Some tech is useful for everyone, and some tech (like the products covered here) is useful to a select niche, like musicians for instance. However, now and then a product comes along that’s so cool that it makes you giddy, perhaps it’s something the likes of which you have never seen. That’s what the Teenage Engineering TP-7 Field Recorder did for me. I saw this and was struck with an intense curiosity, and after much research, I must say, this field recorder is an extremely versatile piece of kit that could be the holy grail for one or two of you musicians out there and for the rest of us? Well… it’s just really cool!
The TP-7 Field Recorder is exactly that, a field recorder. A handheld device designed to be used with one hand that allows the user to record high-quality audio wherever they happen to be. With inbuilt mics and speakers, for some, the device itself has it all. Record your musical ideas, record acoustic sets and listen to them back all without having to deal with files or any time delay, plus you get to use the digital tape wheel for incredibly precise scrubbing during playback. But there is an even cooler use case. You can use the TP-7 as a portable studio. With a total of 4 line in ports and the potential for multi-channel recording, bringing everything you need to record a song with you in a backpack has never been simpler. Hook up a mic, some keys, a guitar and hit record and the TP-7 handles the rest. Or why not plug it into a computer and use it as a high-quality audio interface through Logic, Ableton, or similar software? The possibilities are endless.
The real pull for this thing is that cool factor. I mean look at it. That design philosophy is to die for and the feature set is incredibly rich. For musicians who collaborate all the time in new places, or those of us who have a song idea, a melody in the back of our head but have nowhere to store it all. Then this is a great niche luxury handheld. And yes, it is a luxury handheld. At £1,299.00 on Andertons and Gear 4 Music the TP-7 doesn’t come cheap, and for the majority, that’s okay, we don’t really need a field recorder. But we can appreciate its coolness. For those of you who are tantalised by this thing then at that price, you know you are getting the best of the best from a brand that has a pedigree. Podcasters, journalists, content creators and musicians could all find a use case for this unique recorder, and for those that do, you will be extremely happy that you did.