Hey guys, my name is Matt Johnson.
And today I'm going to be reviewing this little guy,
the Tascam DR-10L audio recorder.
And I'm gonna be telling you why I think this is one
of the best recorders you can buy if you film weddings.
So, yes this will be a positive review of this recorder.
But, to be clear I'm not being paid or sponsored
by Tascam to make this video.
I just really love this recorder, I own four of them
and I've been meaning to make this review for over
a year and I just hadn't gotten around to it.
But now I finally have time so, on to the review.
The first think you'll notice
about this audio recorder is it's size.
This thing is tiny.
I wish I had a Zoom H1 or F1 to compare it to but,
all I have is a Zoom H4 and so, in comparison
this thing is significantly smaller
and it is going to be very easy to hide this on
someone discreetly if you need to not be obvious
that you have a microphone on them.
Next up is power.
"Dang Matt, this thing is tiny how is it powered?"
Well, by one AAA battery.
And Tascam is gonna tell you that the battery life
is nine to ten hours but, in my real world experience,
it's actually closer to four to five hours.
That is still plenty of time though.
If you're steady filming a wedding ceremony or conference
that is longer than four hours and you do not have time
to get up to the speaker to change the battery
well, then you probably shouldn't be using this recorder.
But, with my experience the battery life is still very good
especially considering the size of the DR-10L.
Now comes the fun part, we now need to talk
about the features of the DR-10L and why I believe
it is one of the best audio recorders on the market
today for wedding filmmakers.
I'm serious it's almost as if Tascam built this audio
recorder with wedding filmmakers in mind
and once I tell you these features if you were on the fence
saying "I don't think I need to buy one" you will want
to buy one of these after I tell you what it can do.
Up first we have the power and record slider.
And I think this is probably the only time that I've
gotten excited about a power switch.
But, in this case I love the design of it.
Because, it is a very recessed slider,
that you have to hold down for one second
to turn on the recorder,
and then you have to hold it up for one second
to start the recorder recording.
The reason this design is so ingenious is that it makes
it basically impossible for someone to stop the recording
and turn off the recorder.
Because, if you try to power off the recorder while
it is recording it will not do that.
And as an added amazing benefit, whenever you are
recording all of the buttons on this recorder are set
to a hold position.
So, you can press them as much as you want and it's
gonna tell you key locked.
And so, you're not even able to change any of the settings
while the recorder is recording.
No more dealing with the groom or bride or officiant
accidentally brushing up against some of the buttons
in their pocket and messing up your audio recording.
With this its basically impossible for that to happen.
Speaking of doing impossible things occurring,
one of the major issues that I've run into with a lot
of audio recorders that use a headphone jack style
input for a lav mic, is that if you plug in your
lav mic and if the groom or whoever you have mic'd
pulls on the lav mic,
suddenly you don't have any audio because your lav mic
is unplugged.
Thankfully Tascam have included
a screw in lav mic attachment with this recorder.
So, if you screw it in, it is nearly impossible
for your lav mic to become disconnected
from your recorder.
We are not done with features yet.
Lets go into the menu of the DR-10L.
And this recorder is a stand alone recorder
so, you are not going to be able to monitor
your audio levels.
Because normally I have this on a groom or wedding officiant
or bride, and they're across the room on a wedding ceremony
and yes, the DR-10L does have a headphone jack.
But, I'm not going to plug in headphones and try to monitor
it across the room with a long cord.
That would be kind of ridiculous.
So, to compensate for you not being able to monitor
and change your audio levels wirelessly, the DR-10L has
an auto level feature.
So, you audio level always sounds appropriately loud.
But, what happens if someone is speaking really quietly,
and then they start yelling loudly?
Well, that can sometimes introduce peaky into your audio.
Thankfully the DR-10L also has a limiter included.
Where that is going to prevent it for the most part,
from peaking your audio.
"But, Matt what if my audio does peak?"
"What if someone is yelling really loud and your recorder
is not able to compensate?"
Well, in that case one of my absolute favorite features
of the DR-10L is that it has the ability to record
a backup audio track.
So, while it is recording one audio track that is probably
leveled at - 6 to - 3 decibels,
it is also recording a secondary backup track
and this backup track can be recorded at either
- 6 decibels or - 12 decibels lower
than your main audio track.
So, in the event where I have had peaking occur,
I can then go into my secondary backup audio track
pull out the snippet of clip that is not peaking and replace
my peaking audio clip with that and it sounds fantastic.
I love this feature!
I want it in every single audio recorder, ever!
Those are the main features of the Tascam DR-10L
and why I think it's such an awesome recorder.
But I hear some of you saying "Matt that's great but
how does it actually sound?"
"what is the actual sound quality like?"
"Is the lav mic that comes with it good quality?"
And to that what I would tell you is, well,
if you're listening to me in this video I'm actually
wearing one, right now.
So, if this audio sounds good
this might be a good indicator of how the sound
is gonna sound to you.
Incidentally, if you go back on my YouTube channel
and watch basically any of my wedding films that I shot
over the past year or so, if you watch and listen
to the ceremony audio, most of that audio was recorded
using the DR-10L, if you want some more real world
examples of how it sounds.
I also have another video on my YouTube channel
all about how I edit my audio to make it sound
as awesome as possible in Adobe Premiere.
And I even have a down link to a preset that I created
that will make your DR-10L audio sound as good as possible.
I'll like that video up in the corner
and down in the description.
As far as the quality of the stock lav. mics go,
I think these are actually very good quality.
I've just been using them for the past year
and they've been working great.
If you want to upgrade the quality of your lav mic
your probably going to end up spending more than
the cost of this recorder itself.
Speaking of cost, what does this recorder cost?
Well, currently the DR-10L with the included
Lav mic costs $200.
Don't forget that you're also gonna need to purchase
a Micro SD card because this recorder does not have
any internal built in storage.
That said though Tascam does sell some specific
bundles on Amazon that I found that include a micro SD
card and a pair of headphones still for $200.
So, if you want to save a little but of money I will
include a link down in the description to the bundles
that have the extra stuff with them.
With that $200 cost in mind, how many
DR-10L's should you buy?
Well, for me as I said I own four of them.
I have one that I use to mic the groom during the ceremony,
one to mic the officiant during the ceremony,
a white one to mic the bride during the ceremony,
and a fourth one that I keep just as a backup in
the event that I have a wedding ceremony that has two
officiants which has happened before.
If you're just starting out in wedding filmmaking,
you do not have a big budget to spend,
I would purchase one DR-10L recorder and I would put it
on the groom during the ceremony.
Because that way, hopefully the officiant and the bride
will be standing close enough to the groom
then you're gonna be able to record the audio
of the officiants message and the groom and brides vows.
If you have a bigger budget say around, $400,
I would recommend buying two DR-10L's and I would
put one on the officiant so you have clean
audio of their message
and I would put one on the groom
so that way as long as they're standing reasonably
close to the bride you're gonna have pretty clean vow audio.
But if you're like me and you want the best possible
audio quality, I would buy three of these recorders.
Two in black, one in white.
That way you can mic the groom, the officiant and the bride
and have pristine audio quality of your entire
wedding ceremony.
And that is my review of the Tascam DR-10L.
Arguably, one of the best audio recorders
that I have ever used,
incidentally I have another video
that I'm gonna be coming out with very soon,
the details all of the exact settings that I use
with the DR-10L.
So, if you want to know exactly how I have mine
set up feel free to hit subscribe and hit the little bell
icon, so you'll be notified as soon as that video
is uploaded.
I also hear some of you yelling at me saying
"Matt, you've said that you mic'd the bride, how
the heck do you do that?"
"Brides dresses are confusing!"
"I do not know how to do that."
"How would you put a microphone on her?"
well, I have another video coming out in the future
that details exactly how we mic a bride on the wedding day.
So, you can keep an eye out for that as well.
Thanks so much for watching.
I have a link down in the description of this video,
to my audio gear kit page, which details
a full list of all of the exact audio gear that I use
whenever I'm recording audio on a wedding day.
So you can check that out if you want to.
As always if you have any questions or comments
please feel free to leave one bellow or get in touch
with me through my website
WHOISMATT.COM, it is also a massive help to me
like significantly more massive than the DR-10L
size helped me if you consider liking this video
and subscribing if you want to see more videos
like this in the future.
I also have a ton of links down in the description
of this video:
to one on one consulting,
to my Instagram,
to my Facebook pages,
to my wedding film production company,
all of that is linked down in the description.
Thank you so much for watching and have a great day.