Hand Held Solid State Recorders

  • Thread starter Thread starter oobermybeer
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oobermybeer

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hiya guys,

Im looking at getting a hand held solid state recorder for the purposes of going out and recording enviroments and situations, like trains, birds, forest sounds that kinda thing.

first off am i barking up the right tree or are these a little poo for waht i want to do, im looking at

the Edirol R-09 and the Tascam DR-1
w w w . dolphinmusic.co.uk/page/shop/flypage/product_id/12640
and

w w w . tascam.com/products/dr-1;9,12,3594,14.html

id prefer the tascam because of its looks, and its slim and looks secksy, and grudgingly the edirol cos of its accsesories, and i can get it in the uk easy.

so am i going the right way?
are the mics in them of good quality?
and is on superior if they are what i need?


please help, all info apriciated and past experience wanted :D
 
oohh it has XLR plugs... its ugly as hell but im guessing it has phantom?
 
I picked up a maudio microtrack for doing the same type of stuff. A friend of mine also has the zoom h4. Stay away from either of these units if you want to do any kind of nature recordings such as bird calls, crickets, etc... The preamps are way too noisy. They both work great for capturing live performances or just about anything with a loud signal. I tried all sorts of mics on the microtrack including self powered low noise condenser mics like the rode nt4 and the preamps are just way too hissy. I have had to do noise reduction on the final files to get anything useful.

Fostex has a great unit out called the FR2-LE. I have read great reviews on forums regarding the preamps on this unit. A lot of nature recordists are using this unit because it has the same quality pres as it's older brother (which costs about $500 more). It supposedly has the quietest pres in the $500 and under price range for handheld recorders. I will be replacing my microtrack with this unit as soon as I have the extra cash (or a project requiring it).

When I purchased the microtrack I had 2 things in mind. I wanted to use it for location music recordings and for nature recordings. It does well at the former but completely fails at the latter. The Fostex will do well at both.
 
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I just ordered one (haven't tried it out yet) to record band rehearsals, and shows from the soundboard area.

I went with the Zoom H2. It was cheaper than the H4. I don't need built in FX or to run other mics. I don't need 4 track capability. Plus I liked that the H2 had two sets of built in mics. 90 Degrees in front, 120 degrees in back. You could use either set to record with, or use all four for surround sound.

Hopefully it will be on my doorstep tonight, but I won't get a change to play with it until next week... stupid valentines day...
 
I've always used a DAT-Walkman with great results.
Wonder if these can be picked up cheap on evilbay?
 
Korg MR-1?

Not a solid state drive, but supposed to sound great. ( i don't have one )

Also, not that i care, but this probaly belongs in another section of the forums.
 
awesome guys, the fostex FR2 LE looks spot on, but its £200 quid over my bugdet i have £200 max, but im mainly intrested in quiter things, im a univeristy student and have no money, and am trying to fill out my portfolio so i can get a job... so.. any other ideas as im compleatly screwed, haha
 
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