Digital Recording Without mixer

[smokey_blues]

Hi all, new to these groups so I hope this is in the right section.

I'm looking into getting equipment to record my band live. I've been looking at digital records such as Alesis LX20 and Fostex D-108 amongst others.
All of these style recorders have inputs on phono connectors.
I've tried searching the web and reading the manuals but the only examples they give use the line outs of a mixer as inputs to the recorder. This isn't possible for my band so my question is: can you attach mics directly to these types of recorders?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Track Rat]

Nope. These are line level inputs. To record anything that requires a microphone, you need a microphone preamplifier to get the mic level up to line level. Not only that, in order to hear back anything you've recorded, you'll need a mixer at the very least. No way around it.

 

[smokey_blues]

Thanks for the quick answer.

I had a feeling the answer would be something like that, so I'll have to rethink my options.

 

[Bulls Hit]

You can get away without a mixer by using something like the Presonus Firepod and a laptop.

The Firepod has 8 built in preamps, a monitor mixer & 24/96 convertors

 

[crosstudio]

i have the edirol fa-101 that i use for non-mixer recording it has 2 mic-pre's and 6 - 1/4" direct ins that i use for recording musicians outside of the studio, and a tascam fw-1884 (mixer with built in firewire) for studio recording.