Portable Recording Devices

[brad2thebone]

A few weeks ago I saw an old movie with John Travolta where he was a movie producer. He had this awesome old-school recorder with microphone and all these dials. I want to get something of that flavor to do my own origianl sampling. Is there a name for those things? Is there a better new age alternative (possibly more compact, ie: MD recorder w/ mic). I would like to use something to record natural sounds and possibly street musicians.

Thanks in advance for all input.


Brad

PS: I saw a post with an identical title "portable recording devices", but it sounds like this guy wants something for recording multitracks or live performances. Im only looking for something to record single sources. Therefore, I don't need to be as high tech (as a laptop, etc). I just want something that will give me good quality for not a whole lot and must be compact.

Would a MD recorder + external mic be the best for me? How is the MD onboard mic?

 

[DJL]

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7...5059227/g=home/search/detail/base_pid/244005/

 

[Innovations]

actually for the same money I would go with this one:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7...15066876/g=rec/search/detail/base_pid/241687/

and another very popular item, and less expensive is this one

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7...15066876/g=rec/search/detail/base_pid/240239/

 

[Wil Davis]

It's years since I saw that movie, but I seem to remember that he was using a Nagra (http://www.nagraaudio.com/pages/professionalaudio.php?etat=2) - fabulous performance (many $$$$$)

- Wil

 

[brad2thebone]

wow, those are some pretty impressive units, but i think im looking for more of a starter setup (less $$).

 

[DJL]

Cheaper... humm, maybe something like thehttp://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7...061162777/g=home/search/detail/base_id/101412? and if that's too much money there is always the old cassette recorder.

 

[chessrock]

Go to the local pawn shop and pick up a high-fi stereo VCR.

A hi-fi VCR deck will have greater audio fidelity than a typical cassette deck . . . the medium will be much more durable, and you can typically record between 4 to 8 hours worth of material on a single tape (although it is adviseable that you record at highest possible speed for better sound quality).

Obviously, it's going to be a good deal more cumbersome and difficult to lug around.

 

[Chip Hitchens]

If you're looking for truly portable recording (i.e. battery power), I've had reasonable success with a walkman-style Sharp MD recorder and a Sony stereo mic. I'm sure it's not as good as the uncompressed Nagra and Marantz stuff, but it's a lot cheaper. If you're just looking to collect samples that you're probably going to screw with anyway, it might be good enough for your purposes.

 

[Innovations]

wow, those are some pretty impressive units, but i think im looking for more of a starter setup (less $$).

Well the Fostex I linked to is actually less than a good quality MD recorder and the Fostex can transfer the files to your computer for editing without having to go to a Digital to Analog to Digital conversion.

 

[Freudian Slip]

misleading claim?

actually for the same money I would go with this one:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7...15066876/g=rec/search/detail/base_pid/241687/


Does something strike you funny about the claims in this link. 12 hours of uncompressed wave files on a 64mb card? Maybe at 4bits or something?

 

[PeteHalo]

I recorded my band's rehersals last night using my CELLPHONE and a small tie clip style electret condenser mic connected directly to the phone's analog input.

Here's a small sample converted to uncompressed wav format @ 16bit/44,1kHz from the original 128kb/s aac format using Winamp. No additional editing or enhancing except for the format conversion has been made. A 128 MB mmc memory card can hold over 2 hours of music.

The sample:
http://personal.inet.fi/musiikki/peteh/n-gage/sample.wav

The phone:
http://www.n-gage.com/en-R1/gamedeck/ngage/

BTW There's all kinds of interesting musical applications (Guitar tuners, a Midi sequencer/editor) available for n-Gage making it a real musician's Swiss Army knife. And you can make phone calls or browse the HRBBS not to mention keep track of your important dates with it also.

 

[Innovations]

actually for the same money I would go with this one:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7...15066876/g=rec/search/detail/base_pid/241687/


Does something strike you funny about the claims in this link. 12 hours of uncompressed wave files on a 64mb card? Maybe at 4bits or something?

WEll I know that it has a choice of sample rates. I am more thinking that the copywriter may have accidentally combined the factual statements saying it could record 12 hours and it could record uncompressed into one incorrect statement.

I do know that broadcast field reporters, long happy customers of the marrantz PDM201 and 101 recorders, are moving to the 670 as the new standard.

 

[Freudian Slip]

I've no doubt there a good machine Just thought that was quite a statement. Fact is if you recorded a wav at a very low sample rate it would still be considered uncompressed would it not? So the statement is correct but a little back handed if they did do it on purpose.

I'm sure it's a mis-print though, MF is full of them. Either way I wish I could afford one

F.S.

 

[Mark H.]

http://www.marantzpro.com/Products/docs/PMD670_media_times.pdf

For stereo PCM at 44.1 Khz, a 64 MB CompactFlash card in the PMD 670 would hold approximately 6 minutes of sound recording.

Mark H.