Portable Sound/Field Recorder

[proober glombat]

Hi,

Anyone got any tips on a decent portable sound recorder? There seems to be a few out there, I've got around 300-400 to throw at it if needs be.

Thanks!

[komakid]

Originally Posted by proober glombat

Hi,

Anyone got any tips on a decent portable sound recorder? There seems to be a few out there, I've got around 300-400 to throw at it if needs be.

Thanks!

Among all the low budget recorders Edirol is quite decent.

[kams]

i was looking at these the other day and the Tascam DR100 looked good.. not used or heard any of them though

[proober glombat]

have plumped for one of these in the end.
even though they're £500 here I foundone in the US for £280 [+£60 delivery] which should be here by next week [just hope I don't get stung for import tax!]
cheers for the recomendation kams, the tascam looked good too.

[Hectic Cum Balthazar]

very nice choice, just spending that little bit extra on the Sony is totally worth it, head and shoulder above the Zooms, Tascams etc.

I bought my £3000 field recorder from the states and didn't pay any customs charges because I got them to declare it as an mp3 player. which it is. Amongst other things
The only other tariff category which it would have vaguely fitted in would be 'musical instrument', but it's clearly closer to an MP3 player than a guitar.

[proober glombat]

Originally Posted by Hectic Cum Balthazar

very nice choice, just spending that little bit extra on the Sony is totally worth it, head and shoulder above the Zooms, Tascams etc.

I bought my £3000 field recorder from the states and didn't pay any customs charges because I got them to declare it as an mp3 player. which it is. Amongst other things
The only other tariff category which it would have vaguely fitted in would be 'musical instrument', but it's clearly closer to an MP3 player than a guitar.

ace, I was half-dreading your reply when I saw the Hectic had entered the discussion !

£3000??? what do you do Balthazar? Sound design? Print money?

I'm using it for a theatre show set in a 40ft container and to collect found sounds for an arty installation I've got a 5k grant for. This is the first toy I've used any of the money for. Fun.

They've already sent it out otherwise I would've asked them to declare it as an mp3 player too, good thunking. Maybe they will anyhoo, they seem to have dealt with the UK before. Only prob I can see is the power pack not being compatible here?

Looking forward to having a play.

[Hectic Cum Balthazar]

Aye I do sound for games, I did a job a few years ago where I had to travel around the uk and germany recording trains, it had taken the people organising the sessions months or even years to get it all sorted out so recorder needed to be reliable. I didn't make any profit as such but I pretty much paid for the recorder... I don't bother buying posh microphones though, you can hire really decent mics for not much money at all and get something perfect for the job in hand.

Anyway my point really was that regardless of total price, you shouldn't need to pay duty... but it does depend how the place shipping it declares it.

[kams]

can I brag yet?

[Hectic Cum Balthazar]

bbbbeeeeowwwwooozagagGAGgagGAG AGAGAGAGaaaaoooeewww

[kams]

i'll wait till the albums done

[Hectic Cum Balthazar]

2045 is going to be a fruitful year indeed!

[proober glombat]

had to pay £41 import tax

@kams brag?

[Hectic Cum Balthazar]

still a bargain to be honest though

[dan gulberry]

Hey all,

I'm thinking of buying something portable to record with, but that can also record several tracks (not necessarily simultaneous), to take to the studio instead of my laptop, and record instruments. I'll be using an AKG c4000b mic, and maybe another condenser, so I need phantom power.

Lots of the newer portable recorded can record several tracks at once...but I'm not sure of the quality of these (ZOOM, Tascam, Korg SOS etc). Anyone have any experience? I don't want to pay much more than 500 euros. That said, many of the newer ones are suspiciously inexpensive!

The new Tascam DR-40 looks ok. Olympus LS100 looks very good.

I'll probably use Thomann, so I can at least have a 30-day trial.

[dan gulberry]

LS100 clearly not ready for release. Multitracking mode is problematic, no direct monitoring as yet, and occasional freezes. Otherwise it's really great, preamps sound decent. Back to Thomann for now.

[love_tempo]

I've used the slightly larger Edirol one at Univ. and it did a good job with a Rode NT4 stereo mic.

[P-Hocto]

My housemate has this. Excellent mics that sound top to me, crazy functionality, loads of modes, 2 extra line ins that can be used simultaneously, can be used as a soundcard for direct to DAW recording, cooks, cleans and gives good head. http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/products/h4n/

[FORMAT]

Originally Posted by proober glombat

had to pay £41 import tax

@kams brag?

Would you mind sharing your opinion on the Sony D50?

[M H]

Originally Posted by dan gulberry

Hey all,

I'm thinking of buying something portable to record with, but that can also record several tracks (not necessarily simultaneous), to take to the studio instead of my laptop, and record instruments. I'll be using an AKG c4000b mic, and maybe another condenser, so I need phantom power.

Lots of the newer portable recorded can record several tracks at once...but I'm not sure of the quality of these (ZOOM, Tascam, Korg SOS etc). Anyone have any experience? I don't want to pay much more than 500 euros. That said, many of the newer ones are suspiciously inexpensive!

The new Tascam DR-40 looks ok. Olympus LS100 looks very good.

I'll probably use Thomann, so I can at least have a 30-day trial.

I like my zoom H4n, but I like to record mixes in clubs a lot....so I like the simoultaneous 4 input record... it does have phantom power though...

[WON'T DO IT]

Mark, with the Zoom, when you record a mix, if you set the input and the mic, do you end up with 2 seperate wavs , one of music and one of mic music and crowd noise which you later match up in logic or whatever?

[P-Hocto]

That's exactly what it does. It makes a pair of stereo wav files, one for the built in mics and one for the line ins. Great for capturing the atmosphere of a gig with out losing sound quality etc...

[Hectic Cum Balthazar]

it's a great way to record a gig, gives you no doubt it's not come straight from the bedroom.

although if there aren't many people there and they continually cheer less throughout the gig... it's sometimes best to make it sound like it's come straight from the bedroom

[M H]

Originally Posted by WON'T DO IT

Mark, with the Zoom, when you record a mix, if you set the input and the mic, do you end up with 2 seperate wavs , one of music and one of mic music and crowd noise which you later match up in logic or whatever?

yes.