Portable field recorders

[excellrec]

I looked this up on here but got little info.. Basically what i want is a field recorder with these options..

at least an hours worth of record time
at least...... four hours battery time
stereo with phantom power....xlr inputs prefferable
quiet pre's!

Mainly i wish to use this for field stuff, gathering samples of wierd noises and people when they are unaware . I want to be able to toss it in my backpack and go. My budget is about seven hundred dollars. I was thinking of getting the pmd670... but it will be a bit more than that to get everything i need for it...so i don't know maybe i will still just get that.

Some other things i was considering is the cheaper $400 u.s.d. maranatz tape recorders. Normally i would just presume this to be a horrible idea....but they are new machines... i guess i havent checked on tape in awhile, how does it sound?

Or perhaps a minidisc recorder with the little 1/8" plugs, then some of these
http://www.outwardsound.com/product/...6f0a7b0bffd7c4
this is appealing because this would be extremely small and excellent for just getting sounds as they happen in my journey's (not to mention if the binaural aspect) ... however i fear that if i decide to stop off somehwere and do some higher quality recordings with some good mics i'll be out of luck....unloess there are reasonable 1/8" jack mics thast dont need phantom...electret condensers? grudge

Anywho, thoughts appreciated, thanks, Arit

[ozraves]

these guys are the taper dudes: http://www.taperssection.com/

[Raw-Tracks]

You might look into the Marantz CDR300 portable CD recorder. That might work for you.

[radiovoiceone]

For what you want, the Marantz card recorder should do just fine.
If i was recording music, I'd want to use outboard pres because the ones in the machine are ok but not great.
It does provide all the other stuff you want including phantom power on the mic inputs.
These have been used by radio reporters for a few years.
The early ones ate batteries like crazy but the newest model apparently offers better battery life.
See if you can get your retailer to let you try one out for a week or so and see if it does the job for you.

[djui5]

The Nagra is awesome also...

[James Lehmann]

The Tascam DAP-1 Portable DAT is the only unit I can think of that provides you with all you need and more in one box (esp. the phantom power). Tried and trusted technology, used on movie sets etc. Obviously the mic-pre's won't put API out of business but this package would be a big step up from the Minidisc/dynamic mic route anyway. Although the latter wins in the budget and size department. It's a bit beyond your stated budget, but maybe you'd get a good deal somewhere.

[excellrec]

thanks for the responses guys....

djui- when you say "the nagra" what do you mean, from what i understand . this is a company offering multiple products.

james- i like the tascam unit alright, i guess i thought they were to spendy....but i guess they've gone for as little as 670 u.s.d. on ebay! So perhaps i will purchase one of those!

erick21- i have seen the cd recorder, something creeps me out about recording direct to cd..... do you have experience with this? is it gonna get screwy if i'm on my bike and it gets a little jolt? does it take ages to set-up disks... set-up between recording, so on and so-forth?

right now i think the tascam may be my pick.....i am checking out that tapers forum when i get a chance and will try to find out more there, the only thing that still has me a bit undecided is the fact that the tascam uses dat which is not a huge pain but an inconvienince to manually playback and record your data onto the computer, where the marantz can just drag and drop data

[Raw-Tracks]

Originally posted by excellrec
thanks for the responses guys....

erick21- i have seen the cd recorder, something creeps me out about recording direct to cd..... do you have experience with this? is it gonna get screwy if i'm on my bike and it gets a little jolt? does it take ages to set-up disks... set-up between recording, so on and so-forth?

I have not used the CDR300 extensively. I do know that it has to be on stable ground when recording. So no bike rides. You will also lose your disc if you lose power during recording. It probably is not the best unit for your purpose. I think the Marantz PMD670 solid state recorder would be your best bet.

[excellrec]

Originally posted by erick21
You will also lose your disc if you lose power during recording.

holy crap that is awful

[MIKEHARRIS]

the Tascam is cool...the dat format may not be round forever (who is these days)...and you will need to transfer to a dig wrkstation to edit

[djui5]

Originally posted by excellrec
thanks for the responses guys....

djui- when you say "the nagra" what do you mean, from what i understand . this is a company offering multiple products.

My appoligies for not being specific.

The Nagra D/DII or the Nagra V would suite you well. You could drop these thing's off a bridge and they would still work. They're also the most used field recorders in the film industry, are highly stable and sound awesome. The Nagra D/DII are tape based recording while the Nagra V has a 2.5" hard drive...

I do believe all three unit's come with phantom power on the mic inputs also.

They also make more budget minded units like the Nagra ARES-C that store audio to PCMCIA cards.

[uosdwis]

Core Sound has released a product which is basically a S/PDIF input card, that plugs right into standard PDA's, such as iPAQ's. That along with any portable frontend (they also have their own) and a sizeable memory card would be a really elegant and extremely handy solution. It's even high-res cabable!

PDA's are cheap (especially used ones), memory cards are cheap (less than $50/GB now) and the interface itself is only $199.

Check it out, just follow this link. I'd be very interested in how such a thing works out when put to real use.

Cheers,

uosdwis