Portable digital recorders?

I need a digital recorder, and I was just going to go with the maudio microtrack, but apparently that has been discontinued.

I need something in the same price range, with a stereo in port.

Any recommendations watmm? I'd love a Sony PCM dm50, but that's too expensive...

Zoom H4N? I may upgrade to that from my H2 in the future.

Hmm looks like there is a cheaper Sony ... The PCM m10.

Good reviews online....

My Edirol 09HR has been very good to me and the sound quality is excellent and has a decent feature set like analogue limiter, HPF, AA batteries, SD expandable. It also pokes out of a jacket pocket nicely so you can bootleg gigs inconspicuously

The Olympus/Yamaha's had weaker bass response (same mics apparently) and the Sony PCM D50 is too big, almost twice the price, bulky and looks too obvious. The Zoom stuff is good value but a mate of mine who used to work in a music store said they were getting those back for repair all the time. I remember some audio shootout on the net and the Edirol wasn't far behind the sony in terms of sound quality and both were substantially better then the lesser rivals.

I think they've released a cheaper version of the 09 under Roland recently.

ZOOM H1 has the same mic capsules as in H4N and costs 99$. You won't find anything better for that price.

I've used the H2 quite a few times. It's pretty good. A friend showed me the new H1, and it's pretty damn good, too, especially for the price.

MiniDisc all the way

The Zooms are ace (well my H2 certainly is anyways !)

  On 6/23/2011 at 8:18 PM, soundwave said:

My Edirol 09HR has been very good to me and the sound quality is excellent and has a decent feature set like analogue limiter, HPF, AA batteries, SD expandable. It also pokes out of a jacket pocket nicely so you can bootleg gigs inconspicuously

seconded.

too many choices!

Get a zoom.

ZOOM H1!!!!

Agreed, my Zoom H1 has never given me the slightest bit of trouble.

i've got the zoom h2 and it's outsatanding in terms of quality/price.

feels a bit plastic, but the recor4dings speak for themselves.

get a decent windshield for it though.

a hundred quid for 48/96 quad recording. and the mic is pretty sensitive.

It's bloody ace huh ! NB If you do get it, DON'T use the supplied SD card - the data transfer rate isn't quite quick enough resulting in clicks in your recordings and thus you'll think the units broken when it's not. It's only 512Mb so you'd probably get a new one anyways ....

As for a windshield, I've got this one -

It's meant for Rode NT4 mics ( http://www.mpex.com/browse.cfm/4,13396.html ) but fits nice and snugly over the top of the H2 fine and ends up looking like some mutated furby -

In zoom h1 there are no problems with the supplied card, and it's 2gb :sup:

As for windshields, I use this if it's windy

And this if it's very windy.

Well, I got the Olympus LS-11 US

They didn't have much of a selection... but I needed the recorder for my show tomorrow. There is a 60 day return policy though, so if I don't like it, Ill return it, and reconsider.

I'll let you guys know what I think...

I heart bad photoshopping!

Anyways, zoom all the way! :sup:

Really helpful thread, something i wanna do is start making field recordings and adding it to my music.

Probably a dumb question: Are portable records good to record sounds like claps, snares etc? Or would a mic be better for that?

Thanks

fucking a, those really good wind shields that mcbpete posted to are VERY attractive to my dog, he's already destroyed 2 of them. Something about whatever fabric or animal hair they use to make them really turns him on

  On 11/6/2011 at 6:26 PM, funkaholic said:

Really helpful thread, something i wanna do is start making field recordings and adding it to my music.

 

Probably a dumb question: Are portable records good to record sounds like claps, snares etc? Or would a mic be better for that?

 

Thanks

it depends on how you want to record them. If you are going after a traditional studio rock band style drum kit sound, you need both 'overhead' mics (which is what the zoom would kind of act as) and mics individually micing each drum sound, bass, snare, toms, etc. The overheads usually are designed to capture the cymbals and the overally room reverb sound of the drums.

claps on the other hand i think actually sound great with just a far away pair of stereo microphones. Go into a relatively large room, not a studio room and clap a few times. The reverb is what you want if you are doing it alone. If with a group of people the farther away the recording the better, the closer up and less reverb there is on a clap sound the more shitty and paper-ish it sounds

Thanks a lot Awepittance, I don't have a drum kit but I am thinking of buying some very small things like wood block, shakers etc and then maybe a snare drum & hi-hat as I'd like to record it myself instead of relying on sampling/sound packs. Thanks for the tip on the claps, I guessed it would work something like that. I want more "real" things in my music, it was inspired by Luomo 'VocalCity' album, I love all the odd recordings in the background and the recorded instruments.

Soon i will be recording nights out and making tracks out them and sending them anonymously to the friends i was with!

I have a Zoom H1 on my Christmas wishlist. ;)

The Tascam DR-03 would make a good stocking stuffer. Its cheap enough to be careless with but good enough to keep handy.

I swear by my Edirol R-09, although I'd imagine there are many other digital recorders that are just as good, but I haven't used them personally to know for sure. Make sure it's lossless and can record to an SD card. A modern, digital, portable sound recorder is the most convenient thing in the world, so light and small you can take it with you everywhere, then when you're back in your studio you can just slide out the card and move the files. Next picnic with your girlfriend, find a clanging gate in the park for an Alberto Balsalm style track! :D I used mine to record the birds in Coldrum Stones, the clanging knives used in a bunch of tracks, and a whole bunch of other things. It's also great to keep by your bed to jot down ideas in the middle of the night without having to write down notation at three in the morning. Just hum it! So yeah, by all means, go cheap, go second hand, but don't go DAT or MiniDisc cheap, it's not worth the hassle of transferring the data across, or in the MiniDisc's case, having a lossy format. Portable sound recorders are the unsung champions of recorded music, putting the squeaky shoes and flickerboards in Tha!