm nor deny, you get the picture. Most of the guys on the forum have hounded tascam on the IF/FWMKII firewire interface drivers for awhile and all they get are excuses and eschews. The Wow Factor: There really isn't alot of competition in this price range because Tascam is good at throwing in all the bells and whistles. You don't get awesome sounding bells and whistles, just alot of them and alot of ins and outs. It has nice looks Overall: I plan to keep it, because I had to build around it. I am tired of spending hard cash on crap that might have a glitch here and there the manufacturers will never tell you about. Just do your homework before you buy, and you won't end up a victim, like the rest of us.

5 of 7 people (71.43%) found this review helpful. Did you?

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"OK for the price." submitted July 28, 2009

By a customer from comcast.net

Overall

Sound

Features

Ease of Use

Quality

Value

Manufacturer Support

The Wow Factor

Musical Background: pro audio/musician

Music Style: all styles

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Sound: Sound is fine. Just like all the mid range consoles. Don't expect an SSL or API, but it's no diff than Mackie, etc. Feature: lots of features. Maybe too many. Ease of Use: routing is not easy. Manual is a joke. Lots of "aha" moments. Quality: Fair quality. Side fake wood was losing it's fake wood look. LCD screen went out after 9 months. TASCAM service in a nightmare. Value: good value for what it is. Manufacturer Support: Horrible support from TASCAM. They claim to sell pro audio, but they have completely forgot how to treat working studios. Once I got a hold of a manager things got done, but it took a month to get back just for the LCD screen to be replaced. The Wow Factor: Should have held out for a used Yamaha. Overall: It works for one of my rooms for know. One day I'll will sell. Other than looks I wouldn't buy the meter bridge again. It wraps around and it's impossible to follow.

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"This is what you are looking for." submitted August 3, 2007

By a customer from gmail.com

Overall

Sound

Features

Ease of Use

Quality

Value

Manufacturer Support

The Wow Factor

Musical Background: Recording Engineer, Studio Owner

Music Style: Record all styles.

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Sound: Overall very good sounding Pre's, Converters, DSP and etc. Feature: Tons of features. You can do almost anything with this board. The only thing I miss is being able to route bus to bus. Ease of Use: A bit of a learning curve in comparison to the Yamaha O1V, but once you get where everything is, you can move quickly around the board. Quality: Built very well. I had a client ask me if the board cost more than the price of my house. And no, my house is not a cardboard box. Value: For the money, this board is the best value. It looks and feels way better than the O1V's, sounds amazing and just plain rocks. If you want to impress clients and your price range is between $2k-5k, go with this board. Manufacturer Support: Surprisingly pretty good for Tascam. I have been able to solve any problems by talking to somebody over the phone at Tascam. Still a few minor minor bugs when using it as a control surface for Sonar 6, but nothing that would really be annoying or even noticeable to most people. Lots of support in the third party tascamforums.com too. The Wow Factor: If I was looking for a mixer again in this price range knowing what I know now, I would buy it again in a heart beat. Overall: Amazing value! One of the best purchases I made for my studio.

16 of 19 people (84.21%) found this review helpful. Did you?

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Rating And Reviews: Tascam DM-3200 Mixer

"Why buy anything else for the 3-5 grand mark" submitted November 18, 2008

"Try before you buy." submitted February 14, 2009

"Looks and Specs are deceiving. Move forward with intrepidation" submitted December 28, 2008

"OK for the price." submitted July 28, 2009

"This is what you are looking for." submitted August 3, 2007

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