Looking for equipment recommendation

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ataranto

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Greetings. I'm looking to get into recording some of my musical endeavors, and am a little bewildered by the options out there.

Specifically, I need a solution for recording my jazz group, both rehearsals and live performances. I need something simple for a few reasons:

- I live in NYC, so compactness is crucial (i.e., something I can easily tote with me on the subway)
- I want to minimize my time setting up and tearing down, and maximize the time spent playing
- I can sacrifice a little bit on sound quality, as I'm not looking to sell these recordings; however, I would like to use them as demos, if possible: I'd settle for "adequate" sound quality

Being able to easily dump recordings to my PC HD is important, by the way.

My basic thought is that a simple minidisk recorder or a HD jukebox (e.g., Creative Nomad) and a decent stereo digital mike would suit me well. I'm even considering a digital voice memo recorder, but I'm skeptical that the sound quality will be adequate. So any suggestions or advice are welcome, especially as it might apply to a jazz setting.

Thanks in advance,
Andrew
 
The problem anyone would have recording a live band is determining how many inputs they need to record simultaneously. When you start adding up drum mikes, guitar mikes, bass, vocals, etc. you can easily get to 8 or more inputs quickly. Things can be made somewhat simpler if you also have a separate mixer that you can use to combine some signals.

Try looking at Roland (VS series?) and Korg (D16) portable units. They have the ability to record quite a few tracks simultaneously and have provisions for dumping the data to a PC.
 
Korg D16

Thanks for the swift reply.

According to the first retail price I found, I'm afraid the Korg D16 would be way outside of my price range. ($2,400 it looks like? Even if I found a 75% discount, I don't think I could shell out the money right now... though I'd be tempted.)

Also, I think multitrack recording would be overkill for what I'm aiming to do: most of the purpose of my recording is for me to listen back (i.e., to critque my playing), as well as to provide rough recordings to musicians I'd work with. If these recordings could serve as demos in a pinch, that would just be gravy. The group is typically a piano trio (i.e., piano, electric bass, drums), so there aren't THAT many inputs.

Nice looking unit, though. Maybe that will be the thing when I have the wherewithal to set up a full-fledged home studio.

I think what I have in mind is some kind of digital equivalent of a pro-Walkman: something I could plug in, put on a stool in the middle of the room, press "record", have at it, and get audible results... And carry it on the subway with me without getting a hernia. (Even though the D16 is only 4 1/2 lbs, it would be a bit too bulky for subway transit.)
 
A portable DAT or Mini Disc and a sony stereo mic would probably do the trick. One thing to be carefull of is that many consumer portable digital recorders have built in copy protection that prevents you from digitally transferring your music from the recorder. You may have to buy a model aimed at pro users if you want that capability.

It's complete bs that they do that. You end up paying a few hundred extra just for them to defeat the 'features' that they put on the consumer units.
 
That puts things more in perspective!

I understand the budget thing completely. The only other recommendation I could offer is something by Tascam, they make some pretty fine casette tape units and perhaps they also make a budget digital unit with just a few inputs.

If you have a mixer at your rehersals/gigs you might find some low end unit with a stereo line jack that you could plug into the mixer.

If you have a laptop you might be able to find a cheap breakout box to feed into the line jack.

Hopefully someone else will come along with some better ideas.
 
More good replies

I think the minidisk will have to be the way to go for the time being. I've been tempted for a while to do the laptop thing; unfortunately, it's still too damn expensive for the time being.

I've heard that most minidisks ("consumer" models) only transfer via a digital-audio-digital path: is this what you mean Tex? If so, I'm not too worried about degradation of the sound quality; but I could see the time spent doing transfers becoming annoying quickly. So I'll keep that in mind.

Thanks for the replies; more are always welcome.
 
Frankly, I get quite acceptable results using a KORG PXR4 Pandora. On a 128mb Smart media card you can get 90 track minutes in high resolution. The quality of the sound, even from it's onboard electret mic is startling. You want small? It's small. You want simple setup? Set it down, set your levels and hit record. It will format to MP2 and download to your HD by USB port. Then you can use online shareware to convert to WAV, then MP-3. You'll probably want 2 128mb cards. The sound, when compared to my Roland 1824CD with a boatload of outboard gear is scary. Really- go listen to a Pandora.-Richie
 
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