Tascam DM-4800
Seventy-one pounds of digital console that Tascam's own manual warns you to lift with a friend.
Overview
The owner's manual opens with a warning. It advises getting someone to help lift the DM-4800 out of the carton, and it walks the reader through bending at the knees. The console weighs 35kg (71lbs) and measures 933 x 824 x 230mm including the rest. This is not a desktop toy. It's a piece of furniture that happens to mix audio, and the documentation reads more like a moving-day safety briefing than a quick start.
The control surface is built around 25 motor-driven, touch-sensitive faders with a 100mm stroke. Next to them sit a backlit 320 x 240 LCD with contrast control and a pair of 12-segment LED meters. Tascam's manual concedes that the front panel "may seem a little intimidating at first," then argues - fairly, by console standards - that the controls are logically grouped by function. The touch-sensitive faders are what make moving-fader automation usable rather than a wrestling match.
The analog front end is where the DM-4800 earns its keep in a project studio. Twenty-four mic/line inputs sit on balanced 1/4" jacks with a trim range of -44dBu at maximum to +12dBu at minimum, into a 10kΩ input impedance. Phantom power is +48V and switches in blocks of four channels (1-4, 5-8, and so on through 21-24). That's a coarse arrangement, and one condenser among three dynamics forces the whole block hot. Every one of the 24 channels carries a 1/4" TRS insert with a -2dBu nominal send, +14dBu maximum output, and a return with 16dB of headroom.
Beyond the channel strips, there are eight assignable balanced returns at +4dBu nominal with 16dB headroom and 5kΩ impedance, and eight pseudo-balanced assignable sends at -2dBu nominal, +14dBu maximum. A pair of RCA 2 TR inputs handles -10dBV consumer-level gear with the same 16dB of headroom. Stereo output is on balanced XLR. Mix (November 2006, p.45) sized the desk up as a 64-channel digital console with 24 buses, 12 auxes and 24 studio-grade preamps, and noted that more inputs can be added via expansion cards. The channel count and the physical preamp count don't match.
The DM-4800 carries two digital audio inputs and outputs plus three built-in TDIF connectors. The digital setup screen reports word length (16-bit or 24-bit) and the selected input format automatically. Double-speed sources at 88.2kHz or 96kHz display as HISPEED rather than NORMAL. A built-in frequency converter accepts 44.1, 48, 88.2 or 96kHz input at ±6% and converts it to the project frequency, toggled from an on-screen FS CONVERT button.
Two internal effect engines are fitted: Tascam's own FX2.0 and a TC Works reverb. Machine control covers external hardware recorders and DAWs over MIDI, USB, or 9-pin serial — a trio of protocols that speaks to the transitional moment this console occupies, when a studio might reasonably have a tape machine, a DAW, and a hardware recorder all needing transport commands from the same surface.
Power draw is a modest 90W. The unit ships with a power cord, quick start guide, a CF memory card pre-formatted and installed in the card slot, a USB cable, a TM Companion CD-ROM for Windows and Mac, and a warranty card. The console expects a CF card, so Tascam shipped one ready to go.
The manual's warnings section distinguishes tips from notes from cautions from warnings. The DM-4800 lands in the last category for handling, not operation.
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