If the recorder was compressing/limiting too much, perhaps the record level was too high. At this stage of the process you need to leave plenty of headroom.
I use a Zoom H5. That allows me to capture a direct feed from the board along with the mics. The mics alone tend to sound too "roomy." The direct feed alone tends to be missing amps and drums. If the recorder is back in the room then there's a bit of delay in the sound getting to the mics, which can be fixed in post.
I think you will have to choose between good and easy. Good is going to require more time and effort.
Thanks. I thought the levels were too high as well, however, the recorder was always about -12db to -9db most of the time (even during many of the peaks). The recorder has a "peak" light on it, but it never illuminated. I kept the "input" level of the recorder low (through the recorder's controls), just so no compression (at least heavy compression) would take place.
I may need to upgrade the recorder. I don't think the DR-07 mkII is meant for high SPL. I'll put an H5 on my list of possible replacements.
Bob - check the settings on your Tascam. On my Zoom H2, it will apply compression automatically unless I turn it off and change recording to 24/48. As Patrick also mentioned, gain level may be too high. Good luck on this.
Looks like the recorder has a default compression (something that can't be changed). I'll take a look at the H2 as well.
In handheld recorders headphone outputs are intended to check the recorded signal for major problems not to check the final sound quality or feed an external recorder. The headphone out sound quality is often much noisier and audibly worse than the recorded sound quality.
Good point. I checked the DR-07. The output shows head-phone and line-out for the output. I've never noticed it noisy or bad... however, I don't have another recorder to compare it to.
