Affordable recorder recomendation?

[Sworch]

I know this is a little sub-pro but I really hope you fellas can help me out. I've got $300 max to spend on a portable, stereo digital recorder to suit my singer/songwriter/band leader needs.

I'm aware that this price range does necessitate certain compromises. What I hope to achieve is uncompressed stereo audio of practices/ live gigs etc. My primary concerns would be low noise and quick and easy use. My band is semi-acoustic and my main instrument is ukulele so I can't deal with too much noise. I would hope to be able to quickly set recording levels and hit go without having to scroll through a bunch of menus etc.

I would also hope to primarily use the integrated microphones though I would expect line ins. I've seen some models with phantom powered mic pres which would be nice but not a deal breaker as I have ready access to outboard pres and nicer mics if the situation warrants their use.

Anyway that's my situation, here are two contenders I'm now looking at. I hope you fine people can steer me in the right direction. Thank you much.

M-AUDIO - MicroTrack II - Professional 2-Channel Mobile Digital Recorder

Samson - Zoom - H2

[Corran]

Since no one has chimed in:

I think you've got the two contenders in that price range already there. Possibly the Edirol R-09 if budget allows. I personally would go with the Edirol if possible. I am a little hesitant about the Zoom stuff but people say it works, I just try to stay away from the bargain-basement stuff. I used the M-audio (ver 1 though) for several things and didn't like it at all.

Hope that helps.

[Sworch]

Thanks for the reply. In the interim I've done more research and neither of my first 2 ideas will pan out. The Zoom has a lot of noise in all but the built in mics and the M-Audio apparently has battery issues. Both are deal breakers to me.

I will look further at the Edirol. It does appear promising. I also found the Tascam DR-1 which may also suit my purpose.

Again thanks for the opinion. The search continues. If anyone else has anything of use to contribute I would be most obliged.

[Shadow_7]

On the trombone forum, the Microtrack is hated, the Zoom is loved. Pretty much anything under $300 is gonna have a fair amount of self noise and poor battery life.

I've pretty much kept the old laptop as the "cheap" recorder. And jumped up to the Korg MR-1000 for the good stuff. On Ni-MH rechargeables, I had it run 2 hours 43 minutes yesterday with phantom power on at 24 bit and 96kHz. Not quite the battery life I want, but decent for what it is. Nothing else I have sounds as good. That was just the recorded time. I stopped it periodically so I didn't have to deal with large files. But found out afterwards that it breaks the file up at 1GB chunks automagically. Every 31 minutes and 4 seconds at 24 / 96.

[John Willett]

At the low end I think the Edirol R-9HR is the best bet - the tad extra over the standard R-9 is worth it for the HR version.

[Sworch]

Wasn't even aware of the HR version. Thank you very much, looks like I won't be satisfied with the offerings in the sub $300 range. Guess I'll have to save a little and aim for around $500.

[american]

What about the Olympus LS-10?

Does anybody know if the Olympus model offers drag and drop into computer utility?

Does any other brand offer that?

[Corran]

As long as you have a card reader on your computer that can take SD cards (should be about $15 at Best Buy) then you can just take the card out of the recorder and plug it in to there, and then drop those files onto the computer. Oh and it seems that it has a USB connection too. I'm just reading off the specs from musiciansfriend.com:

Buy Olympus LS-10 Linear PCM Recorder online at Musician's Friend

I think pretty much any modern recorder does this, since it's so convenient.

[John Willett]

Originally Posted by american

What about the Olympus LS-10?

This is what I am now going to get as my small portable machine.

[Hornblower64]

If the budget is bumped to $500-600, then the Sony PCM-D50 and the Fostex FR-2LE become possibilities. Both have some advantages over the cheaper recorders. XLR inputs on the Fostex.

[John Willett]

Originally Posted by Hornblower64

If the budget is bumped to $500-600, then the Sony PCM-D50 and the Fostex FR-2LE become possibilities. Both have some advantages over the cheaper recorders. XLR inputs on the Fostex.

I agree.