The DR-701D's two onboard condenser microphones empower you to capture stereo sound without external mics. The omnidirectional mics respond to sound from all directions and are permanently spaced apart in an A/B configuration, yielding a broad, sphere-like pickup pattern. Use them in combination with a shotgun, handheld, or lav mic to record direct sound and ambience at the same time.
Four locking XLR-1/4" TRS combo jacks support mic level and +4 dBu line level, allowing you to record external microphones or balanced outputs from a professional multichannel mixer. With individually switchable phantom power (24V or 48V) and up to 64 dB of gain, the low-noise HDDA (High Definition Discrete Architecture) mic preamps can serve a variety of microphones such as dynamic, ribbon, or condenser types.
For maximum intelligibility and optimal vocal tone, recordists often prefer to use lavalier microphones that can be attached to their subject's clothing. The DR-701D's 3.5mm mini-jack input is designed for precisely that situation; clip a lav mic (available separately) to the talent, then plug it into the 3.5mm input on the DR-701D. Knowing that many lav mics require a small amount of voltage called plug-in power, Tascam offers a selectable setting to supply plug-in power to the 3.5mm input. If you need to record the output of a wireless microphone receiver or an audio mixer, the 3.5mm input can accommodate it because it supports line-level signal and handles a maximum input level of +10 dBV.
The DR-701D boasts three 3.5mm outputs for simultaneous hookup to your camera, a secondary recorder, and headphones. The headphone output offers a dedicated volume control next to the jack, while levels for the camera and line outputs can be changed in the menu system. Plus, the side-panel 3.5mm camera input is ideal for simple monitoring of playback from your camera.
To maximize compactness and portability, the DR-701D records directly to media cards (available separately). It supports SD, SDHC, and SDXC cards (up to 128GB capacity) for long recording times in standard or high resolution. With an 8GB card, the DR-701D can record in stereo for over 12.5 hours at 16-bit / 44.1 kHz using the uncompressed, BWF-compliant WAV format.
Version 2.00 firmware brings support for Ambisonics recording by enabling encoding both A and B formats and providing a real-time stereo monitor mix of B-format content. Additional features specialized for Ambisonics audio production include AmbiX and FuMa B formats, simultaneous 4-channel gain control, and selectable Ambisonics mic positioning.
The HDMI I/O ports allow the DR-701D's internal clock and your camera to be digitally synchronized. Even when shooting long events, the video files recorded by the camera and audio files recorded by the DR-701D will not drift out of sync.
Simply pressing the record button on your compatible camera sends a trigger to the DR-701D to start audio recording. Unlike other systems that force you to press record on both devices, the HDMI start system prevents missed takes, syncs the two recording starts together, and makes single-operator shoots much easier.