I'm looking for a field recording device

[Rhua]

I'm sure some people here own such things. Something to carry around and record all kinds of noises, like the Yamaha Pocketrak 2G or so. Can someone spare some useful tips on what I should be aware of when I buy such gear or what gadget is the best in the price range of ~100-120€?

[Lezlie]

Don't know if it's within your price range, but you may be interested in the new Zoom Q3; it alledgedly has great mic's + a built in camera in case you want to record yourself on stage with great sound.

[fauna]

i donno the Q3, but i have the zoom h2 and it's been great. plastic body though, so you gotta be a lil careful, but sound & simplicity has been great.

[reignbear]

I have to give it up for the zoom H2 as well.

[Rhua]

Thanks for the replies guys. The H2 really looks awesome but I don't know if that isn't too much for my purposes. I mean basically I just wanna be able to record sounds while I'm outdoors or wherever and I don't want to spend that much money on it. Of course it should deliver decent sound quality but 180€ is too much for my budget right now...

[fauna]

then yr pro'lly looking at a used minidisc recorder and external mic for reasonable quality recording. that's a fine set up. the trick is to get a mic that's cheap enough for yr budget, but high enough quality to sound okay.

be careful (or test them) to find out whether yr mic will pick up the motor of the MD, or if cable movement gets picked up. that can ruin a good recording.

the advantage of the H2 is that you don't have to also buy mics that will work, so the price is a little misleading. but i used an MD for years and if yr careful it can work out and it can be cheap, used.

[reignbear]

be careful (or test them) to find out whether yr mic will pick up the motor of the MD, or if cable movement gets picked up. that can ruin a good recording.

this sums up a lot of my experience using the MD and stereo mic for field recording. trying to wrap the damn thing in a t-shirt to dampen the motor noise.

[Dj_just_jeff]

The tascam dp-004 is pretty portable, it runs on 4 aa batteries and has the dc adaptor option. It is smaller than a paper back book. The dp-004 is also a 4 track recorder, usb connectivity, you can bounce tracks into 1 track and use the other tracks to record more things. I own one and use it to record live dj sets for 2 reasons 1. if it gets destroyed im only out 180usd, i use this instead of my macbook for live recording.
2. When i am finished recording i can hook it into the computer and load it up in a couple of min. With my old tape recorder you need to play the entire set in real time to capture it.

oh, one more, It comes with an 1gb sd card, that gives you about 90 min of recording. I have a 4gb in mine now so i can record about 4 hrs.

The dp has 2 condenser mic's built in, they are good, i recorded a live concert outside and the wind did not give me ANY problems. It also has 1/4 inch inputs and many routing abilities.

Hope this helps, it is a 4 track that can be used as a field recorder, with awesome routing capabilities, and a huge memory.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

[Lezlie]

@ Dj_just_jeff:

Wow, that Tascam looks awesome! Maybe I should get that one instead of the Zoom.
One question: I see there are two inputs, A & B. Are these stereo inputs or mono?

[Dj_just_jeff]

You can assign them to be either stereo or mono.

[Lezlie]

Cool This is one seriously cool box. Awesome value for the money.

[dorfmeister]

If ones main purpose in doing field recordings was to create samples how do you think an SP 404 would do as a "field sampler"?