TASCAM Portacapture X6 used by YouTube Influencer Landon Bailey

TASCAM LBaliey

As a YouTube influencer, Landon Bailey’s focus is on helping musicians and recording enthusiasts come to terms with their instruments and related audio production tools to achieve the best possible results. In addition to helping him capture his guitar, the Portacapture X6 has become his ‘go to’ device for acquiring ambient sounds, sound effects, and related audio cues that he can then add to his video production.

As a husband and father of 3 boys, Baliey has over 20 years of work experience in the Information Technology field - working as a computer systems analyst. The required high level of attention to detail has made him a natural when it comes to discussing electronic musical gear and related tech content on YouTube. Bailey discussed how the Portacapture X6 helps him capture a variety of real-life audio situations for his YouTube production.

“I find the Portacapture X6 to be an invaluable tool for capturing outdoor nature sounds, as well as acoustic guitar in a live setting,” Bailey explained. “When they are first getting started recording music and sound, many people don’t realize how room sound can influence a recording. While a smaller room is frequently used to convey a more ‘intimate’ approach to recording, the use of a more reverberant hall frequently carries the impact of a space more akin to a concert venue. Much of what I do with the Portacapture X6 is to capture room sounds of electric guitars so that people better understand how ambience impacts a recording’s overall sound.”

The Portacapture X6 comes with a brilliant 2.4-inch color screen that is easy to read in just about any light and there are several presets to help one get started with a variety of recording applications. These presets include podcast, music, interviews, field recording, and 6-track multi-track recording. This makes it easy to configure the recorder for a variety of recording tasks and you also can create your own custom-tailored presets. Reflecting on these attributes, Bailey offered the following, “I really like the touchscreen and ease of use of the interface. While I’ve only been working with the Portacapture X6 for roughly 3 months at this point, I’m impressed with these features, as they help me learn about its many capabilities.”

Bailey also commented on the Portacapture X6’s Bluetooth and versatile input structure, “TASCAM has an app called Portacapture Control that enables one to remotely - and wirelessly - control the Portacapture X6 via Bluetooth from one’s phone or tablet, and this a terrific way to capture sounds when you can’t be physically right there with the recorder. Further, the unit’s input/output structure is first rate. There are 2 XLR input terminals that are compatible with phantom power (24V/48V) to support recordings with multiple mic/line inputs and there is also a 6-in/2-out USB audio interface function that makes it easy to interconnect the Portacapture X6 with a variety of other gear. So far, I’ve mainly made use of the two stereo mics that are built-in, but in the future, I plan to use the two XLR inputs to close mic guitar amplifier cabinet speakers.”

With many electronic products, not only is an intuitive interface important - so is responsive and capable customer and technical support services. Here too, Baliey was very complimentary of TASCAM. “These days, a lot of electronic gear has a rather steep learning curve,” he explained. “This is not the case with the Portacapture X6. I find this recorder to be very easy to interact with - to the point where I have not had need to contact support. What I can tell you, however, is that from a customer service perspective, TASCAM shows great interest in speaking with their customers and learning how they can improve their products via updates, etc.”

Before shifting his focus back to the business of the day, Bailey offered these parting comments, “The Portacapture x6 is the perfect audio tool for my requirements. There have been many instances in the past few years where I captured awful audio through my smartphone and could have certainly made use of a Portacapture. I am very pleased to own this system and I highly recommend the Portacapture for anyone working in similar situations to my own. It’s a great tool!”

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