Hi all,
I’ve searched around the forums for this already, but didn’t quite find what I was looking for. I’m interested in getting a portable digital audio recorder. I’d like it to fit the following criterion:
small
battery life and recording time of at least 3 hours
under $200
decent sound quality (doesn’t have to be amazing, just acceptable)
ability to hook up to my laptop to retrieve the recordings
I currently have one that hooks up to my ipod, which is fine minus the fact that it skips so there are gaps in the audio (kind of a problem). Any input would be much appreciated!
Last summer I purchased a Zoom H2. It was around 300 but what a great machine! Easy to learn, makes great recordings under a lot of conditions, and easy to patch to the computer to download files. I just checked amazon and they have several up starting at 152 (probably used). Should be able to suit your needs.
I used it at East Durham and O’Flaherty’s Retreat to record flute lessons and, with a different attenuation setting, to record the concerts. Good results all around.
I have nothing for comparison, but it sure does beat my old cassette recorder!
A Zoom H2 would suit you well. I have an H4, which is a bit dearer, a bit bigger and just as good, and it can do four-track recording. Both have built-in mics, so no cables trailing around to worry about. Haven’t used that four-track facility and maybe never will, so maybe I should have saved a few folding ones and got an H2… These machines record to SD cards. You can set the recording quality. A 2Gb card will record at “CD quality” over three hours of music, and you can get a lot more than that at good mP3 quality. A pair of alkaline AA batteries will go for at least three hours. I use rechargeables. Uploading is quick and easy, and you can easily edit your recordings with Audacity or something similar. And of course you can erase everything once uploaded and use the SD card again and again. You can buy 4Gb SD cards around here now for less than £8.
Steve, how do they cope with high volume levels? Most things I’ve tried to record to, including video cameras, simply overload and distort at high volumes.
Not a problem with my band, which mostly uses minimal amplification, but some of the members’ other bands are pretty LOUD.
hmmm, I’d looked at the H2/H4 and wasn’t sure about a couple of things - I think I’ve seen someone with the H2 and it’s a little bigger than I was hoping for. Also, the less extra “stuff” I have to get to go with it the better (batteries, cards, etc), not because they cost money but more because the less I have to worry about and carry around the better. but if it’s the best I can do, so be it…
About editing: If you record in mp3, the files are “checksum protected” which prevents you from selectively altering sections of the file. You have to save to another fomat (eg in iTunes) then load into an Audacity or whatever. So if you plan to edit, consider doing the primary recording in a different format (.wav, for example).
Still, I’ll say its a great little gadget.
Another tip: the gadget is very sensitive. If you hand-hold it, it will pick up ever little silent scrape or swish when you alter hand position on the side of the machine. But it comes with a handle that screws into the bottom of the gadget and allows you to hold it without the garbage noise being recorded.
It also comes with a little stand you can screw in instead of the handle, so you can sit it upright on the floor or a table for directional recording. Or you can screw in a tripod, though I’ve never done that.
All fits in a small zipper pouch, along with extra batteries and cards, etc. The gadget itself is not that much bigger than the standard cigarette pack. No stock in the company, just very impressed.
You can set the recording level on the H4’s built-in mics with a switch on the outside, low/medium/high. Easy-peasy! You can go through the menus (a bit of a pain on the H4 it has to be said) and set the level manually, but I have never needed to do this. The “medium” setting records quite loud pub sessions without clipping at the loud bits. The thing about recording digitally is that it doesn’t matter critically if the level is a bit low because the info is all there and you can always enhance it on the computer. Avoiding the clipping is the important thing. There’s a bit of trial and error but it isn’t difficult, and that’s from a bloke who finds anything electronic difficult!
It is sensitive (BTW, are we both talking about the H4? I am…). If you just lay it on the tabletop it will pick up the sounds of beer glasses being picked up and put down, etc. The answer is to put it on something soft. Hand-holding is just not an option really. It comes with a cradle that can be attached to one of those camera mini-tripods, but it’s a fragile setup unless you have a really secure location for it!
I haven’t encountered that mp3 problem because I always use at least a 2Gb card which lets me record at .wav (“CD quality”) for over three hours. As for lugging extra stuff, if you have a big enough card in there all you need to worry about is having a spare pair of AA batteries with you just in case. I’ve always found that a new pair of Duracells will just about get me through a longish evening. With my MD recorder I had to worry about a mic and its cable trailing around, getting knocked over, etc. The Zooms remove all that worry - the inbuilt mics are excellent.
Size-wise, the H4 is admittedly a bit bigger than the H2. Think of a pretty bulky hard spectacle case…
H2. Very small, very sensitive, very light weight, very good quality, and right at your $200 limit. A very good recorder. I need to work with mine more, but what little I have done has been quite easy and good quality.
I have an Olympus WS-320M which is very small and fine for recording sessions to learn tunes and the like; current WS series have different model numbers. Don’t be put off by it being billed as a ‘voice recorder’. Main drawback is the automatic recording level control, which does work OK though so you can turn it on and forget it (potentially embarassing).
Great prices on used and as-new Edirol R-09s (new = $400).
They’re a little bigger (we make jokes about them looking like electric shavers) but they’re dead easy to operate, great on batteries, they record in any format/bitrate you want, transfer files to Macs or Windoze so easily even my dog can do it, have simple SD cards for up to 2GB (we found 1 GB = about 8 hours live recording), and most important … THE SOUND QUALITY IS REALLY, REALLY GOOD, better than anything else we’ve found in the category.
As good as they get in more than a few books, mine included.
The Olympus is more than what I was looking to pay, but I found a review that makes it sound good in all other regards and I’m kind of leaning towards it (other contenders would probably be an edirol r-09 or m-audio micro track). What have your experiences been recording sessions or concerts?
R-09 is superb and updated software enables them to run 8 GB cards and also lets you tone down the display illumination so you don’t feel like you’re holding a lighthouse in a concerthall.
I really can’t imagine how a field recorder could get much more practical than the R-09. Mine has faithfully recorded concerts, sessions, you name it with really good quality, even when the recorder is backstage (and thus “behind” the speakers and PA). The couple of times my recordings haven’t been so great are those when I’ve accidentally set the input gain too low; RTFM operator error, there.
8 GB!!! Happiness!!! I like the display dim option, too – a friend has black gaffer’s tape on his, which works great, but doesn’t do much for the aesthetics. Thanks for the good news, Peter!
Cathy, the down of Edirol software version 1.31 is here Also download the PDF that tells you how to install it (it’s very simple) aand what the new functions are.
And it 's actually compatible with 16 GB cards now.
i just got one of those edirols. can you tell me how to upload from it to the computer, save a file like in mp3 format? i don’t seem be seeing that option in the menu.. thanks
Connect to Computer with USB cable, copy files. Convert to MP3 if they are not already being saved in that format (ie: recording originally to .WAVs) using Audacity or other utility/sound editor.
If you have an SD card reader that works with the capacity of the R-09 (currently up to 32 GB), than insert SD card from R-09 into reader, copy files to computer.
The new model, the R-09HR has some handy fixes to the design (separate battery compartment, for instance).
thanks kevin for taking the time to explain it. but when connect to the computer, a popup menu appears which doesn’t offer ‘copy’ as an option, it just offers ‘play’ or ‘burn a cd’ . what am i missing? i have the 09hr model,
