Which Portable Field Recorder?

[hduncan]

Here are a few I found at zzounds... if anyone knows of another model I am missing please let me know! Has anyone had any experience with any of these?

Zoom H2 Portable 2-Track SD Recorder from zZounds.com!

Zoom H4 from zZounds.com!

Edirol R09 from zZounds.com!

Sony PCMD50 96kHz/24bit PCM Recorder With USB from zZounds.com!

what do you all think?

[bcgood]

Yea, your missing this one.



702 Portable Audio Recorder | Sound Devices, LLC

[yoink]

+1 on the Sound Devices

[hduncan]

Wont I need to buy/have a pair of mics for that unit?

[bcgood]

Depends if you want to record mono or stereo. If your budget allows a Sennheiser 416 gun mic with Rycote windshield and windjammer is industry standard.

[vernier]

I'd get a cassette recorder.

[hduncan]

I probably should have mentioned that I am trying to give my lady a list of potential christmas gifts for me, one of which is some sort of portable recording device (I like to sample things in my music) so the price would probably need to be below $500.00...

that big fluffy sennheiser is enticing though!

[tnjazz]

Originally Posted by DarkEcho

the price would probably need to be below $500.00...

No deck in that price range will have truly superior built in mics (you'll really need an external and a preamp to step up the quality) but I have heard good things about the built in mics on the Edirol R-09.

I had one for a while and it's very easy to use, but I never used the built in mics so I can't comment on those directly. I know a few people who have though, and they are quite satisfied with the results they're getting.

In the sub-$500 category that unit would be my choice.

[hduncan]

thanks tnjazz I was between that one and the sony,

bdasilva, I wanted to record noises from whatever, washing machine, cars, manufacturing plants, for use in my music to provide a textural backdrop. while quality is important to me, I am not sure if I need the industry standard.

I am not sure what results I would get with the >500$ devices.. Maybe I should just buy a collection of samples in the category of industrial from Sound Ideas Sound Effects, Royalty Free Music & Production Elements or something.

not sure...

[gsilbers]

well i have about a terabyte of sound effects and its cool if you know what you are looking for. if i need rain ambience i type rain in the finder and thats it.

but if i want to record something specific that inspires you like girls singing candyshop while jumproping or your cat doing wierd noises or an idea for a song then getting a portable recorder like the m-audio oe edirol are pretty cool. or a cassette one which are pretty cheap. if you see that u like using the tape recorder but dont likee the hiss then an upgrade to the ones you mentioned

[diamondjim]

For the money ($179) the Zoom H2 is pretty hard to beat. I like the variable patterns. The mics are also decent. The best thing is you can mount it on a mic stand using the adapter, or use the supplied tripod feet and set it on a table.

That plus a $40 card upgrade to 2 gig and you can do about 3 hours of 24 bit 44.1 khz wav's. Transferring to computer via USB was simple and fast.

[hduncan]

I am into heavy machinery noises and slowed down servos. that kind of thing that I would build into a percussion section.

I am thinking it would be hard for me to even sample these kinds of things if I did have a great setup, since no giant robots live near me.

maybe I should spend my 500 bucks on a sample library from soundideas... "The Works" is basically exactly what I want.