Portable Digital Recording Device

G

gatorhaus

New member
Need some Input,

I am looking for a portable recording device (preferably digital) that I can do interviews on. Not looking for great musical clarity preamps or anything. My big requirements are portability and twotrack. And be able to download to my compuiter for mixing.

Around $200 would be nice also. Any ideas?

Larry
 
Any nunmer of companies make MP3 player/recorders you can put in your shirt pocket. Most will do 2+ hours in memory. Transfer to PC is usually via USB.

Ed
 
Thanks Ed for the reply,

Another question, (for anyone who uses portable recording equipment.)

Can these come with phantom power and run on batteries, or do those kind have to have AC?

I have been looking at the fostex VF80 and the Zoom MRS-1266 anyone care to comment that has used these units. Both have 2 xlrs w/ phantom power.

Yeah I know these are more than $200, but you know how that goes:) :)

larry
 
You know, for what it sounds like you want to do, minidisc might not be the answer. Here's my train of thought:

A minidisc player that has a mic input is like $300. It does not have phantom power or the capability of recording two seperate voices on seperate channels for the ability of making a really nice sounding interview. So, you'd basically need to front end your minidisc player with a mixer or something to get phantom power and then you could probably record one voice on the left channel and one voice on the right (which would be super-annoying to listen to).

I would imagine that at that point, you will have spent enough money to just go and buy a really cheap portable harddisk multi-tracker, because those are also about $300 (fostex mr-8 for instance).

Now, I'm not sure what kind of quality you're looking for... The setup I'm thinking of would be like a radio interview (pretty high quality, with one mic on each speaker)... If your using this just to record interviews so you can get quotes from them later, than that would really be overkill... I would just go with a minidisc at that point (and one of the cheaper ones with a built in mic).

Of course, if you buy a multitracker, you will also have to learn how to use it (which isn't hard, but there's a bit more to it than pushing the rec. button). On the flip side, maybe you'll find out that your really interested in multitrack audio and spend your next 100 paychecks building a dream studio... who knows?!

(jeez, i'm rambling.... "like the wild geese out in the west")
 
SmattyG said:
On the flip side, maybe you'll find out that your really interested in multitrack audio and spend your next 100 paychecks building a dream studio...
Click to expand...

100 paychecks?

Is that it? ..........boy I am way ahead of the game.........:D
 
gatorhaus said:
Thanks Ed for the reply,

Another question, (for anyone who uses portable recording equipment.)

Can these come with phantom power and run on batteries, or do those kind have to have AC?

I have been looking at the fostex VF80 and the Zoom MRS-1266 anyone care to comment that has used these units. Both have 2 xlrs w/ phantom power.

Yeah I know these are more than $200, but you know how that goes:) :)

larry
Click to expand...

You can get MP3 player/recorders for about $100. they'll do a couple of hours running using internal memory. A single AA battery will run them for days.

They have no moving parts and make no noise. You can put in your shirt pocket and record everything in the entire room.

Ed
 
SmattyG said:

I would imagine that at that point, you will have spent enough money to just go and buy a really cheap portable harddisk multi-tracker, because those are also about $300 (fostex mr-8 for instance).

Now, I'm not sure what kind of quality you're looking for... The setup I'm thinking of would be like a radio interview (pretty high quality, with one mic on each speaker)... If your using this just to record interviews so you can get quotes from them later, than that would really be overkill... I would just go with a minidisc at that point (and one of the cheaper ones with a built in mic).

Of course, if you buy a multitracker, you will also have to learn how to use it (which isn't hard, but there's a bit more to it than pushing the rec. button). On the flip side, maybe you'll find out that your really interested in multitrack audio and spend your next 100 paychecks building a dream studio... who knows?!

(jeez, i'm rambling.... "like the wild geese out in the west")
Click to expand...


Thanks smattyg,


I have an Aardvark q10, in the studio. Yes I am looking for a portable multi track with phantom power. Yes, I want to transfer the interview to CD, doing a radio type format, but not live.

Here's what I'm thinking.

A fostex or boss multichannel recorder ($200). These do not have phantom power, but If I also get a 2 channel preamp($100) (for phantom power) to feed line level signals into the harddisk recorder. I could also use my rack headphone amp and maybe a compressor. Throw it in a SKB portable case, and voila. a few empty rack spaces for mics and cables and the recorder, and that should be pretty portable and definitely decent quality.

Whadda ya think,
larrry
 
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