Partition size on DP-008ex for application

[dad roadie]

Hi to all,
Starting to understand the unit a little better but have a question on setting up the recorder for an application.
I don't plan on using it for multi track use. I'm finding that its not that user friendly of a unit. My goal is to record my students lessons and concerts some which tend to run for a long time frame. I heard that this unit has fairly good built in microphones and my hope is to use the two built in mics and record a live 2 channel mix to the recorder and then export them through the line outs into my computer using Sony Soundforge without using the mastering part of the DP-008EX . It's just a a little to involved with start/stops points and sub menus. I purchased a 16gb card and was curious about what to set up the partitions to be able to record a long program (sometimes as such as 4 hours) Since these files are in a WAV format I believe they take more space than an MPS3 .Should I set the card to 8GB or will the 4 GB partition (default) give me enough to record this long? I'm wondering why you would want several smaller partitions over one large one.
Thanks in advance !
dad roadie

 

[Steven Faulkner]

I thought I read that on the DP-08 there is no option for multiple MTR partitions however I am not seeing that in my book now but multiple partitions allows less memory to look through to find something but also has some drawbacks. For what you are doing I would suggest 1 large MTR partition, 16GB = 4GB FAT & 12GB MTR. I would suggest you step up to a 32GB card which would more than double your recording space. Also I would suggest that you break your recording into sections by useing the name song function. If you are going to make a stereo track and fill up the MTR partition with 1 long session there might be a memory full issue. I would suggest that before you do this that you test it out by recording something for that amount of time then try to transfer it to your computer, burn cd or whatever your end game will be to check for any unforseen problems. Hope this helps and good luck in your recording.

 

[Hunter Gatherer]

On the DP008EX you can set the partition size based on the size SD card you have. When you format the card, there will be a FAT partition for WAV, of up to 4GB to hold fully mixed down and mastered files.

Section 11 of your manual has the details of available partition sizes, based on SD card capacities. The maximum partition size is 16GB, even on a 32GB card. There is a downloadable file at TASCAM's web site. So if you max it out, you'll get 4GB FAT mastering partition, a 16GB max size partition and a third, 11-12GB partition. Smaller cards have smaller default FAT partitions. You can have up to 4 partitions on any given SD card. See the manual for details.

With 32GB cards running around $3-$4 on ebay, you can do a lot.