Teenage Engineering TP-7 Area Recorder Assessment: Worth, Specs, Availability, Options

Recorders, typically talking, are supposed to sit within the background, quietly absorbing sound with out contributing to it. They’re a impartial, inconspicuous product kind virtually by necessity. In case you’re recording subject audio, like attempting 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 immediately in a studio sounds nice on the TP-7, however once more, you possibly can deal with that with some far inexpensive but nonetheless really good microphones.

The machine can be tough 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 kind of recorder.

As one instance, I attempted to feed music from Spotify by means of the TP-7 to check the line-in capabilities, with a pair of headphones plugged into the output jack so I may monitor the sound. On the time, I didn’t notice that by default the audio nonetheless performed by means of 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 song.”

I used to be capable of resolve this little drawback, together with a number of comparable snafus, by sifting by means of the thick little flip-book that’s the instruction handbook. However generally there wasn’t precisely an intuitive approach of figuring that out with out handbook diving. And a few interactions take a bit to get the grasp of.

Leaving the recorder operating, for example, takes two button presses—one faucet of the pink File button, then a separate press of the Play button proper subsequent to it. On comparable gadgets from different manufacturers, you often simply faucet the File button as soon as and it begins taping. These little idiosyncrasies are the value you pay for one thing like this. (Moreover, , the precise value you pay for it.)

Women 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 way more enjoyable than you’d anticipate a recorder to be. In spite of everything, 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 clean switches.

There’s additionally intelligent, well-thought-out capabilities that make recording extra fascinating. 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 possibility that could possibly be nice for music producers fiddling a pattern or anybody checking their recordings for any secret satanic messages.

Additionally the power to combine and match inputs and outputs with the plugs on the prime gives a substantial 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 K.O.2, a remarkably inexpensive (for Teenage Engineering) sampling machine. By mixing and matching the enter and output cables between the gadgets, I may document 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.