We are witnesses of the fierce competition on the portable handheld recording devices, we have the Edirol R-09, Zoom H4, Marantz PMD620, Sony PCM-D50 or M-Audio FastTrack II among others. Tascam add itself with the new Tascam DR-1 Portable Recorder, a SD cards based solid state device with WAV and MP3 compatibility, built-in mics and very compact size.

The Tascam DR-1 Portable Recorder features built-in stereo condenser mics, variable angle mechanism for the mics, 24-bit and 44.1 or 48 kHz recording resolution, low cut filter (with on/off switch), analog auto-gain control, analog limiter, vocal cancel and overdub (record over a existing sound file) functions, built-in tuner and transport controls.

This handhed recorder includes a rechargeable battery, USB 2.0 connection (to transfer data) and comes with a 1 GB SD card. The Tascam DR-1 Portable Recorder street price is $299 but its availability has to be announced yet.

• Official site