Tascam MP-BT1 Portable Bass Trainer, MP3 Format

Web Item #TASMPBT1

This product can only be ordered by phone. Please call us at 866-SHIP-SDM (744-7736).

Overall User Ratings

Overall:: 7.4 out of 10
Quality:: 8 out of 10
The Wow Factor:: 9 out of 10
Ease of Use:: 9 out of 10

Features:: 10 out of 10
Value:: 6 out of 10
Sound:: 7 out of 10
Manufacturer Support:: 2 out of 10

User Reviews for Tascam MPBT1 Portable MP3 Bass Trainer

Overall:: 8 out of 10
Features:: 10 out of 10
Quality:: 8 out of 10
Value:: 6 out of 10
The Wow Factor:: 9 out of 10
Sound:: 7 out of 10
Ease of Use:: 9 out of 10
Manufacturer Support:: 2 out of 10

75% of users found this reviews helpful (4 votes).

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By a customer from yahoo.com

Submitted: 3/15/2009

Style of Music: Jazz, Pop, Country... whatever they pay for.

Experience: Professional

"Must have for all bass players, even if it gets in its own way and isn't really Mac compatible."

Sound:

Some guys may like that the device has a zillion presets for the bass on playback, but for me nearly all of them are useless. Seriously, I am just not interested in having a bass sound with wah or flanger or distortion -- especially in a bass trainer. I just want the device to give me a decent sound while I learn without having to scroll through a hundred or so tones I'll never use. At least Tascam's interface allows you to narrow them all down to 5 if you don't want them all in your way.

Feature:

The product does what it is meant to do: loop and slow down music so you can learn it. As I said earlier, the presets were a waste of time and money, but useful features include the onboard tuner and the metronome. Please note, this device is NOT as compatible with Apple Macs as they lead you to believe. We have several Macs and eventually gave up trying to put files on the device from Macs... the bass trainer keeps dismounting itself during file transfers forcing you to start them over again and again.

Ease of Use:

The device is super easy to use. In fact, the only reason I needed to check out the manual was to see why it wouldn't work when connected to a Mac to do file transfers (the manual was no help there by the way). It could be easier to use, though, if you didn't have to go through so many steps to use the most useful features. The device forces you to press the menu button then scroll and click through menus to do things they should just have a button on the device to get you to, like file browsing, playlists, bass boost and cut, and altering the tempo of the song.

Quality:

The device is solid. It's problem is that it is buggy when transferring files from Mac computers. The MP-BT1 won't stay mounted, consequently you can burn an hour trying to put 3 new songs on it to learn. Eventually I gave up and moved the songs to a PC, then moved the songs from the PC to the Tascam and things worked fine then.

Manufacturer Support:

There are no help forums or documents or even an FAQ on Tascam's website. The only thing you can do to help yourself is contact them by telephone, or contact Sameday Music by telephone about the difficulties you may be having. Not good -- especially if you need to solve a problem after hours.

Value:

Ironically, the Tascam Bass Trainer would be better if they dispensed with the useless features, like fuzz bass effects, lowered the price, and worked on making the trainer less menu intensive so that it focused on the REAL reason bass players by a gadget like this: to help them learn to play bass lines. I'd pay $200 for this again if it cut the fat and presented the meat better.

The Wow Factor:

Even with its shortcomings, the bass trainer beats grabbing a mouse to start and stop (and loop) songs again and a gain on a computer, or with an ipod.

Overall:

The sound quality of songs slowed down is terrible, but good enough to help you learn the song. The looping is easy and intuitive and extremely helpful. The bass boost is great, it helps you hear what you are trying to learn which is especially helpful when the tempo is changed, 'cause that sound quality really does fart out. The bass cut is great as well. It allows you to hear YOUR playing in their mix. Not only is that more fun than playing with a metronome, but you can hear where you might have the notes right, but not the technique.