good quality portable digital audio recorder?

dg27

dg27

New member
I'm going to resume rehearsing regularly with a full band and need to upgrade and get a portable digital audio recorder. I have always recorded rehearsals in the past and the last rehearsal studio I was using had a CD recorder in the room.

I played with someone in December who had what might have been a Zoom.

I'm looking for a unit that records in stereo, saves to a card (hopefully .wav) and that's mountable on a mic stand.

I use Pro Tools if it matters and do not want to have to use any other DAW.

This is really just to get a decent recording to evaluate rehearsals: Not looking for super high quality.

Would like to keep it around $300 max.

All suggestions welcome.

Thanks.

dg
 
Re: good quality portable digital audioo recorder?

Re: good quality portable digital audioo recorder?

Well...
I've been wanting a Zoom H4n for a while. They are actually a 4 track with stereo top mounted mics, or stereo dual-input plugs on the bottom for like a mixdown. Turns out I'm behind the times, as the now have an H6 with modular microphone thingies like unidirectional, shotgun, cross stereo and duel TRS in for some reason and 4 discrete track recording with what looks like 2 inputs per side.

It's about the size of a 1590bb pedal, it looks like. I know some film guys will strap these onto their cameras for separate sound. It's $400, the H4 is $250, the H2 is what, looks like $200...

The H4 will probably do everything you want right now, but if you can push it up to the H6 it might take care of everything you will ever want.
 
Re: good quality portable digital audioo recorder?

Re: good quality portable digital audioo recorder?

I have a Tascam DR1 that I love; there are newer models out now.
 
Re: good quality portable digital audioo recorder?

Re: good quality portable digital audioo recorder?

jon the art guy said:
The H4 will probably do everything you want right now, but if you can push it up to the H6 it might take care of everything you will ever want.
Click to expand...

This is good to know. I'll check it out.

Thanks!

dg
 
Re: good quality portable digital audioo recorder?

Re: good quality portable digital audioo recorder?

I run a Sony SX-750 now but it's an older unit and I don't know what the current equivalent is. I throw it down where I'm playing and many times I just lay it in a seat in the 1st row. The quality of the recording with the built in high quality mics is consistently jaw dropping good. It flat has buried the Zooms and such I have owned in the past in every way. I currently own a Zoom Q-3 HD Video recorder and the sound quality with the little Sony using the internal stereo mics on both many times sitting side by side is always better than the Zoom. Wasn't cheap but is in your target budget and was for me worth every cent!! With what I do with all the spontaneous improv I always have multiple recorders both pure audio and video with me every single time I play out.
A few live audio clips recorded with it.
https://app.box.com/s/hi3so3xhrf4m758wxbvw
https://app.box.com/s/hcffmbpity6127puiafl
https://app.box.com/s/q6u4nggyksy02m4mttdr
It easily handles a loud environment this is a black church praise break.
https://app.box.com/s/oicspf1z95u8etuuav8o
It uses rechargeable batteries and will record not hours but DAYS of music at one time!
 
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Re: good quality portable digital audioo recorder?

Re: good quality portable digital audioo recorder?

I still use my Boss BR-1600CD. The first true multitrack all in one I got. All you need to do is plug the mics in, it does the input line check automatically and then just jam! It has incredibly clean sound and I've captured some of the best performances with that unit and then it's a snap to just chuck it into your DAW with USB or a CD-RW.

If you need something more portable, the ZOOM MRS series can be battery powered. I had a Zoom MRS-8 but it only did 2 simultaneous multitracks. However it can't be beaten for portability and it even writes to SD cards.
 
Re: good quality portable digital audioo recorder?

Re: good quality portable digital audioo recorder?

Thanks for the heads-up on the Tascam. I used a PortaStudio for years, so I have a favor4able impression of them overall.

One thing that's driving me a little nuts is that the guy I saw using one of these (who I am not in contact with) mounted it on a mic stand as soon as we got to the rehearsal space. But none of these seem to have that capability.

This Tascam is $100 off @ B&H till 03/27:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/832911-REG/Tascam_DR100MKII_DR_100mkII_Portable_Linear.html

A steal?
 
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Re: good quality portable digital audioo recorder?

Re: good quality portable digital audioo recorder?

That one says is has a tripod mount, so you should be good to go with that. You can see what looks to be a threaded mount point on the picture of the back of it. The price looks very good, but it's always worth shopping around to see if there are any better deals on offer.
 
Re: good quality portable digital audioo recorder?

Re: good quality portable digital audioo recorder?

The h4 and h6 have a thread mount on the back of the device. it'd be mounted 90 degrees and on a tripod mount, which is just a 1/4in bolt of a currently unknown thread pitch. There's got to be a billion different mounting adapters for 5 bucks as well.
 
Re: good quality portable digital audioo recorder?

Re: good quality portable digital audioo recorder?

Thanks Chris of Arabia and jon the art guy...

B&H is my go-to source for a lot of stuff, so I'm going to check these out.
 
Re: good quality portable digital audioo recorder?

Re: good quality portable digital audioo recorder?

I managed to locate and contact the guy I played with who had one of these: It was a Zoom H6 and he says he loves it...
 
Re: good quality portable digital audioo recorder?

Re: good quality portable digital audioo recorder?

dg27 said:
Thanks, Ascension. It looks like the new version of what you have is this:

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-ICD-SX712-Digital-Flash-Recorder/dp/B004M8ST2W/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

I need to read the specs in terms of the file formats it captures.

dg
Click to expand...

Look hard at the Sony man and yes that is the current version of what I have. It's not what you would think of first so might not have been on your radar. I have been using digital field recorders for over 10 years now every time I play out and that Sony SX has been by far the best unit I have owned. it's such a TINY little unit that easily fits in your pocket and then knocks you out with the record quality + is super easy to use. With the internal memory and how it's set up it's super easy to record edit and then dump directly to your PC. I have literately thousands of live tracks saved and many many posted on Box net or Sound Click.
 
Re: good quality portable digital audioo recorder?

Re: good quality portable digital audioo recorder?

Ascension said:
Look hard at the Sony man and yes that is the current version of what I have.
Click to expand...

Turns out the SX712 has been discontinued (though it's still on Amazon). The new one (SX733) looks like a serious downgrade.

I will check out the SX712 though--thanks!

dg
 
Re: good quality portable digital audioo recorder?

Re: good quality portable digital audioo recorder?

A buddy of mine is a sound designer, making audio FX packs / sets for films and AAA computer games (Crysis 1-3, Ryse and the new Witcher among a lot of others):



He is using Zoom H4. He creates amazing things with it.
 
Re: good quality portable digital audio recorder?

I've pretty much decided that it'll be either a Zoom or a Tascam.

NecroPolo said:
He is using Zoom H4. He creates amazing things with it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads-up on the H4 (new one is the H4n):

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/600761-REG/Zoom_H4N_H4n_Handy_Mobile_4_Track.html

I think that one is a direct competitor of the Tascam DR-100mkII:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/832911-REG/Tascam_DR100MKII_DR_100mkII_Portable_Linear.html

That one gets mixed reviews for the built-in mics, which is an issue: I don't want to have to use external mics.

My ideal would be the H6:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/967366-REG/zoom_h6_handy_audio_recorder.html

but it's pretty pricey and I don't know that I can justify it.

The Zoom H4n seems to be the best bet overall. I just wonder if there are really crucial features on the H6 that the H4n does not have.
 
Re: good quality portable digital audio recorder?

I recently picked up a Tascam DP-24 for $500 to get my workflow out of the DAW. It records on SD cards and can be exported to .wav. Can be transferred over usb or by card. You could probably fit it on a music stand.

Its pretty amazing in features. You don't really need a DAW to make good music with it. Sound quality is much higher than I expected. It can also double as a digital mixer for a band. Has 8 XLR combo inputs.

For a few hudred more than the small recorders, this is a great value.
 
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Re: good quality portable digital audioo recorder?

Re: good quality portable digital audioo recorder?

Thanks--good to know, but I'm looking for a form factor like the Zooms or the Tascam DR-100.
 
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