With today’s social media and other outlets for expression, videographers have a wealth of opportunity to bring their artistic efforts to the masses. But considering the excessive amount of video content we all encounter in our day-to-day lives, the necessity of creating professional caliber product is essential, because the public has been ‘spoiled.’ Anything less and it gets ignored. Enter Matt Johnson (pictured), YouTuber and online videography / film making instructor. As audio is an essential part of creating video, Johnson relies on his TASCAM Portacapture X8 Multi-track Handheld Recorder.
For many people, their wedding day is a special event that they hope to remember positively their entire lives. Hence, one key area of focus for Johnson is the creation of wedding videos. But it doesn’t end there. Johnson’s subject matter spans a wide range of topics encompassing everything from product reviews to audio/video synchronization to addressing noise and much more. He discussed his use of the TASCAM Portacapture X8 and how it benefits his creative endeavors.
“The TASCAM Portacapture X8 is a remarkably capable tool for capturing high quality audio,” Johnson reports. “I’ve been working with it for about ten months, and in that time, it has become essential to the way I work. I love the fact that this compact, easy to transport recorder can record upward to 8 tracks. While most of my projects involve 2-tracks, or stereo, the fact that it can accommodate 8 tracks provides a lot of creative opportunity.”
When asked about the Portacapture X8’s features he finds most appealing, Johnson offered the following thoughts, “I'm a big fan of the touchscreen and how it presents all the info from the recorder. It’s very intuitive and it makes getting around the unit’s many features quick and easy. The Portacapture X8’s Launcher system is terrific. In addition to offering preset configurations for podcasting, field recording, capturing voice and music plus other options, the system lets you create your own presets—quickly and easily. This makes it easy to get started and achieve professional quality results while also providing the flexibility to fine tune settings to one’s own preference. And that’s one of the key benefits of the Portacapture X8. You can go full manual, which is how I prefer to work, but you also have the option of using the presets.”
“I also love the combo XLR and quarter inch jacks,” Johnson added, “which are great for connecting to various soundboards. This makes it easy to interface the unit with other equipment—and the unit’s USB audio interface, which I’m still experimenting with, is yet another way of interfacing with other equipment such as a computer.”
Johnson is also impressed by the Portacapture X8’s support for up to 192kHz/ 32-bit float point recording. “The 32-bit float point audio is fantastic, especially whenever I am recording and don’t have full control over the ambient audio,” he explained. “This makes it much easier to obtain clear, high-quality signal that can easily be refined with a computer. For this, I use the audio effects in Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve’s audio editor known as Fairlight.”
Before turning his attention back to the business of the day, Johnson offered the following comments, “The TASCAM Portacapture X8 is such an incredibly powerful and full featured recorder. I know that having it in my bag means I will be prepared for virtually any audio recording situation I come across—regardless of what I’m filming. This Swiss Army knife of a recorder has everything I need to capture and deliver high quality audio. It’s also remarkably easy to use—so much so, that I have never once needed to contact TASCAM for assistance. I love this recorder and I hope TASCAM will offer more 32-bit float recorders in the future.”
To learn more about Matt Johnson, visit https://www.youtube.com/@whoismatt. For an example of his work, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43Kze_qJV0U.
