so what do you guys imagine is a good portable stereo recorder?

  • Thread starter Thread starter treymonfauntre
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treymonfauntre

treymonfauntre

Magic Bag Of Sounds
i really love capturing live shows. i've been dragging the cheesy mxl 990/991 mics and a fostex vf16 to shows and hitting record and then grabbing it at the end of the night, but lately i've been wanting something a bit smaller. is minidisc still going to be a person's best comprimise between affordability, size, and quality? also, are there are any good stereo mics you can recommend that are pretty small, elecret prefferably? i think it would be a great gimmic to build some sort of a hat with little x/y mics on top of it, or just be able to place it somewhere in the room.

i got my gf a little iriver and that damn thing makes damn fine recordings, but i believe it compresses it to a 128kbps mp3 :(
 
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New-gen MD can record in PCM audio, no compression. Those Marantz and Edirol solid-state deals are pretty nice, and have phantom power. About the size of a paperback book.

Just be careful, the smaller they are, the easier they fit in someone else's pocket. I busted someone in the act of unplugging one at a show a couple days ago, the owner had stepped away for a second. The would-be thief said it had come unplugged and he was just plugging it back in. :rolleyes:
 
yea, really i just want something sort of cheap for the ocassional show i go to that i don't feel like bringing all my equipment to. i guess my budgets about $200 for the recorder and mics, but if i can get somethign for $30 on ebay i'll be down! how bad are the older minidisc recorders? i see things recorded a few years back onto MD on archive.org all the time and it always sounds fine.
does anybody know any good models or anything i should stay away from?
 
the reason i'm so interested in this is that i saw a band a few months ago that absolutely blew me away. it was 2 guys and a girl, they all sang (sometimes they even sang in rounds!) and alternated between guitars and mandolins and trumpets and keyboards and tamborines, etc. it was their first show and nobody knew what to expect, but we were all just blown away within 5 seconds of their first note. but then one of them moved away recently and they never got to record and now nobody will ever hear it. it just really bums me out and i wanna be on my feet to record stuff like that all the time without having to bother with tons of equipment.
just imagine a fucking hat with a mic on top and a md recorder in my back pocket, that would be awesome!
 
Older MDs are fine, they do perfectly well for what you want to do. Just make sure you get a model that has a mic input, if you want to go the mini mic route. Not all do.

Also look for ones that can play/record in the various modes, LP1, LP2, etc. They offer longer recording times at lesser quality. I usually go with LP2, gets you about 2 hours on a disc, but still sounds decent enough.
 
go to www.taperssection.com and read there...this topic has been covered there thousands of times...they are pros at exactly what you arre talking about....all live concert tapers, the focus is on mobility, and stealth....and quality of course.....that place will answer your question..wealth of knowledge. You have people there that started taping the dead way back when with nakamichi decks and now stealth HUGE names.but a quick answer is that the nomade jukebox 3 is a hd recording device that has digi in and records uncompressed pcm wav up to 16/48. im not even going to go into details because the possibilities are endless. youll be very pleased with what you see on that site...much info.. you have everyone there from Engineers who build their own stealth mics and preamps, to music engineers to burned out hippy kids who love taping jambands and the like...all centere around live concert taping. and the hat and mic combo has been made into an art form, as has sneaking a whole studios worth of gear through security...go drink from the fount of knowledge...
treymonfauntre said:
the reason i'm so interested in this is that i saw a band a few months ago that absolutely blew me away. it was 2 guys and a girl, they all sang (sometimes they even sang in rounds!) and alternated between guitars and mandolins and trumpets and keyboards and tamborines, etc. it was their first show and nobody knew what to expect, but we were all just blown away within 5 seconds of their first note. but then one of them moved away recently and they never got to record and now nobody will ever hear it. it just really bums me out and i wanna be on my feet to record stuff like that all the time without having to bother with tons of equipment.
just imagine a fucking hat with a mic on top and a md recorder in my back pocket, that would be awesome!
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ehh thats not exactly what i want. i don't care about stealth and i wouldn't be caught dead paying to see a band that would object to their fans recording them. i'm actually already known around here for recording live shows, i just want something a bit more portable for bands that i don't expect anything from but they catch me off guard.
but thanks, i'll look around on there for mic suggestions
 
ehh.. thats not only what im talking about man...they run the gamut from stealth tapers to guys that are completely open tapers , to guys who do what you are talking about , just have something to grab a pull on a whim.there are pro engineers there too, as well as band representatives...those guys are the pros at this subject matter, whether stealth, open, pro , amateur, or crap. seriously, you should check it out. I promise you something there will fit your bill. it is a wealth of knowledge.i gathered from your post that you want something easy to carry around with you, highly mobile and plug and play...well, that is the specialty on that site..quite a few innovators there.....if you dont care about stealth, then why minidisc??there are so many other options that are MUCH better than MD., and with no compression...it isnt JUST stealth guys, (they are about 50/50 stealth vs open) but the focus is on mobility and ease of use, well, because it is...mobile recording....if you ask the question there, you will get your answer...they have the cure because thats all they do...the site is devoted solely to portable concert recording..i know i sound like a commercial for the site, but it really is a good place to research that sort of thing.


treymonfauntre said:
ehh thats not exactly what i want. i don't care about stealth and i wouldn't be caught dead paying to see a band that would object to their fans recording them. i'm actually already known around here for recording live shows, i just want something a bit more portable for bands that i don't expect anything from but they catch me off guard.
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I'd say that with that kind of budget the mics will be the limiting factor. Get a cheap recorder (second hand minidisc?) and spend what you can on mics. Even compressed, the minidisc will be better than the mics.
 
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