Looking for a portable recorder that will allow me to record practice and give fairly accurate results. I have tried a few and they seem to clip a lot of the audio.
Any suggestions appreciated,
Jim
How about using an mp3 player?
Hi Jim,
Here is a post that I was reading recently that has a lot of information in it about a couple of different recorders. http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=18581 (This is not at all designed to discourage more posts to this thread, as I’d like to hear what Michael Eskin thinks of his Marantz and what others think of their equipment).
Myself, I use my pocket pc’s internal mic. If I adjust the gain correctly and record at high enough bit rate, I get some very nice results. Plus, you can get a sound editor and all kinds of great programs for your pocket pc. I used it to great effect last year with our flute choir. I would send the file to our director who would show up the next week with all kinds of ideas based upon what she could hear in the recording but could catch while everything was going on. Some of the pocket pc’s (there is particular HP model, for example, that allows you to attach an external mic as well). I’ve also used it to records session music.
Best,
Erik
I’m pretty happy with my sony minidisc recorder
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?p=301200#301200
The only issue for me is that uploading to the computer is real-time analog upload to the computer. Then again, the thing cost me $100. The iRiver sounds cooler for upload, since it records directly to mp3, and it’s my understanding that you can just drag these files to the hard drive. But it’s a bit more expensive, and there seem to be blips of dropouts every once in a while while recording.
I’m probably going to wait a bit before I replace what I’ve got. Sony has recently admitted recently that they’ve taken the wrong track with media players, making them too restrictive. Might be worth seeing if something better comes out soon.
SONY missed out on potential sales from MP3 players and other gadgets because it was overly proprietary about music and entertainment content, the head of the company’s video-game unit said.
The PMD-670 is great for recording concerts, etc. where you want to use pro mikes and all that, but I wouldn’t recommend it for casual recording of sessions, its pretty big.
These days, I’m considering also picking up the Edirol R1 for a extremely high quality portable recording system:
I use a sony net md witha good quality microphone. I haven’t learnt how to do the net bits yet but I have good quality personal speakers which are great for playing back to practise with. Works well for me (before I used a walkman dictophone - not so great quality but it worked!))
Howdy howdy,
I am an old fart who insists that a modern recording gadget should at least do all the things a $5 tape recorder can do. For example, it should start recording as soon as I press a “record” button. If the battery goes kaput, I should be able to get another battery from the local drug store. If I lend it to someone else, they shouldn’t need a manual to figure out what button to push to play or record.
Hence I am dissatisfied with these expensive MP3 all-in-one thingees. The iRiver, for example, must boot up like a PC before you can start recording. And you can’t “tape over” something, ie delete a track, without syncing it to a computer. And its interface is designed by space devils.
I use a MiniDisc recorder, because it is still the best of old and new. It is almost instant-on, and it has a very simple interface. It is sturdy and simple and uses a AA battery. It lets you edit your recordings, split tracks and delete tracks and move tracks, and you can set it so that all recordings are added to the end of the disc, so nothing gets overwritten.
The only thing wrong with an MD is that Sony doesn’t want you to upload your recordings to a computer, in case you are a muisic pratie. Once they get over their fear of evil consumers, they’ll probably fix this one problem.
Caj
I have just purchased a 256 MB mp3 player from ebay it cost me £12.00 about $20.00 US. Ebay is awash with these little gadgets. It can also be used for storage of ordinary computer files.
For me it is perfect for recording at a pub session as it is small and unobtrusive with a built in microphone, the sound quality is pretty good as well. The only problem is being able to see the tiny screen in a smokey pub.
http://search.ebay.co.uk/mp3-player_Consumer-Electronics_W0QQsacategoryZ293QQsoloctogZ9
This strikes me a bit like saying you won’t buy a car until it can do everything a horse can do. (You know – run on oats, swim, jump smallish obstacles, get you home safely when you’re drunk, etc.)
It’s not that an iRiver wouldn’t be better with some of that functionality – in particular, one-button instant-on recording and running on regular batteries would be great features. (Though perhaps the biggest feature I’d add would be proper time-stamping of recordings.)
It’s just that 200 hours of good-sounding recording time, super-fast digital transfer to computer, working as an iPod-style device, and doubling as a USB hard drive in a pinch is a pretty irresistible package as far as I’m concerned. It’s easily worth the extra effort involved to make sure it’s got time to boot before recording and to recharge the unit as needed.
Where’s the cheapest place to get one of these on the Web?
$440 seems to be the price I’m finding but didn’t want to miss out on any good deals if you’ve found it for cheaper.
-Brett
I did get to actually hold and play with an R1 at the Edirol booth in the NAMM show yesterday. Its a bit bigger than I expected, but still very small. Simple to use, you turn it on, press record to arm the record and allow you to set the microphone levels, press record again and you’re recording. The sample recordings I heard made with the internal mikes sounded great.
I just got a 5 gig mp3 player, Creative Zen Micro, that has an internal mono mic for voice recording. Not sure how great it’s gonna be, there aren’t any imputs for a stereo mic. But this little gadget should suit my needs. anyone else know much about it’s recording capabilities?
-Mike
I’m pretty happy with my Sony ICD-ST25VTP. I used it recently at a music retreat to record tunes and it worked well. I bought it at Fry’s. I forget what I paid but I think it was in the vicinity of $150. The playback on the computer is a lot higher fidelity than the play back through the unit’s speaker.
-Joe
Except, we don’t have the technology to build a horse. We do have the technology to make a recording gadget with all the basic features that tape recorders had in the 1980s.
There are good reasons why nobody has built a car that can run on oats. There is no good reason why an MP3 recorder can’t be nigh-instant-on. Likewise, there is no good reason why a MiniDisc recorder can’t upload files to a PC. We could have all these features, if someone just had the mind to add them.
Caj
If it’s internal microphone is like my Creative Labs N200, the recording won’t be that great. It is “encoding” in .WAV mono 8bits, which is really only suited for speach.
I bought a used Sony minidisc recorder on eBay for 35 dollars, a nice stereo mic that plugs right in the end for another 20, and it’s just flat great! 
I actually use it for recording live music when my band “Fields of Clover” is on a gig, and have included the music direct to CD without any processing but the usual EQ, and it’s lovely!
The discs are certainly inexpensive enough, and my recorder (an older model) gets 80 minutes of music on one. THe newer ones will get hours, and use those same (new) discs in gigabyte mode.
It was an inexpensive and very high-quality solution for us!
Bill Whedon
A friend of mine also looked at the ones at the NAMM show. He said it also has a small range of effects, and a metronome. I like the storage - the same flashcards I use for my camera. And a lot easier to download to your computer than a minidisc player. He said the list price was around $400-$450 but that you should be able to get it for less.
I don’t know how a USB cable is any more or less complicated to use for download to my computer than a stereo audio cable… I have both options, one for the minidisc and one for my MP3 recorder, and they seem, well, pretty much the same WRT over-all complexity. 
With the MP3 thingy, it looks like a file that I have to bring into my sound processing system, and with the minidisc, it goes directly into sound processing and becomes a file. Either way, it ain’t 'zactly rocket science! I suggest that you get whatever tickles your fancy and doesn’t totally deplete your wallet! Heck, I even hook up an old cassette player once in a while!
Just my 2p
Bill Whedon
Well, unless you have a HiMD recording deck, its going to take N hours to transfer that N hour recording from the MD in analog form through your sound card into a file, with degradation first by the MD recording compression itself, and then whatever additional noise is added by your sound card, if you’re using the analog in rather than digital SPDIF or TOSLINK.
By the way, anyone had experience with HiMD digital transfer to the PC yet? I haven’t heard anything good or bad yet.
With the R1, you get the raw 24-bit PCM audio from the compactflash card over USB-2 in just a couple of minutes.
It really depends on what your needs are. I don’t want to have to wait for 3 hours to transfer a MD of a concert over in analog form, with the worry that I might not have the recording levels optimized (too high = clipping) or get a click or pop during the process. My workflow for live recordings is PMD-670 digital CompactFlash recorder → audio editor as .wav file → divide into tracks → dynamic range optimize → final .WAV files → Audio CD. I can have a commercially viable CD of a live event done in the time it would take to transfer the same recording from an MD.
There are no “right” answers here. Depends on your needs, budget, tolerance of techno-babble, computer OS, etc.
Here’s what works for me:
- Tune sucker for sessions:
Sony ICD-ST10 voice recorder with a small Sony “T” stereo mike. Small and the recordings are better than cassette but not as good as MD. The advantage is you press a button and it records, you press another button and it stops. Its tiny. Its relatively cheap. Perfect for sessions. If I really don’t care about the sound quality, the built-in stereo mike is plenty good enough to give me a recording where I can easily pick out a tune.
- High Quality recording of performances, concerts, workshops:
Marantz PMD-670 digital recorder with one or more high quality condensor mikes, usually a Crown SASS-P HTF stereo mike.
Yeah, your points are well taken. I do have to futz with stuff and wait to get the recording from the minidisc to the PC, which is a bit of a pain, though I do kind of enjoy listening on the monitor while it happens. I guess the real advantage is the cost involved - digital recorders that do what we want are still kind of in the realm of the expensive, while I can get a really nice minidisk and mic setup on eBay for around $50 - $75.
I’d definitely agree that if you can afford to go high-quality digital, do it. It’s just not the most affordable option…
Cheers,
Bill Whedon