Good Sounding Portable Recorder

[rdc]

Exctally what the subject line says, I'm looking for something to use with various mics, including the Tape-Op omni. Right now I want to get a good recording of a train horn, but basicially want something that I can take anywhere and use to record weird shit.

Rick

[phait]

I've heard MiniDisc recorders are good for this, but others say DAT, while others say no to DAT, and then there is always flash memory, those little portable recorders (I want one bad)...

[rdc]

How would I hook up a normal balanced mic, or for that matter a tape-op omni (whose, psudeo-balanced nature I've never quite understood) to the mic ins of those little walkman style devices? How is that going to sound? Or am I going to have to find a battery operated mic-pre and a portable recorder with a line in?

Rick

[phait]

I believe most of these devices have 1/8 inputs, some come with their own internal or external mic and I've seen little (LITLE) stereo mics available... I really don't know much more but these seem to be the options.

[Professor]

There are two kinds of portable to consider:
Something that is small and battery-powered
or something that is larger and requires AC power.

I say that because simply getting a mobile system to do location recordings isn't so bad, and the system can be as small or large as you can manage. But when you want to be outdoors, or doing remote recordings where everything is running on batteries, then you need to consider the options more carefully.

We'll ignore the bigger AC powered stuff because that could be any old CD recorder, multi-track MDM unit, computer or hard-disk based recorder, and anything from a small rolling rack to full-on remote truck.

As for the little battery stuff, the smallest and cheapest (under about $600 ) are generally going to have only 1/8" mic inputs which means either a single point stereo mic with 1/8" out like a Rode NT-4, or Audio Technica AT-822, or those little Sony ECM mics (all battery powered), or you'll need an external preamp. Small 2-channel battery preamps can run from a couple hundred to a couple thousand, and small battery powered mixers could run from three or four hundred to three or four thousand, depending on what you need. Those little recorders might go to cassette, mini-disk or DAT, and the choice is yours as far as quality/reliability/cost.
Larger, and pricier battery powered decks will often include phantom powered mic preamps on-board. The Marantz CD, MD, and compact flash recorders all include mic-preamps, as does the HHB PortaDisk MD recorder, the Tascam DA-P1 DAT recorder, and others from Fostex and other folks. The preamps are usually pretty fair, or you could use an outboard pre if you have one - and most folks will use an outboard to extend the battery life of both recorder and preamp.
Then as you get into the really high-end, you start hitting the battery powered multi-tracks like the Fostex DVD-RAM 6-channel recorder that comes in around $4k (I think) and the HHB or Zaxcom Deva 8-channel hard-disk recorders that come in around $11k. All of those run on batteries and include mic preamps, but their probably a little higher-end than you might have had in mind for now. (If not, then check out the Deva 10-channel deck - it is awfully sexy.)

-J

[waitingroom]

The fostex mr-8 is a fine deal at around 300$ new. 8 tracks, 2 simultaneously and you can dump the tracks on a computer for mixing/editing. But, no phantom power so you can't use a condenser mic. Plus it runs on batteries. You could look into a little preamp or a mixer for phantom power and stuff. Only one I can think off the top of my head that runs on batteries is the Samson 4 channel mixer (Mixpad 4).

[Scodiddly]

Minidisc is pretty nice. The new Hi-MD units will apparently record 16-bit uncompressed, too. Not that I had much complaint with the older MD file compression.

If you've done TapeOp omnis, you can just hook a capsule right up to the "plug-in power" mic input on Sony gear. Or build a "battery box" power supply, which is about as simple as the original TapeOp omni.

[jtotheg]

My secret weapon for portable recording is...

Nomad Jukebox 3

What most consider a clunky sized MP3 player, is my portable DAT.
It can not only play MP3's, .WAV, WMA, etc...
But, it can RECORD as well.

In a variety of formats & settings too, including 44.1khz .WAV & 48khz .WAV.

Internal 20GB HDD or upgrade it to 40GB or bigger.
Also has dual lithium battery for super long battery life.
This thing kicks ass.
Has line in & optical line in.

Sounds great & record over 3hrs in length continuous.
Firewire & USB connections so dumping the recordings to your PC for editing is a snap..

Don't know if they still make these things, but I love mine.
Recorded several live shows with it & a weekly radio show as well, unit never failed me & I even dropped it a few times.

There's smaller & fancier MP3 players out there but I'm yet to find one that surpasses this unit in RECORDING capability.

[apropos of nothing]

Seconded on the mp3 recorder route. I use an Archos Jukebox Recorder V2 and a Giant Squid Audio Lab stereo condernser. The two of them together cost about $240. USB 2. Great sample-fodder grabber.

Only complaint on it is that the pres on the Archos aren't all that. But mostly the Giant Squid has a hot enough output that I don't have to use the pres. Only if I'm recording really quiet stuff from far away. And even then its nothing that a little eq and/or nr software didn't deal with handily.

My synth set-up has gotten to the point where I can set up a "modular" "system" using sampler, keyboard and external analog filter. Its real nice to be able to not use the computer at all and just go straight into the recorder. I can make some wicked stuff happen live, and then go back and drop it into the multitrack later, if I want.

[somniferum]

What about an UHER?(portable battery operated reel to reel recorder that runs on 5" reels). They're fairly inexpensive, that's what I'm saving up for to get to use for field recordings. A friend of mine swears by using those Boss samplers (the older version, don't remember the model number). But I don't know about fidelity, & they only have 1/4" jacks, while the better UHER models also have XLR inputs.

[hethaerto]

You should take a look at the ZOOM PS-04 units. Recording plus lots of processing if you want it. Cheap on Ebay, too.
Allen