Freesound Forums
Tascam FR-AV2
Started January 14th, 2025 · 19 replies · Latest reply by kevp888 1 day, 15 hours ago
Hello there,
I have a Tascam FR-AV2 on it's way, shipping.
Hoping, to upgrade the pre-amps of my Zoom H5 along with other issues I had with it, and get into the fantastic world of 32bit (which will help for my Binaural in ear mics)
Any questions or things you want me to try out once I get my hands on it?
I will try to do a side by side of my upgrade path (H5 stock XY mics, H5+Rode NT5, NT5+Fethead phantom, FR-AV2+NT5, AV2+Fethead+NT5)
Specifically for quiet recordings / self-noise.
Any suggestions on methodology of this test?
Cheers!
Great news !
Very curious to hear the comparison between the fethead and the preamps of the unit !
This small FR-AV2 looks like a very nice tool !
If Tascam had implemented a voice guidance like in the Zoom Essential line, it would have been wonderful!
Enjoy your new toy ! 
Cheers !
Kevin
kevp888 wrote:If Tascam had implemented a voice guidance like in the Zoom Essential line, it would have been wonderful!
Kevin
I can not find anything in the manual abou voice guidance.
https://manual.tascam.jp/fr-av2/om/en/
Hello there, I have received it.
It's unfortunate that it doesn't have accessibility, my house mate is blind and id love a Zoom Essential to just present her field recording in a more comfortable environment!
Anything you're curious about ?
I'm already starting a list of comments / remarks notes and thoughts.
I will probably get the bluetooth module too.
Hey Sadiquecat !
Great that you received your FR-AV2 !
Very curious to read your opinion about the unit, and to hear the recordings you’ll make with it !
Also, if your house mate (or anyone else) needs my advice, especially about the H6essential usability for blind people, please feel free to ask, I’ll be glad to answer !
Wishing you all the best !
Kevin
Thanks Kevin!
So far she isn't into the field recording hobby, it's more of an introduction/discovery thing I want to do.
But you definitely should do a forum post about accessibility, ease of use, workflow, wishlist of features, where accessibility is done right, and where it isn't etc...
I presume things like audacity, clicking/finding the trim points, finding the fade effects etc... to be an extra challenge.
Maybe not only on recorders and processing softwares, but also on the upload/usage of freesound?
Like the geotagging feature is probably a step away, there's probably other things I haven't thought of?
Cheers!
I just did this unscientific test to try and get a feeling for the self-noise https://freesound.org/people/Sadiquecat/sounds/785685/
Not as good as I hoped, but definitely better than the Zoom, weirdly not in a loudness way, but just less piercing / strident and more of a hum than white noise.
I think my microphones are the weakest link in my chain now. But the self noise /pre-amp noise is definitely smoother than the H5.
I'm surprised though, that my signal/source ticking doesn't pierce though the noise, and seems at equivalent levels...
I'l have to do more tests 
I haven't really cleaned up my thoughts, so this is still a drafts list :
-File name cannot have date AND TIME just date.
-There is start/end TC metadata, but the file date/time is linked to end of recording. A little hurdle thing in the way to correctly timestamping my recordings.
32bit 96khz stereo takes up 500mb for 11min (Kinda 3gb for 1h)
-No 44.1khz
-You CAN record in 24bit!
-No internal speakers to review your audio.
-3 AA batteries is kinda awkward. My battery container is by 4.
-Power button doesn’t click and there is no notification powerup/boot down sound (no -buzzer and doesn’t do it via headphones)
-Rubber feet are nice!
-It has no accessibility feature.
-I didn’t see a auto power off setting.
-Channel inputs can spill into another, (But I noticed it while shouting adding 84 gain, and it was barely above the self noise.)
-2 channels only but one can record from XLR and from the EXT in. If doing so, only the right channel of a stereo mic will be taken from the ext in.
-No Internal normalization of recordings (It’s 32bit but you can still set “recording gain”, if your recording clips you can retrieve it in post, but there is no “normalize” onboard so you can’t monitor a clipped recording or bump up a quiet one onboard).
-Internal phase inversion is niche but cool!
-One can set phantom to 24v which is nice!
-Date/time is kept after a battery swap. (My H5 re-setted after each battery swap which was tedious). It can even keep the time while I recharge my AA batteries.
-USB connection for file transfer is easy enough.
-480mb file took 1m13 transfer from the control V point t’il the end (MBA M2). Over usb C. Micro sd card was a Lexar E series 32gb advertised 100mb/s read speed. (I need to try with a better SD card)
-Randomly disconnects from my MBA. It’s not atypical for devices to do that, but I notice the Tascam doing it more.
-There's a 40hz input filter option, which is cool if 80hz is a little too much. 40hz is a nice placebo middle ground of I put a filter on and did something but it wont de-nature the lows of the recording like a 80hz might in some scenarios.
Hey Sadiquecat !
Thank you very much for this very informative comparison, and for the time you spent !
Your first impressions are very interesting to read too !
Indeed, this FR-AV2 seems to be a nice small device, that still could probably be improved a bit by Tascam.
Very curious to hear your next "real life" recordings !
Wishing you all the best !
Kevin
Hey, I'm now publishing a few field recordings with it
My recordings with it will be tagged FR-AV2 so you can find them all here :
https://freesound.org/search/?q=%2Bfr-av2&f=username%253A%2522Sadiquecat%2522&s=Date+added+%28newest+first%29&si_tags=1&si_name=0&si_description=0&si_packname=0&si_sound_id=0&si_username=0&d0=0&d1=*&ig=0&r=0&g=0&dp=0&cm=0&mm=0#
Cheers
I downloaded the park and it sounds fantastic. Audacity handles the 96/32 file just fine. Which was to be expected of course.
Thank you.
Sadiquecat wrote:
Hey, I'm now publishing a few field recordings with it
My recordings with it will be tagged FR-AV2 so you can find them all here :
https://freesound.org/search/?q=%2Bfr-av2&f=username%253A%2522Sadiquecat%2522&s=Date+added+%28newest+first%29&si_tags=1&si_name=0&si_description=0&si_packname=0&si_sound_id=0&si_username=0&d0=0&d1=*&ig=0&r=0&g=0&dp=0&cm=0&mm=0#Cheers
How do you are making emojis
luamoon wrote:How do you are making emojis
on my phone and on the computer copy from this site;
https://emojipedia.org/nl/smileys
On my computer, Freesound automatically translates : ) to and ; ) to etc...
Lesson learned. While recording in 32bit, it doesn't matter if it clips/goes over 0db, you can recover in post.
But exporting from Audacity in 32bit. 0db is the limit even when in 32bit mode. I guess it makes sense, Audacity would work in dBFS. I was expecting it to follow the source file "relativity" of the dB scale thing? Not sure exactly how to put it into words.
I'l make sure to normalise my 32bit recordings as to not clip at export
It's kind of a pity though. 99% of my recording was at a comfortable level, just had a peak when a motorbike was there needing to reduce everything else by 20db or so.
I was hoping I could share my 32bit recording, at a generally comfortable level, and have something people could download and recover the motorbike part if that's what they wanted.
I'l have to share a "quiet" recording by reducing 20dB then to preserve everything.
EDIT :
I exported in 32bit SIGNED PCM, I tried again in 32 bit FLOAT. All good xD Rookie mistake
Nice to read that you’ve find the right way to solve your problem !
If you decide to do so, please don't forget to warn unexperimented users about potential earing damage.
I’ve listened the recordings you’ve made with the FR-AV2 and OKMs. As expected, nice binaural effect.
Cheers !
Kevin