Speaker 1: This is the Tascam X8, the audio recorder that I reviewed back in 2022 and called the best that you can get for wedding filmmaking. And this is the Tascam X6, the brand new, more compact little brother to the X8. And in this video, I'm gonna be reviewing the X6 from the perspective of a wedding filmmaker and telling you if this is a good recorder for you to purchase, if you film weddings or documentaries or basically anything else that you need a very high quality audio for. Also for the sake of ethics, I want you to know that this video isn't paid or sponsored by Tascam, but they did send me this recorder early so I could make this review in time for the launch date. Oh, and I'm also gonna link down below to some sample 32-bit float audio files that I've recorded with the X6 for you to download and use in your editing software to test how the noise floor and overall audio quality sounds. Just enter your email address and you can download them below for free. Jumping right into the review then. The first thing that you're gonna notice about the X6 is that the front of this recorder is no longer dominated by a massive screen like the X8. With the X8, that screen was so large that holding it felt really like you were holding an industrial cell phone. One of those phones that's so sturdy it can be run over by a truck or survive a nuclear blast. You know what I'm talking about. With the X6, Tascam has chosen to go with a slightly more compact and lightweight setup where they've stripped away some of the features to help it hit a lower price point. So yes, the screen is about half the size of the X8 but as far as the interface goes, it still offers a very similar touchscreen interface and the touchscreen itself is still quite responsive just like the X8. The recorder turns on in about eight seconds and just like the X8, the interface includes presets like field recording, podcasting, music and ASMR as well as my favorite setting, the manual setting. Overall, I don't think that the smaller screen is a hindrance to the usability of the recorder but I do want you to be aware that things do feel a little more cramped on the screen and the X6 throws a ton of settings your way. Once you learn how it works, I think you'll be very happy with it but it definitely does have a learning curve. Looking at the top of the X6 now, you're gonna discover a bit of a hidden change from the X8 because while the X6 shares a similar top microphone pair to the X8, these top microphones are not removable like they are on the X8. So you do not have the added versatility of being able to take off these mics and insert different mics such as lav mics, et cetera. Flip the X6 over and on the bottom, you will see that you also lost the hot shoe mount connector that was on the X8. So you're gonna be slightly more limited in how you can mount this recorder versus the X8 but I don't think that's a huge deal because there's still a screw mount. Also on the opposite end of the recorder from the mics, we'll call this the butt of the recorder, you're gonna see that the X6 has the same slot for a pluggable Bluetooth module just like the X8 which means that the X6 is capable of working with Tascam's PortaCapture control app to change the recorder settings and start and stop recordings automatically. More interestingly though, open up the battery door and you will see the X6 uses the exact same four AA batteries as the X8. This is intriguing because the X6 has that much smaller screen. So of course I had to test the battery life especially in comparison to the X8. And guess what, my theory was correct because whenever I loaded up the X6 next to the X8 with the same exact batteries and settings, I found that the X8's battery died in approximately six and a half hours but the X6 with its smaller screen sucking less power lasted approximately two hours longer before finally dying. Pretty cool. Now turn the X6 on its side and here's where you're going to find the two biggest differences between this recorder and the X8. And one of them is easily the biggest bummer of this recorder and it's one that I begged Tascam to change but they didn't. The first difference is that as the name implies of the X6 versus the X8, you are losing two audio inputs. Where the X8 had two XLR jacks on both sides of the recorder making four total, the X6 on the other hand only has two XLR jacks on the left side. This isn't a huge deal because as a wedding filmmaker, I don't think you're gonna oftentimes find yourself needing to plug into more than two sources of audio at a time but the bigger con and my main complaint about the X6 is that it only uses standard XLR jacks, not the combo XLR quarter inch jacks that you would normally find on the X8. This is a bummer because as a wedding filmmaker that's needing to plug into a DJ soundboard, you're oftentimes going to find yourself needing to use XLR or quarter inch jacks and it's nice to only need to be able to carry an XLR and a quarter inch cable in your bag when you use the X8. But with the X6, you're also going to need to invest in quarter inch to XLR adapter cables which to be clear are not expensive but it's just a bit more to carry in your bag and remember and I personally feel like this is just a bit too much cost cutting on Tascam's part because the width of the X6 is nearly the same as the X8 and I feel like they could have included those jacks and it probably would have only cost them a little bit extra when manufacturing this recorder. Anyways, like I said, it's not a big deal but if you asked me what is the biggest con of the X6, that's it. Alternatively now, one of the biggest reasons that I would buy the X6 is that it still includes the most important feature from the X8 and that is 32 bit float recording. If you're not sure what that means in essence, imagine being able to press record on your audio recorder and never having to worry about the audio levels being too quiet or too loud. If the audio levels are too quiet, you can bring them up without increasing the noise floor and if they are too loud and peaking, you can bring them back down without dealing with ruined audio. It's pretty magical. If you want to know how good the audio quality is with this recorder and how good this 32 bit float audio performs, here is an audio test. This is a test of the Tascam X6 audio recorder. I'm standing approximately six inches away from the microphone speaking in a normal volume that I would normally be speaking in but in a moment now, I'm gonna start speaking louder because I want to see if I can make this recorder peak in any way, which will most likely not happen because it's recording in 32 bit float audio. Next though, we're gonna talk a lot quieter and you can hear the noise floor sounds whenever I bring up the volume a little bit. More than that, I want you to be able to test out this audio for yourself. So I've linked down in the description below to a free download where you can enter your email address and download some free audio files that are recorded directly from the X6 that you can then import into your video editing software and play around with to see how it sounds. Now, what about the price? This is where things get interesting because unlike the X8, which costs around $500 when it was first announced, Tascam has told me that the MSRP of the X6 is going to be much cheaper at 369. So, should you buy it? In my opinion, having tested and use the X6 for a while now, Tascam has stripped out some of the features of this recorder that were on the X8 but from an audio quality standpoint and a usability standpoint, it is still very comparable to the X8. And I think that if you don't have the budget for that higher end recorder, the X6 is a fantastic choice. That said though, the X8 has been around for a while and I've seen the price on it drop to around $400 or lower at times. So I would check around and see if you can find an X8 for not much more than the cost of an X6 and go with that recorder if you can because the screen makes it easier to use. And those extra two XLR inputs that also work as combo XLR quarter inch jacks definitely make that recorder more versatile overall. I'll link down below to those audio files from the X6 for you to download. And speaking of being more versatile, I will also link down below to my free guide that's gonna walk you through how to edit videos like a pro. This guide is gonna help you be an even more versatile video editor and it's completely free, link down in the video description. Thanks so much for watching and have a great day.