Tascam’s new recording mixer is the most flexible Model‑series console yet.
I reviewed Tascam’s Model 24 in SOS February 2019 and the smaller Model 12 in SOS December 2020. With new and improved features, the latter addressed many of the issues I raised when assessing the Model 24, and the Model 16 then added more channels. Now, Tascam have released the flagship mixer in this range: the Model 2400 includes almost all the Model 12’s improvements and introduces more features. Larger and heavier than the Model 24, it has more channels and more analogue I/O, but it remains portable enough that it’s easy to stick in the car.
Overview
The Model 2400 is, at heart, an analogue mixer, with one‑knob compression on 12 of the 22 input channels, and a three‑band EQ on all of them. There are four stereo subgroups, five aux sends (three pre‑fader, one post‑fader, one switchable pre/post), a stereo digital effects processor to which you can send from any track, and a separate stereo digital EQ and compressor for the master bus. There are insert points for 12 input channels and the master bus, and an array of other facilities that I’ll cover below. But what makes the Model 2400 different from most mixers is its 24/22 (in/out) channels of 16‑/24‑bit and 44.1/48 kHz A‑D/D‑A conversion. This makes possible recording standalone to an SDXC card (up to 512GB) or, over USB, to Mac, Windows or iOS/iPadOS devices.
For Mac and iOS you don’t need drivers for USB interfacing, but there’s a useful ModelMixer app whose main purpose is to provide more extensive metering than the hardware. Windows users also have this app but need the ASIO/WDM driver; both these drivers can access the hardware, so two apps using the same sample rate can communicate with the mixer simultaneously. With five‑pin DIN MIDI out and in sockets on the rear, the Model 2400 can act as a USB MIDI interface. It can also output MIDI Time Code and Clock. The USB connection also allows you to transfer files to and from the SD card, to back up data or load stored projects.
The ModelMixer app provides more metering options than can be found on the hardware — and on a bigger screen too!
Recording
Recording standalone or to a computer, the 24 inputs are for the mixer’s 22 input channels plus the stereo mix, while the 22 outputs are routed back to the main input channels, just before their insert point (or for those without one, the compressor). As with the Model 12 and 16 (not the 24), a button above the channel compressor/EQ sets the point in the signal path sent to the A‑D converter: before or after the processing stages, by which I mean anything patched into the insert, as well as the onboard compressor and EQ. A simple touch, but it makes the mixer more versatile than the Model 24: you could record a clean signal post the preamps and HPF, while using the inserts, compressors and EQs for a cue mix or live performance; or use the processing and commit what you hear to ‘tape’. Whichever’s the case, you can break a mix back out onto the mixer and use the insert and processing stages again. This welcome A‑D routing flexibility is as on the Model 12, but many more input channels have an insert point (12, compared with the Model 12 and 16’s two), so integrating outboard is a much more realistic proposition.
When I don’t have to look at a screen while making music I prefer not to. And the simple fact of having so many tracks with inserts available makes working this way much more attractive.
The standalone recording process is also pretty much as on the Model 12. You can create a song, set up a click track, and change the tempo and time signature. Each track has a record‑arm button so you can record anything from a single track to all of them. Some more advanced functions make good use of the screen, the Multi Jog push/twist encoder and buttons, such as manual or automatic punching in and markers — if you fluff a note or two, you can flag that up, or sing along and drop in a better part rather than retake the whole performance or rely on edits and pitch‑shifting later on. Since you can also import files from the SD card, you can prepare backing tracks on a computer for use on standalone sessions (or as live backing tracks). Computers make so much possible, but when I don’t have to look at a screen while making music I prefer not to. And the simple fact of having so many tracks with inserts available makes working this way much more attractive.
Still, some prefer to use a DAW, and as well as being an interface the Model 2400 can serve as a basic HUI or MCU controller. For example, the mixer’s transport buttons control your DAW transport, the Multi Jog becomes a scrub wheel, you can create and navigate to markers, and the 16 record‑arm buttons arm your DAW tracks. Notably, there’s no fader control, but you can still use all the channels of the USB audio and MIDI interface, and there’s enough control to be useful. Tascam have created dedicated profiles for various DAWs, and this is detailed in the DAW Control PDF manual on Tascam’s website.
The Model 2400 has far greater analogue connectivity than previous models in the series, with dedicated subgroup and aux outputs, master‑bus insert points on the rear, and 12 input channels featuring insert points on the top panel.
Bus Processing & Effects
I’ve mentioned insert points already and, importantly, it’s not just the input channels that have them. Unlike previous Model mixers the 2400 also features them on the master stereo bus; another simple touch that constitutes a big improvement. The four stereo subgroups don’t have inserts, which I’d have liked (even if it increased the cost), but they do have direct outputs on the rear, which is another new feature. If you have unused input channels, you could, say, feed a drum subgroup’s outputs to a compressor (making sure the group isn’t routed to the mix bus), and route the compressor outputs back to the desk, routing that channel only to the master bus.
The built‑in master bus compressor ranges from gentle compression to, effectively, limiting and has dedicated physical controls — but the master bus also now has an insert point, so if you already have a favourite bus compressor you can use it.You don’t have to rely on outboard gear for master‑bus processing, though. You also have the built‑in digital stereo compressor and EQ. The compressor has physical controls above the screen. A button switches this master processing in/out of the signal path, and there are dedicated knobs to adjust the threshold, tweak the ratio (1:1 to limiting), set the attack (2‑200 milliseconds) and release (10 milliseconds to 1 second), and apply up to 20dB of make‑up gain. You can set the compressor by ear, but to see what’s going on in terms of levels and gain reduction, you need to access the compressor window on the screen. Thankfully, menu‑diving on the Model mixers using the function buttons and Multi Jog wheel is quick and easy. The digital EQ offers you four ±12dB bands. The outer two are shelves and the inner pair parametric. As it’s all controlled using the Multi Jog and function buttons, this is only tweakable when the EQ screen is active.
Both the master bus insert point and the digital processor come, by default, after the signal splits to feed the headphone and control room outputs. Depending on what you’re doing, that could well make sense: if you want to apply EQ to the main output to compensate for a venue’s acoustics, you can hear the result on the PA and won’t want to hear it in your headphones. But in the studio you won’t hear the effect of that nice mix‑bus compressor you patched in — to hear that you need to engage the master bus’ AFL (after‑fade listen) button.
The digital send effects engine is, as far as I can discern without having the units side by side in front of me, as it is on earlier Models. You have the choice of workmanlike (decent‑sounding but nothing special) reverbs and delays, a chorus, a flanger and some combination effects that pair different hall reverbs with delay or chorus. Again, these are all editable using the screen, Multi Jog and function buttons, and while you don’t get too many parameters to play with, I usually had enough control to set up ‘comfort’ reverbs and delay effects and would be happy using them for live sound, not least because the delays can follow tap tempo (using the top‑panel button or an attached footswitch). The output of this effects engine can be assigned to the main mix, aux outputs 1+2 or 3+4, or any of the subgroups.
If you want more effects or would like to plumb better ones in, you can use the aux sends; these are also as on previous models but as you have more of them, mixing with several reverbs/delays is possible. All five auxes have global level controls and mute/AFL buttons. Aux 5 defaults to feeding the internal effects engine but also has a physical output. Other than for the internal effects engine, there are no dedicated aux returns, so you’ll need to reserve input channels for that.
Input Channels
Input channel 1, one of two to have a high‑impedance instrument input option, is otherwise identical to the next 11 channel strips.Speaking of input channels, the first 12 are almost identical, except that as well as accepting mic and line sources plugged into the combo XLR/jack socket at the top of the channel strip, channels 1 and 2 can also accept instrument signals (still through the combo socket’s central jack, but there’s a latching button to switch the mode). So there are fewer instrument inputs than on the Model 12 (which had this option on eight channels), but the same as on the Models 24 and 16. It’s not a big loss, in my view: I rarely want to capture more than two DI’ed instruments at once, and if I do then DI boxes aren’t expensive.
The Ultra‑HDDA mic preamp is the same as that introduced on the Model 12 (an upgrade on the Model 24). As befits a general‑purpose mixer, it’s clean, quiet and unfussy. It offers modest gain (0‑50 dB) but it’s ample in most scenarios, and there’s plenty more gain available elsewhere in the signal path. Not a preamp you’ll to want to drive hard for character, perhaps, but it’s of decent quality — I just never really had to think about them throughout my review tests.
Phantom power is switchable in banks of four, as on the Model 24; it’s global on the other models. Contrary to popular myth, phantom power won’t usually damage ribbon mics unless they’re very old or faulty, but it’s nice that you can plug/unplug phantom powered mics without switching them all on/off, and it might prevent accidental damage to any line‑level gear that’s accidentally been patched into the XLR input. Speaking of line‑level signals, the gain range for these is ‑10 to +60 dB.
After the preamp is a switchable 100Hz, 18dB/octave high‑pass filter, but sadly, as on previous Models, there’s no channel with a polarity invert button. This will surely be missed by anyone wanting to put one mic on a drum’s batter head and another on the resonant head (particularly common on snare drums), and I hope Tascam consider adding this to a couple of channels in the future; the instrument buttons on channels 1 and 2 and the layout of the Model 12 suggest there’s space to accommodate them. Still, this time there’s a simple workaround: plug an inverter cable or box into a channel insert point.
Below the filter, a slide switch selects one of three input signals: that from the preamp stage; the multitrack return from a computer; or playback from the SD recorder. Another switch determines the point from which the signal is tapped to feed the A‑D converter. Then we have the one‑knob VCA compressor, followed by a three‑band EQ with sweepable mid; these two stages are treated as one and share a bypass button. Each EQ band offers ±15dB of gain. The top and bottom bands are high (10kHz) and low (60Hz) shelves, while the fixed‑Q (0.5) mid ranges from 100Hz to 8kHz.
Channels 13 to 20 (eight channels) occupy only four physical control strips. These can function as mono mic/line channels (using the combi XLR input) or stereo line channels using the combi’s jack for the left and an adjacent TRS jack for the right. The facilities are otherwise the same as on the lower‑numbered channels, except there’s no compressor and the EQ’s mid band is fixed at 2.5kHz — an area of the spectrum we’re particularly sensitive to, and that’s important for vocal intelligibility.
Another channel strip can be a mono (channel 21) or stereo (channels 21 and 22) line input, can monitor the stereo USB or multitrack return, or receive a signal from the built‑in Bluetooth receiver. For Bluetooth, you set the selector in the line position and, in the dedicated Bluetooth area of the panel, route the Bluetooth signal to 21+22. That switch also allows you to turn Bluetooth off, or assign it directly to the main mix, freeing up 21+22 for other things. Finally, though it has no ‘strip’ as such, there’s also a dedicated talkback mic input, located next to the pair of headphone outputs at the top right of the mixer.
Final Impressions
I very much enjoyed using the Model 2400. It sounds very pleasing to my ears, and if you have any knowledge of how a mixer works it’s super easy to operate. I did the usual test of letting my kid record with it, and she grasped most things pretty quickly, really enjoying the intuitive, hands‑on nature of it. Working with her also confirmed that the dual headphone outputs were very handy.
I love that this Model has four subgroups and allows me to integrate my studio outboard gear...
The preamps seem very decent for a device of this price, and while I might not look to the one‑knob compressors and EQ for my own studio recordings, they’re competent, do a fine job for cue mixes and will tick most people’s boxes for live sound. I love that this Model has four subgroups and allows me to integrate my studio outboard gear — in fact, for me that’s perhaps the biggest plus point compared with its older siblings; it’s so much more versatile.
The Model 2400 also makes for a good audio interface if you’re content with working at 44.1 or 48 kHz. There are plenty of channels, the analogue mixer makes setting up cue mixes a piece of cake, and an artist can hear their compressed, EQ’ed performance with reverb but no latency. Though fairly basic, I found the DAW control functions more helpful than I’d anticipated too.
But what I love most is just how much you can do on this thing without a computer! There are plenty of tracks to accommodate full bands, decent‑sized synth and drum machine setups, or subgroup processors and effects returns. There are enough auxes to create different cue mixes for several band members, and I found that the punch‑in facilities encouraged a more immediate, performance‑focused approach that I too often forget to adopt when in front of the DAW.
There are a few small compromises, as you’d expect on a multi‑function device at this price. The biggest for me is the lack of polarity inversion. Insert points on the subgroups would have been nice, as would separate level controls for the two headphone outs. But on the whole I’ve been seriously impressed with the Model 2400. I can well imagine it as the centrepiece of a songwriter or band setup, with a few mics, instruments and processors/effects semi‑permanently plumbed in. You could pretty much just switch on and be recording as soon as inspiration strikes.
Click Tracks
The onboard click can be routed to the control room and headphones outputs, or to the dedicated click output. It can’t be routed directly to the aux outputs, which surprised me, but you can plug a jack patch cable from the click out into an input channel, and from there you can route the sound to the auxes. As with the delay effect, the click supports tap tempo, accessed either from a button on the top panel or using an attached momentary footswitch. As described in the main text, there are various time signatures to choose from, but I didn’t find a way to change time signature or (other than tap) the tempo within a song. For such projects, though, you could always prepare a session in your DAW, render the click or more detailed backing track, and import that to the Model 2400.
Pros
- Sounds decent.
- More inserts, more subgroups, more auxes, more outputs
- Can record pre‑ or post‑processing.
- Click track makes computerless recording a breeze.
Cons
- No polarity inversion.
Summary
Tascam’s impressive Model series of recording mixers continues to evolve, and this flagship model offers more inserts, more subgroups, more auxes and, thus, many more potential applications than any of the other mixers in the range.
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