MP3 recorders for rehearsal recording?

Dankerella

Dankerella

New member
I can't tell if I'm behind or with the digital revolution. I know I'm not ahead, that's for sure.

I just picked up a lil' MP3 player/voice recorder off Ebay (I know, 128 ain't that much memory, but it was cheap):
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4756028932&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWN:IT&rd=1

Anyone tried one yet to record music from a band jam session (or just plain to save riffs/ideas)? I think it'll work because my friend's at work captured ambient talking from a room pretty well. Mine doesn't have a line in, but some do, and you could probably run an input from a mixer with several mics hung around a room for a pretty decent jam recording. I guess maybe you could plug an external mic into the line in, but it would likely need to go through a mixer or pre-amp.

Line in one:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5797243209&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWA:IT&rd=1

Note: if you decide to grab one, watch the shipping and insurance charges. They're high usually.

What the music community needs is one of these that's geared just a little closer towards us. You know they could make one that would be like a tiny MP3 four track or something. I'm not talking with crazy effects and flying faders. Maybe with 2 to 4 mic inputs, so you could clip mics up in a jam room; some reverb, I don't know. I know zoom has their thing and all, but these MP3 players are freaking small and cheap.
 
Last edited:
Re: MP3 recorders for rehearsal recording?

i've done it before. my friend has a 20 gig mp3 with a built in mic. we used to record the 2 guitars with it and it sounded allright. the built in mic couldn't handle loud volumes (in an apartment so that wasn't a prob.) so we couldn't use it to record drums or anything else. If you had a mixer + mics + line in to mp3 it should do pretty good.
 
Re: MP3 recorders for rehearsal recording?

The pressure was too great - I had to get the one with the line in. I'll post how it does....
 
Re: MP3 recorders for rehearsal recording?

I use an SM58 clone hanging from the ceiling, plugged into my laptop running Cakewalk for recording the band's rehearsals. I've got ProTools on there, but it's total overkill for recording a jam session. We use it to pick out what we like from our jams and turn that into a song. Sound quality is better than I expected, but not astounding.

I've never tried an MP3 recorder, mainly because I'm quite satisfied with the current setup.
 
Re: MP3 recorders for rehearsal recording?

Really anything is better than nothing for practice puposes- We often grab 4sub mixes off the house board and as long as the cymbols aren't masking acc gtr parts, etc, you can go a long way with a simple recording set up as long as you realize that this only gives you a feel for the parts not the mix.

On the other hand, we also do occasional refernce mixes, ie is the sound at the booth what we think it is, or does the dobule time bass create the drive we were trying to get? Of course we depend a lot on good engineers for feedback, but over the years, I've really found it important to do a reality check once or twice a year (again regaldless if you are recording mulittrack performances or not)-

The reason I go down this track, is that you can never get exactly what the audience hears, even if you use the stereo dummy heads with ears that are designed for thsi pupose- The best, workable solution for a refernce mix that I have found is either a single reffernce mic recording at the FOH our average saet position (for mono sound reinforcemnt), or if it's got more of an accoustic element, and XY mic set up mixed with a 'back of house' mic-

In other words, taking subs off a mixer will do the least to color your sound, but tells you nothing about how your mix is workign in teh house, while using stage mics an SM58 or even a good condensor liek an AKG414 will color the sound so much that it tells you practically nothign about teh mix.

The good news is that reffernce mics are practically free these days- Lots of engineeers keep them for room equalization, but I think Naddy's got one in the $50 range or there abouts and considering that most folks are doing ampliefied mono, that's a pretty inexpensive way to confirm both parts and the overall mix in one pass-

Anyway have fun- FOH and recording is probalby as fun if not more than actual jamming (did I really say that?:)
 
Re: MP3 recorders for rehearsal recording?

ive tried it...just get a digital recorder, ill be doing that whenever i have the money... i mean the mp3 players DO work, and they get the job done, but it SLAUGHTERS the tone
 
Re: MP3 recorders for rehearsal recording?

cool ideas - thanks!

yeah, I'm sure it won't result in the best quality. but it's more of a once-in-a-while deal where I jam with someone and I just want to remember the riffs, tempo, song structure, and whatever the drummer is doing (turns out they are as forgetful as guitarists).
 
Re: MP3 recorders for rehearsal recording?

If you get a recording device like a minidisc or an mp3 with a line-in then all you need is a cable which goes from twin RCA line out of the mixer to a little line-in jack (same as headphone one) straight into your recorder. Then it doesnt matter how many mics you want to use to pick up the band, you just run them all into the mixer, get the levels right, and run it all out through the one "record output" into your recorder.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top