Teenage Engineering TP–7 field recorder

by stigi on 5/11/2023, 8:46:11 AM with 27 comments

  • by aaroninsf on 5/11/2023, 5:46:03 PM

    It's a lovely piece of kit, on brand,

    but as an actual practicing field recordist who also does home recording, some critical information (or features?) are missing,

    namely,

    - the availability of plug-in power for electret microphones on any of the inputs;

    - whether the analog inputs are line-level only (no mention is made of integrated preamps)

    - whether the 3x analog inputs can be configured for 4-channel recording (e.g. A-format for Ambisonics)

    If there were four high-quality preamps providing plug-in power... you could use this for recording surround in the field, and transcode to B-format and then deliver via the Ambisonics ecosystems in AR/VR. E.g. record single-point surround video with a 360 camera, with surround audio—now you have a pocket kit that can give you surround video with audio that tracks etc.

    But I don't think this does that. I think it's very pretty but would require external preamps (maybe this is provided on their companion mixer?) and mic power... :|

    If anyone familiar with their line can comment I'm curious, I am in the rare subset of people interested enough in this specific area to drop coin on lovely gear...

    ...but I don't really want to carry two or more devices no matter how pretty when uglier single-device solutions exist already :/

  • by antomeie on 5/11/2023, 8:56:57 AM

    As of late, their industrial design has been just beautiful. You want to have it, even if you have no use for it.

    People will complain about the price, as per usual, but keep in mind that this is a small company making low volume products for professionals.

    With that said, I certainly won't be buying one :)

  • by crtasm on 5/11/2023, 11:33:12 PM

    earlier discussion today: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35906292

  • by superchroma on 5/11/2023, 9:55:27 AM

    $1500 USD. Good lord, no thank you. This is actually just too much for something that has its bases covered by phones and a laptop. You can get some serious portable and studio kit for that money.

  • by bb88 on 5/11/2023, 11:32:47 PM

    These seems like a dumb question, but what's the ergonomics for left handers or people who don't have a right hand?

    At $1500, I would like to see symmetry or ease of use for the opposite hand.