the Tascam DR-10L Pro is the successor
to one of the most beloved audio recorders
that I and many filmmakers have ever used. And because of this
it has massive shoes to fill So the test can pull it off. Yes. And then some. Today, I'm going to be reviewing this audio recorder from the perspective
of a wedding filmmaker. So if you film weddings or documentaries
or literally anything else, YouTube videos, etc.,
and you've been looking for a compact audio recorder that you can set it
and forget where you throw it on whoever speaking hit record and know
that you're going to have great audio. You are going to love this review. But before we get started,
for the sake of ethics, I want you to know this video is not paid
or sponsored by test cam, but they did send me this recorder early
so I could make this review. anyways, as I said at the start, the D.R. Tan El Pro has massive shoes to fill. This is the original Tascam
DR-10L, a recorder that I've probably been responsible
for thousands of filmmakers buying at this point because I haven't
been able to shut up about it. It's compact, it's reliable, It's
everything that you could want in an audio recorder. Heck,
I've bought four of them over the years. I use them at every single wedding
that I filmed. So when Tess Cam reached out to me
and broke the news that they were working on a new model,
I found myself wondering what's going to make this new recorder
better than the original. Of course, there's obvious stuff
they could do, like add 32 bit float audio recording, which is becoming
a lot more popular these days. But the original recorder had so few shortcomings that I wasn't sure
what else they could really improve. Well, clearly I wasn't thinking big enough because in essence, Tarsem
approved everything to start, you probably cannot tell for me holding the new d r to no pro,
but put it next to the original diatonic L and you will see that it is smaller,
now I've never been one to complain about the size of the dark tunnel
but smaller is pretty much always better whenever you need to hide
a microphone, pack on somebody. That said, I think the
you are going to be very impressed whenever we talk about how much more task
camp has crammed into this smaller body, it's actually quicker for me to just tell you what they kept the same
from the original dark tunnel. Okay,
so you have the same screen on the front that tells you if the recorder is working. I have no complaints about the screen. It's a great screen and significantly better than something
like the zoom F2 or tentacle things track E which require you to rely on LED lights
Next you have the same power and record switch on the side,
which I absolutely love and which makes it virtually impossible
to accidentally stop recording. I've actually had groom's weddings
tell me that they stopped the recorder from recording
whenever they went to the bathroom, but whenever I checked the recorder. Nope. They didn't stop it. They couldn't figure out how to stop it,
which is awesome. Two similarities left on the top. You're going to find the exact same
locking microphone Jack, which works great and in the box you're going to find the exact same
microphone that the original task MDR tunnel used as well. I think this is a great microphone
that I've never found the need to upgrade. But if you absolutely want to,
there are plenty of options out there. Lastly, in regards to similarities
on the side, you are going to see that the recorder has the exact same micro
SD card slot and little floppy
plastic flap as the original TR tunnel. That said, though, while the slot looks
the same, we're going to jump right into talking about upgrades
with the first one being that this recorder is now capable
of taking micro SD cards up to 512 gigabytes in size, which is a massive
upgrade over the original dark tunnel which only supported
memory cards up to 32 gigs in size. So if you want to record
for literally weeks, you can now do that. Now, I'm sure you're thinking. Matt That's cool that I could record
for weeks at a time, but we both know that the battery wouldn't handle that,
because if I had to pick one shortcoming of the original task camp dark tunnel,
it would be the battery life. That recorder only had room
for one triple-A battery. And while that helped keep the weight
and size down, it also meant that it only had a maximum battery life
of approximately 10 hours. If you used lithium batteries,
which I do recommend that you use. Well, remember how I said the test cam
somehow made this recorder smaller but managed to cram even more inside it? Well, we're jumping
right into the jaw dropping stuff because the new D-R Tunnel Pro
now holds two triple AA batteries. And I'm so excited to tell you
that with this extra battery comes over double the battery life
and a realistically almost triple task cam claims
that this recorder will give you at least 24.5 hours of battery life
with lithium batteries. When I tested the DAR ten Pro with
two brand new triple-A lithium batteries, this recorder recorded for 28 hours
and 17 minutes before stopping, which blew even test Cam's estimation away
and is frankly insane. I set up the recorder, left it on for over
a day, came back and it was still going. I told you this recorder is great, but
we aren't even close to being done yet. Next, let me direct your attention
to the bottom of the recorder now where test cam has moved
all of the buttons. These batteries had to go somewhere. So now, instead of the buttons being
recessed on the front of the recorder, they're now along
the bottom toward the back. You may be concerned that these buttons
could be pressed while recording, but remember that whenever the Destino is recording,
it automatically locks all of the buttons, so you don't need to worry about them
being pressed accidentally. Otherwise, these controls the exact same
as you would get on the original TR channel. Moving
right along to the side of this recorder and next to the memory card slot,
you're going to see that there is a nice upgrade
in the form of a usb-c power input. Of course you can use this to power
the recorder indefinitely with the USB battery pack, which may actually help
you hit that multiple weeks long recording time that you get
with using higher capacity micro SD cards. but more interestingly, this Usb-C port
includes another trick as well. You can now use your D.R. Tunnel card slot
as a micro SD card reader. If you connect this recorder
to your computer via Usb-C. Unfortunately,
this connection is only USB 2.0, so it may take quite a while to transfer
large files, but if you don't have any other way to connect to your computer
to copy your memory cards, it's nice to have back to the screen
now on the dealer Channel Pro. Let's take a minute
and dive into the menus. Overall,
these menus are going to look incredibly similar to what you may have experienced
on the original D.R. Channel,
but there are a couple small improvements and one really big one
that we need to talk about. First, you have the controls like setting
the recording level of the recorder, enabling a limiter
as well as auto leveling, just like the original TR tunnel,
but there are other nice features that they've now included, like the option
to select the phase of the recorder. This is incredibly useful
if you're using two directional recorders with the microphones
placed near to each other. There are rare instances where your audio
recording can get messed up. So it's great that if you're planning on putting
two of these audio recorders on a person, you can set one of them
to have an inverted phase so that the audio quality
will not be messed up. Next, if you're digging through the menus,
you may be surprised to notice that there is a feature that is missing
from the original TR tunnel, and this may concern you. This feature was called a file increment
and I always recommended it being one of the first features that you turn on
when setting up your dark tunnel. The way this track and commit
feature worked is the task team was aware that sometimes disaster
could strike whenever you're recording and the recorder could be dropped
while it was running or the batteries could fall out, or you could have a groom that goes rogue and takes out the batteries
after the ceremony, etc. and the audio track
would not be able to finish recording it, which would delete your audio file
and potentially ruin your video, or at least the audio from your video. And you got to make a music video
that says music instead of audio. You don't want that. You want audio
to prevent that from happening. The track increment feature made it
so that every 15 minutes the dark tunnel would seamlessly save the audio
track and begin recording a new track. This way, if disaster struck
and the recording was stopped unexpectedly, you would only lose almost 15 minutes of audio
and not your entire recording. I loved that
and it gave me so much peace of mind. But this option is no longer
in the menus of the dark Tunnel Pro and you may be concerned like I was. Well, here's where things get really cool
though, and where tests get made. Another upgrade that I didn't think
they would or even know was possible. see the reason that there is no track
increment feature on the Destino Pro is because instead of this recorder
saving your audio track every 15 minutes, this recorder saves your audio
recording every 20 seconds for real. And no, that doesn't mean that every 20 seconds
you have another audio file created. The you have to deal with when editing. No the d r ten l pro is saving to the same
audio file every 20 seconds. This means that even if the batteries
are removed from the recorder while it is recording, you will lose
at most only 20 seconds of audio. This is so cool and such a great upgrade. And I tested it and it worked
and I was like, Wow, that is crazy stuff. now all this talk about recordings
and files leads us into the big enchilada that we need to talk about
with the Dark Tunnel Pro. And this is an upgrade
that I'm sure you saw coming. Yes. Just like many of test
Cam's other new recorders and recorders from their competitors,
like the Zoom f two, the d r ten l Pro now
supports 32 bit float audio recording. This turns
this recorder into an even more set it and forget it
recorder than the previous version because now you don't even need to worry
about setting your audio levels if your audio is recorded too quietly
you can bring up the levels and if it's too loud and peaking, you can bring them down
without degrading your audio quality. 32 bit float is really magical and I'm so
glad to see it included in this recorder. What's great too is that while
I would never really recommend turning off 32 bit float, unlike the zoom F2
which was only 32 bit float, the d r ten pro allows you to record in 24
or 16 bit audio as well, which is honestly the reason
why I think this recorder is still lets you set your audio gain in the menus by default if you're recording in 32
bit float, I don't think you really need to worry about your audio levels
and I would just set the game to high. Medium is one of the options
and then raise or lower your levels in post
and your audio should sound great. Also, if it isn't clear enough,
the test cam really did design this to be a 32 bit flat recorder. They did remove the dual recording option
that would enable the original D.R. to tunnel to record a safety track. There's up to 12 decibels
lower in the event that the audio peaked with 32 bit float. On the other hand, you don't need that feature
because you can just bring the audio levels up or down
and post as much as you want. So I'm not really surprised
that they removed this from the menu Of course,
I'm sure you want to hear how this audio recorder sounds
and the quality of the audio. Either you can hear from it. So here is a clip of me
speaking into the dark Tunnel Pro. All righty. I'm now wearing the task MDR tunnel
microphone, which you can see right here. And it is recording in beautiful 32 bit
float audio. Here's me
talking a little bit quieter now. Here's me talking louder. And as you can hear,
I have the audio gain setting to high mid it's called in the settings
and it sounds like it's working really well As you can hear, this recorder sounds
incredibly similar to the original dark tunnel, which is not surprising
considering it's using the same mic. Anyways,
we're not even close to being done yet because while I did call 32 bit float
the big enchilada for this recorder, If we keep on this delicious
Mexican food trend, we still have a big spicy burrito
to talk about in regards to this recorder. Check this out. Remember how I was freaking out early
about how tests came crammed so much more into this recorder? Even though it's a smaller size? Well, look up here
and you're going to discover a new bulge at the top of the recorder
next to the mic. Jack, I had no clue what this was when I
initially saw it, but it is really genius. This right here is a port for Test
Cam's 8-K, BTW one adapter. And that means that this recorder does
support Bluetooth. Yes. Unlike the original D.R. Tunnel, which had no wireless
capabilities, using the Bluetooth adapter with this one unlocks
a ton of amazing features. First, let me just say that I love the way
the test cam has made Bluetooth
an optional add on with this recorder. Compare that to Zoom with their F two,
for example, which requires you to either purchase
a Bluetooth version or a non Bluetooth version
and then you're locked into that forever. I know that for me I have one of each
and I never grabbed the non Bluetooth version. I'm like,
Why do I have you? You're not needed. Just give me the Bluetooth every time. So I really like the way the test came. It's doing this because you can purchase
just the DiMartino Pro standalone and then whenever you want to upgrade it
to use Bluetooth, you can buy the adapter. Anyways, let's talk features
starting off with Bluetooth control. This adapter enables you to use test Cam's new D-R now pro connect
app to wirelessly connect to the recorder and do things like start and stop
recording and change your file names. even better, The app allows you to connect to
and control up to 5dr ten l Pro recorders, which should be great for everyone
that isn't named Justin Porter, who I know at least at the time of making this video,
uses 17 laugh mikes at weddings. Yeah he's he's awesome. K And so for him
he's going to need to look for a different recorder
but for the rest of us, I think that being able to control
five recorders is great, incidentally, because I know that I'm
going to get comments asking about this. Unfortunately,
you cannot wirelessly monitor and listen to the audio
that is being recorded over Bluetooth, but the app will show you a waveform
of the audio that is being recorded. So that way you can at least visually tell
that the recorder is working. don't get me wrong, I wish that you could
wirelessly monitor your audio. But considering all of the time
in the past that I recommended the original D r channel
and all you could do with that recorder was hit, record
and pray that your audio recording was good
until you got home to your computer. Being able to at least visually confirm
that the D R Channel Pro is recording and working from across
the room is definitely still an upgrade. Speaking of upgrades, we are not done
talking about the Bluetooth adapter for this recorder because in addition
to allowing you to wirelessly control the D R channel with its app,
this Bluetooth adapter also includes support for wireless TimeCode Sync,
which is great to finally see. One of the biggest shortcomings of the original dark
tunnel was the lack of timecode something that their competition like
the technical think trekkie excelled at. So it's great to see TimeCode now possible
with the r ten l pro Now that said, I do want you to be aware that
because this timecode is over Bluetooth it is only compatible with Atomos ultra
sync flavor of timecode, meaning that you'll need to use something
like the ultra sync Blue or ultra sync one series of products
to make timecode work with your devices. If you want me
to dive deeper into timecode, leave me a comment down below
and I'll consider working on a video about how to use
timecode with this recorder. moving on. Let's talk about the price of this
recorder way back in 2016 when test cam launched their original TR tunnel,
it was sold for 200 bucks. Now, here we are many years later with its
successor, and I am so happy to tell you that even with all these upgrades, test
cams only raise the price by $20. Yeah, it's 220 bucks. Of course, factor in that this does not
include Bluetooth out of the box. But the good news is the time
making this video test. Cam's Bluetooth adapter
only cost about 40 bucks. So you're looking at roughly 260
for a total powerhouse of a recorder. And whenever you consider that
it is smaller than the original DA tunnel, it has dramatically longer battery life, supports larger memory
cards, has 32 bit float audio plus bluetooth control and timecode,
this recorder is a total no brainer. And just like the original d r channel,
I can easily see myself buying four of them
and recommending that you do the same. Arlington below to the d r tunnel Pro if you want to buy it as well
as to my review of the original D.R. Tano Pro, if you want to save a bit of money and buy
that one instead, especially if you can find one used because everybody's
upgrading to the new hotness. I'll also link down
below to my color presets, if you like the colors in this video
and you want them to, regardless of what camera you film
with, you're going to love these presets. They're linked down below. I would also love to help you out
even more, so I'm going to link to my edit videos
like a pro guide. If you're wanting to level up
your video editing, this guy is going to help you out a ton
and it's completely free at the link. Thanks so much for watching. Please like this video
if you enjoyed it, subscribe. If you want to see more videos
about filmmaking in the future, more about the Dothan Channel Pro
too, and have a great day.
