I use this mainly to capture quick ideas, and for that it's fantastic. The ability to plug guitars into this thing without an amp makes it great for that purpose. I find it very easy to use. Battery life is not spectacular, but not bad at all for 4 AA batteries. I do seem to have a little trouble figuring out how to monitor my playing through both left and right headphones when recording onto a mono track, but that might just be something I haven't figured out yet. Doesn't affect recording.

Overall:
Plain and simple, I am not a fan of this gear. The sound is pretty good but ergonomics and functionality kill the experience. No backlit display and zero memory of prior settings combine for a cumbersome recording process. These clumsy omissions cost it stars.

I own & use a Korg D32 32 Track Recorder & the Roland Boss BR-1180CD 12 Track Multi-Track Records & this Tascam DP006 6 Track follows the same processes they do. The built-in Stereo condenser Mics sound surprisingly good & can be used just like normal Mics with no need to attach an external cord. Or you can plug in two inputs at a time like a normal mixing board. It doesnt have EQ or built in effects, but its got great fidelity and is a snap to use. You can easily assign either input or built in mics to any channel in Mono and can record in true Stereo on either Track 3 or 4. Once you have your tracks complete, you can adjust your individual Track playback levels & mix them to a stereo Master Track internally & save to included SD-Card (2 Gig!) and export to computer via usb or the SD-Card. We use it as a Song writting tool and it is perfect for that. Plus it AUTOMATICALLY Saves your work for you when you shut down AND has the Undo / Redo button... both Very nice features. Great Work Tascam!! Highly recommended.

I used to have a tascam portastudio years ago so I had an idea what this might be like. The recorder had to come from Japan and took a long time to arrive - it seemed to be in mid air for nearly a week according to the tracker! The manual was in Japanese but I was able to find and download an english version from the web. I wouldn't describe the recorder as being very intuitive - every action requires 2 or 3 other actions which don't seem to have much to do with it, and make the process complicated. However, the built-in mics are of reasonable quality and the results are good. The unit is very small - the size of a small portable radio and becomes a bit prone to being pulled around by mic and guitar leads so I recommend mounting it on a tripod using the mounting on the back for stability. The only beef I have is the lack of eq on the inputs, and if I was looking to improve the quality of the recordings I would look to invest in an eq/effects unit to connect between mikes and the input. It will take me some time to work out out all the ins and outs of the unit but I'm looking forward to it!