JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques Recording Studio and Gear Forum What Is Best Portable Recorder?

I live right at the point of Lake Superior with a marina dock and many birds.

What would be the best portable recording device to record sounds?

Matt

a laptop computer with a mic and audio interface.

Thanks Jody!

Any brand you suggest?

I was thinking along the lines of a laptop, but was'nt sure if there was something better.
I have a friend that switched to a Hewlett Packard, which sounded a lot better than the previous laptop.

But he is'nt into music, and the ones I know in bands where I live are not into computers, just gigging.

Matt

One laptop to another isn't going to sound better.

What's important is ease of use. You can't beat a Macbook or Macbook Pro for ease of use and widest range of software/hardware compatibility.

What will make a difference is the mic and the audio interface.

yep. Laptop.
I plug mine into the line out on the Berringer desk the venue uses and record the whole four hour karoake nights sometimes.
Takes 20 minutes for the roughly 2 gig file to both save and open abagin next morning for editing, but recording works fine, and by selecting the individual wave clusters one at atime and saving them as one two three etc, I get them all as individual performances that can be edited and cropped in the normal way using Audacity or Wavestudio.
I adjust the recording level while doing my welcome to the show song at opening, and just let it rip from then on.
Graham

Thanks Graham and Jody!

20 minutes to upload 2GB is incredible. At least to me.
Especially with all the options.

All I have had has been PC's.
Even though I have had computers since 1995 (God, I was a boy!), I was under the impression at the time that only a PC could work good for the internet.
I was mainly into school studies before digital recording.
So that's what I used for music.
Now I am trying to figure out MIDI, and I am only in rewire mode on my PC. I still only have 528 MB of RAM also.
I know a laptop and swithching to an Apple in my home would probably be a lot better and easier to use.
Apple and laptops probably don't have all that rewire BS(?).

I wonder how many musicians do everything by laptop nowadays?
Like you said Jody, the brand does'nt matter, maybe size does'nt either.
I still can't get used to that thought.
How could this little briefcase size computer make such a full sound?

I'm going to check into both those brands mentioned.
I have heard good things about Behringer too.


Matt

That 20 minutes is saving and opening, not uploading.
The laptop has 528 M of ram and a 40 gig hard drive.
It is no hassle as it is saving while i am breaking down the sound gear, and opening while I have breakfast, and is four hours long, and has something like 50 seperate sings in it, so the time taker is saving it as individuals files.
I would say a lot of music is now done with laptops.
Most of the touring bands I Know now use one to either record their show, or to hold their backing tracks when used, and Karoake shows are now using them (usually with a big USB hard drive added to holf their song files on added) insteasd of dedicated VCD and CDG players and a trunk full of CDs.
As the requests come in they are added to the playlist in the order they came in and no making mistakes of firing up the wroong player as sometimes happens using the usual multi decks to cue up in front of the program.
Graham

Your laptop has the same specs as my PC.
But you obviously have a lot more flexibility.
I sometimes forget that laptops can have many GB's of hard drive nowadays.
It did'nt seem like long ago when laptops could'nt get past 10 GB's

I guess I have been so much into the early methods of recording that I have missed out on a lot with new technology.
All the multitracking and great sounds which would have cost thousands of dollars to record in the past.

I still will always crank on my tube amp.
I even carried around a cheap tape recorder to record sounds.
But it sounds, to put it mildly, horrible on a digital spectrum.

The only karoakes I have used have been the analog type.
Putting any type of tape player into one mic jack while I play in the other.
Anything with a line in or mic jack for that matter, I would hook into with a patch cord, regardless of quality.

The laptop is going to be a whole other dimension to me.

Advice much appreciated!

Thanks again!

Matt

Laptops are good, I use one too. But I recently got a Zoom "H4" and a 1Gb chip. It's got mics built-in, and comes with a windscreen, and wall-wart. It'll do 44.1 wav or MP3 of your desired bit depth (160kbit will let you do a bajilion hours on 1Gb). I got it to tote around and record random environmental sounds, and it's turned out to be much more useful than I thought.

It's not so cheap to be throw-away, but if you accidentally dunked it in the lake I bet you'd feel less bad than if you dunked your laptop [G]. Just my $0.02...

Thanks John!

That's why I did'nt immediately get a laptop.
Back when I taped recorded everything, there was this Sony recorder that looked just like a walkman that recorded sounds onto tape.
Did a great job, but only in a cassette enviroment.

I am going to get a laptop because of the options.
But maybe I will just get both.

I work more extra hours than regular hours.
Music and sites like this are my great escape.

I keep out of trouble that way.

Thanks all!

Matt

To give a little update of this post, I had checked out the leads here. The cheapest Mac laptop I could find where I live is $1399.
And also over a thousand on the net. I have been considering seeing if someone on the net might be selling a used Mac that is'nt older than 2002.
I have seen only good things about zoom.
There is also a Roland WAV/MP3 recorder I came across for just under $400 on both the companies site and the retail outlet Best Buy.
But for my needs, I think a good used laptop would do the trick.
I like seventies and eighties music and do recordings in a pre-automated enviroment (before digital).
But even in the seventies and eighties there were the nice mixing panels with the graphic outlays.
I have been using a MIDI and Cubase compliant musical interface and laying down tracks with that for the last 2 months.
A laptop would'nt have the noise from the fan and the glitches a PC would have, and I don't think getting some extravagant recorder would be neccessary.
Any opinions on either a WAV/MP3 recorder or a laptop?
I know this has gone beyond recording by the lake.
I should have thought of that detail at home too.

Matt

The Zoom H4 can be configured to function as a 4 track, and has built-in effects in that mode. So if you're wanting something ultraportable that could be a good starter for demos, that might still be the ticket.

Some laptops do have fans and fan noise, and some have obnoxious hard drive whine. The fan noise is a function of how hard you are working the CPU (which on an audio application is usually higher, due to the continuous processing of data when recording or playing back). So I would not categorically assume there will not be noise.

Obviously the laptop will have a higher flexibility, and so if it's gonna have to be 'everything', then I think it's a slam dunk decision. Buying a "good" used one will require finding a source you can trust as far as the provenance of the laptop, and whether it was well-taken-care-of or not.

Good luck!

Hello everyone,

I have a MacBook Pro and I've been recording straight in with the onboard microphone and Garage Band. I don't have much money left, the MacBook Pro was a gift! I am looking for a $200 interface to use. There are many choices and I'm confused. I do one guitar, one voice, sometimes a harmonica. Any suggestions for an interface?

RG

"Switters"- an M-Audio Firewire solo might work. I would check to make sure it'll work OK with Garageband, but it'll give you a starting-out interface that's better than the built-in mic (although you'll need a mic to go with, since this is just an interface, that's all).

The M-audio that John recommended is about the cheapest firewire device out there and it SHOULD work with GB, but ya never know. I'd would simply echo his recommendation (great minds think alike?).

That interface is right at the top of your budget ($200), though. There are a few USB interfaces for less, if that's too much of a stretch:

1. Lexicon Alpha ($100)
2. M-Audio Mobile Pre ($150)
3. Tascam US122 ($150)

There are probably 6-8 USB interfaces that cost around $150 (I didn't list all of them), all of which will probably work with Garageband quite well.

If you can spring for the firewire interface, you'll probably get a little better performance out it (lower latency) than a you'd get with a USB interface.

Post deleted by rita20

Probably one of the best "portable" recording devices would be the PCM-D1 by Sony.

The Zoom H4 would be the closest to it. The Sony has 4 gig internal flash memory storage along with removable memory stick capability.
Yeah, more can be done with a laptop but not as simply and easily.

I've got a Zoom H4 that i intended for the same use but i quickly got frustrated with it. The menu system isn't the greatest as you have to use the cursor on the front and then use the slide on the side to go through menus, sometimes it gets confusing and frustrating.. i ended up giving up, so i only use that now for recording "effects" or recording wee bits'n'bobs that i dont want to forget...

ended up buying a Tascam 2488 and i find myself using it much more than i used the H4 and i hated trying to use my computer (maybe just because its so slow.)..

The H4 is handy and records decent sound and has all the features you could need on something its size especially as it has 48v phantom power as well as DI for guitars etc.. it's a good piece of kit at a good price, i believe there's an H2 now out which is cheaper still but i have no idea on it's ability.

The H2 has more mics (it can record 360) but is not a multi-tracker.

I've just picked up the H2 and haven't had it long enough to report, but I heard and read good things about it. It can also be used as an interface, but I haven't tried that yet.

Steve V

I've got acess to an H-4 from the local Community College. Nice little gizmo. I got to be the first to use it and they let me borrow it over the holiday break. So far we have recorded with the unit itself and with attached Shure sm-58's. Incredible clarity either way. Its a 4-track but i haven't tried tracks yet. So far I've been recording in mp-3 format for use on podcasts. For a singer/guitar player it works great. I did try it in a coffee shop environment but it picked up too much ambient sound. All in all, I have got to get me one of these!!

Rick,

If you get the chance, check out the H2 too. It's about $100 cheaper and I was really pleased with the sound quality. It's pretty simple to use and has several configurations for mic setup (front, back and front and back).

Steve V

Most recording I do is either in a studio or on my PC. I usually sing with a band or sometimes solo with backing tracks. We always use a mixing desk so if we want to record a live performance we plug in a minidisc recorder. It works great. It is only one stereo track but has no ambient noise other than what the dynamic mics pick up and can be easily edited afterwards.
I have a Sony minidisc player/recorder deck. My keyboard player has a Sony walkman minidisc it is about the size of a cig pack.
Each minidisc cassette can record up to 80mins.
It is also handy for playing background music during intervals. We call it our fag packet disco.

I still prefer overdubbing to tracking with sound files, even though I have experimented with sequencing programs.
I want a lean sound with a minimum of overdubs.
But even pre-digital acts have layers of tracks that went into their recordings.
The basic garage sound has been what I have stuck by mostly.
But the production tricks has also intrigued me.
I have been trying to build into my arrangements more with added synths and effects without going overboard.
I really appreciate the feedback here.
Looking at the posts and what goes into the mix.
Even the smallest detail is essential.
I'm both kind of an Al Kooper and David Foster fan, even though it has been more of being in awe from a listeners standpoint than actually trying that.
I like bare bones type of music also to show flaws or plusses, ala natural. But still yet enough to make a recording more palitable to the casual listener. That is where I want to head. But with older conventions also.
That is what brought me mainly to portable recorders and effects to add to a recording.

I have to agree with John and Steve. Re: what Kev said, the menu controls are small but the menu very well-designed, such that the tasks you use most soon become a matter of rote button sequences. I bought a Zoom H2 ($200) to record my practices. The H4 is a little more expensive, but either of these should serve you well. The H2 (and probably the H4) has two mikes in front at a 90 degree spread, and two in back at a 120 degree spread. It picks up sound from in front and behind itself. You can record in stereo or 4-ch. And you can do it in .wav or MP3. There's an example of a nature recording (and I think it's birds) on the web site. Check it out.

http://www.imuso.co.uk/ProductDetail.asp?StockCode=EG01532


check this one out. I own a Tascam DP 1FX, not too portable, but the BOSS I've seen\heard in action and its not bad as a portable. Has built in rhythm tracks too....

I've been thinking of getting the Zoom H2 after its recent review in the March 2008 Acoustic Guitar magazine. They're suggesting the "street" price would be around $200. But back in June 2007 they reviewed a "Belkin TuneTalk" that you can attach to your iPod. As I understood both reviews, they both have the same advantages. And the "street" price of the "BTT" was around $80, but of course, you have to have an iPod to attach it to. Which I don't, yet, but...my real question is - has any one had any experience with the "Belkin TuneTalk"?

Bill in Buffalo, NY

Bill

I also planing to buy this zoom H2. Its handy and no need to bring all the heavy gadget. Just bring the minus one through your mp3 player and ear phone and have the singer belt out in some quiet space. But the downside theres no real time monitoring. The price is still astronomical for me. I will try to delay my gatification.

Lynman