portable digital recorders

[Ken Winokur]

Hi guys,

I've got a project where I'm going to need to do some high quality
digital recording on location. I'm curious what recorders people
like.

The recorder needs to be portable and cable of working from a
battery. I'll probably be doing some of the recording out on the
street, in the woods, and in other situations where using a computer
will be too inconvenient. In the future I'll be using this for
recording live music, rehearsals, sound effects - a wide variety of
portable recording situations

I'm looking at the various new recorders: Marrantz, M-Audio, Zoon,
Edirol, Sony, Tascam, Fostex etc. I'd like to keep this to under
$1000 (which lets out the best of the Tascam, Fostex and Sony
machines).

I'll be recording in some high quality format (WAV or other) and
probably not in MP3 or other compressed format. I'll want to transfer
it to my Mac for editing and storage.

I have lots of good mics, so I'll only use an internal mic for
convenience recording (rehearsals etc..). I also have a Sound Devices
SD 302 mixer, so for critical recordings I'll use that for the mic
pre's. I imagine that I will frequently use the internal recorder's
mic inputs (so the models with XLR and phantom are preferable).

The Marantz PMD 660 seems to be the only one that has a Firewire out -
which would seem to be very convenient. It also has XLR inputs and
phantom. Previous posts to this group haven't been overwhelming
favorable about this recorder (controls seem inconvenient, and quality
of mic inputs not so great.) The Zoom H4 has 4 tracks, and XLRs
(which would be convenient for some things).

It would be nice to house the recorder in a sound bag along with my SD
302, but none of them seem to have most of the functions available
from the front pannel.

Anybody had any real experience with these things?

Ken Winokur

[Craig Ruggels]

Hello Ken,

When not using a laptop for on-site recording, I use the M-Audio Microtrack
with 4gb cf card, Josephson c42mp condensers. the microtrack does not put
out 48v of phantom power, So you would have to use mics that can run on
less. M-Audio is $350 or less and The josephsons are $800 for a matched
pair. Cascade Media. they will ship. so that is just abit over you price.

--
www.craigruggels.com
"Ken Winokur" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> Hi guys,
>
> I've got a project where I'm going to need to do some high quality
> digital recording on location. I'm curious what recorders people
> like.
>
> The recorder needs to be portable and cable of working from a
> battery. I'll probably be doing some of the recording out on the
> street, in the woods, and in other situations where using a computer
> will be too inconvenient. In the future I'll be using this for
> recording live music, rehearsals, sound effects - a wide variety of
> portable recording situations
>
> I'm looking at the various new recorders: Marrantz, M-Audio, Zoon,
> Edirol, Sony, Tascam, Fostex etc. I'd like to keep this to under
> $1000 (which lets out the best of the Tascam, Fostex and Sony
> machines).
>
> I'll be recording in some high quality format (WAV or other) and
> probably not in MP3 or other compressed format. I'll want to transfer
> it to my Mac for editing and storage.
>
> I have lots of good mics, so I'll only use an internal mic for
> convenience recording (rehearsals etc..). I also have a Sound Devices
> SD 302 mixer, so for critical recordings I'll use that for the mic
> pre's. I imagine that I will frequently use the internal recorder's
> mic inputs (so the models with XLR and phantom are preferable).
>
> The Marantz PMD 660 seems to be the only one that has a Firewire out -
> which would seem to be very convenient. It also has XLR inputs and
> phantom. Previous posts to this group haven't been overwhelming
> favorable about this recorder (controls seem inconvenient, and quality
> of mic inputs not so great.) The Zoom H4 has 4 tracks, and XLRs
> (which would be convenient for some things).
>
> It would be nice to house the recorder in a sound bag along with my SD
> 302, but none of them seem to have most of the functions available
> from the front pannel.
>
> Anybody had any real experience with these things?
>
> Ken Winokur
>

[Chip Gallo]

Ken Winokur wrote:
> Hi guys,
>
> I've got a project where I'm going to need to do some high quality
> digital recording on location. I'm curious what recorders people
> like.
>
> The recorder needs to be portable and cable of working from a
> battery. I'll probably be doing some of the recording out on the
> street, in the woods, and in other situations where using a computer
> will be too inconvenient. In the future I'll be using this for
> recording live music, rehearsals, sound effects - a wide variety of
> portable recording situations
>
> I'm looking at the various new recorders: Marrantz, M-Audio, Zoon,
> Edirol, Sony, Tascam, Fostex etc. I'd like to keep this to under
> $1000 (which lets out the best of the Tascam, Fostex and Sony
> machines).
>
> I'll be recording in some high quality format (WAV or other) and
> probably not in MP3 or other compressed format. I'll want to transfer
> it to my Mac for editing and storage.
>
> I have lots of good mics, so I'll only use an internal mic for
> convenience recording (rehearsals etc..). I also have a Sound Devices
> SD 302 mixer, so for critical recordings I'll use that for the mic
> pre's. I imagine that I will frequently use the internal recorder's
> mic inputs (so the models with XLR and phantom are preferable).
>
> The Marantz PMD 660 seems to be the only one that has a Firewire out -
> which would seem to be very convenient. It also has XLR inputs and
> phantom. Previous posts to this group haven't been overwhelming
> favorable about this recorder (controls seem inconvenient, and quality
> of mic inputs not so great.) The Zoom H4 has 4 tracks, and XLRs
> (which would be convenient for some things).
>
> It would be nice to house the recorder in a sound bag along with my SD
> 302, but none of them seem to have most of the functions available
> from the front pannel.
>
> Anybody had any real experience with these things?
>
> Ken Winokur
>

I have a couple of PMD670's that work pretty well for lectures and
interviews. The mike pre section is noisy, as others have noted. There
is a mod that improves the numbers. Don't use the automatic level
control as this makes the hissing worse. If you have two mikes plugged
in, one level controls both. You need to be careful not to open the CF
card door while a write is in progress. The batteries drain if left in
the unit (there is a Marantz fix for this that requires the unit be sent
in).

Lots of choices for file format and compression. The manual is available
on the net in PDF format.

Would I buy it again? I think so. It reliably does what is is supposed
to. I have never lost a recording.

Good luck,
Chip Gallo
web manager for a small federal agency

[Mike Rivers]

Ken Winokur wrote:

> I've got a project where I'm going to need to do some high quality
> digital recording on location. I'm curious what recorders people
> like.

High quality ones, of course. For me, that excludes just about
anything in the price range you're considering. If you said you wanted
to make some audio recordings, you could get away with any of the
Marantz models, the M-Audio, probably the Edirol R09, or the Zoom H4.
But when it comes to quality, you want good quiet preamp gain and
plenty of it, a rugged case and controls that are easy to operate. And
of course media that meets your recording space requirements. That
raises the bar.

There may be some hope for the Korg DSD recorders (even if you don't
record DSD) but they're still unreviewed at this point.

[Ken Winokur]

On Jan 31, 1:14 pm, "Mike Rivers" > wrote:
> Ken Winokur wrote:
> > I've got a project where I'm going to need to do some high quality
> > digital recording on location. I'm curious what recorders people
> > like.
>
> High quality ones, of course. For me, that excludes just about
> anything in the price range you're considering. If you said you wanted
> to make some audio recordings, you could get away with any of the
> Marantz models, the M-Audio, probably the Edirol R09, or the Zoom H4.
> But when it comes to quality, you want good quiet preamp gain and
> plenty of it, a rugged case and controls that are easy to operate. And
> of course media that meets your recording space requirements. That
> raises the bar.
>
> There may be some hope for the Korg DSD recorders (even if you don't
> record DSD) but they're still unreviewed at this point.

Well, what's the cheapest good recorder. Are the Tascam, Sony or
Fostex worth the money?

[[email protected]]

"Soundhaspriority" > writes:

> "Ken Winokur" > wrote in message
> ups.com...
> > Hi guys,
> >
> > I've got a project where I'm going to need to do some high quality
> > digital recording on location. I'm curious what recorders people
> > like.
> >
> From the reviews I've read, the best quality choice is the CoreSound PDA
> solution:
> http://core-sound.com/pdaudio_system/1.php with
> http://core-sound.com/Mic2496/1.php
> Instead of their preamp, I use their CF card with an Apogee MiniMe:
> http://apogeedigital.com/products/minime.php
> My PDA is a Dell Axim 51V.
>
> I did have a lost track, which was subsequently recovered at no charge by
> Gordon Gidluck, author of the PDA recording software:
> http://core-sound.com/pdaudio-cf/4.php The problem appears to be that when
> Windows XP is used to delete files on the SD memory card, the free space is
> not returned to the file system. The solution is to delete files on the PDA.
>
> As far as I can tell, the Mic2496 is the only portable recording device for
> under $1K that has been deemed acceptable. It is a little noisier than the
> MiniMe, etc., but user experience is positive.
>
> Bob Morein
> Dresher, PA
> (215) 646-4894

I investigated this option, but decided against it because:
1) I don't have a PDA, and I didn't want to buy one separately

2) it is just too many pieces, the ADC, the interface card, and the PDA vs a
single stand-alone unit.

I ended up getting an Edirol R4 (four track). For two track, something like
the Microtrack or other portable units would be probably be fine.

Richard

[Ken Winokur]

On Jan 31, 1:14 pm, "Mike Rivers" > wrote:
> Ken Winokur wrote:
> > I've got a project where I'm going to need to do some high quality
> > digital recording on location. I'm curious what recorders people
> > like.
>
> High quality ones, of course. For me, that excludes just about
> anything in the price range you're considering. If you said you wanted
> to make some audio recordings, you could get away with any of the
> Marantz models, the M-Audio, probably the Edirol R09, or the Zoom H4.
> But when it comes to quality, you want good quiet preamp gain and
> plenty of it, a rugged case and controls that are easy to operate. And
> of course media that meets your recording space requirements. That
> raises the bar.
>
> There may be some hope for the Korg DSD recorders (even if you don't
> record DSD) but they're still unreviewed at this point.

If I'm using my Sound Devices 302 (I could send out a robost +4 line
out), can I get a clean and decent sounding input into the Marantz
660?

What is the cheapest good HD recorder? Tascam, Sony, Fostex? Do I
have to go all the way to Sound Devices ?

What about a CD recorder? IIt would be nice to have unlimited cheap
storage, but don't they skip when jostled around?

Ken Winokur
alloyorchestra.com