Recorders, typically talking, are supposed to sit within the background, quietly absorbing sound with out contributing to it. They’re a impartial, inconspicuous product sort virtually by necessity. In case you’re recording area audio, like making an attempt to seize the proper loon name out within the wild, you’d be higher served by a correct shotgun mic to pinpoint the sound. Audio recorded straight in a studio sounds nice on the TP-7, however once more, you’ll be able to deal with that with some far inexpensive but nonetheless actually good microphones.
The system may also be difficult to navigate, with some menu diving required to entry sure options that gained’t really feel intuitive immediately. There’s additionally some kinks you’ll discover for those who’re coming from one other sort of recorder.
As one instance, I attempted to feed music from Spotify by the TP-7 to check the line-in capabilities, with a pair of headphones plugged into the output jack so I might monitor the sound. On the time, I didn’t understand that by default the audio nonetheless performed by each the plugged-in headphones and the on-device audio system. That’s, till my girlfriend got here in from the opposite room, laptop computer in hand, to faucet me on the shoulder and say, “I’m getting on a name with my boss. Are you able to please cease blasting that music.”
I used to be in a position to resolve this little drawback, together with just a few comparable snafus, by sifting by the thick little flip-book that’s the instruction guide. However typically there wasn’t precisely an intuitive approach of figuring that out with out guide diving. And a few interactions take a bit to get the grasp of.
Leaving the recorder working, for example, takes two button presses—one faucet of the purple Document button, then a separate press of the Play button proper subsequent to it. On comparable units from different manufacturers, you normally simply faucet the Document button as soon as and it begins taping. These little idiosyncrasies are the worth you pay for one thing like this. (Apart from, you understand, the precise value you pay for it.)
Ladies Simply Wanna Have Enjoyable
Viewing the TP-7 from some type of hoity-toity skilled standpoint is probably somewhat disingenuous. As a result of the TP-7 is only a good time. It’s much more enjoyable than you’d anticipate a recorder to be. In any case, you’ll recall that the entire entrance disc spins when you’re recording, and the factor simply feels nice in your hand, with all its clicky-clacky buttons and easy switches.
There’s additionally intelligent, well-thought-out capabilities that make recording extra attention-grabbing. In case you press the Play button a second time whereas playback goes, the disk will reverse its spin and play the audio backward. It’s a enjoyable little choice that may very well be nice for music producers fiddling a pattern or anybody checking their recordings for any secret satanic messages.
Additionally the flexibility to combine and match inputs and outputs with the plugs on the prime affords an excessive amount of flexibility for combining with different audio gizmos. I paired the TP-7 with one other of Teenage Engineering’s creations: the EP-133 Ok.O.2, a remarkably inexpensive (for Teenage Engineering) sampling system. By mixing and matching the enter and output cables between the units, I might file from the sampler into the TP-7, then manipulate the sound there and port it again over to the sampler, with the DJ scratch sounds totally intact.