For quite some time I was searching for a solution for my small studio. My setup considers of a set of Synthesizers and microphones that I need to have them all connected somewhat permanently, so I was searching for something with a lot of inputs all in one. I did an extensive research and I was between various small consoles from different manufactures. I have to say that in our day and age there are endless solutions in various price ranges but the problem I faced was that most of the consoles in the same price range were lacking some key feature that broke the deal for me. For example, not all consoles had all inputs as combo or some of them they only had half combo and the rest only mic level. That was a key factor for me because I have a lot of line level instruments.
After quite some back and forth between various models that I considered, I finally got the Tascam Model 2400.
I like the tactile analogue – what you see, you get – feeling. No menu diving’s no button pressings and endless search of parameters. Everything is there for you on the spot!!
One of the key features that are unique in my opinion, and I am using quite often is, the possibility to record the individual line compressor and EQ. That’s quite useful for jamming sessions that I need to have a somewhat ready to go multitrack that I can mix without too much menu diving in my DAW or even from the onboard SD card, I also use the console as a return and I mix in the console and export the stereo out, also very easy and useful. I used it also as an analogue summing mixer and worked liie a charm.
The Preamps are EXTREMELY clean but maybe someone will think that they are a bit in the weak side but I find out that the sweet spot for them is around -18 to -12 DBFS and they take any post boost, EQ and Compression extremely well without any additional noise. In the past with other interphases I was always targeting around -12 to -6 to get the same SNR
The one knob compressor is working remarkably well, is quite “musical” and I find myself using it all the time to shape things around in conjunction to the somewhat limited but quite nice EQ
Overall a sturdy heavy construction and the knob and fader feeling is quite nice.
I can’t say I have anything negative to say with the exception that I wish they also had direct out for each input. For whoever needs something like that I suppose you can work it around with the 5 Auxiliary out or the 4 Stereo Sub groups and of course in some ways you can also utilize some the 12 inserts if you want to connect to an analogue tape machine for tracking and mixing.
Overall a wonderful product for whoever needs a console with a lot of inputs, integrated interphase, onboard recording and of course the analogue feeling. I truly love it !!
