Portable Digital Recorder

[westla]

Looking for some advice on a portable digital recorder. I'll looking to pick one up for those for those times where a hall doesn't have recording capabilities, and/or setup of my mobile rig (MB Pro, mics and interface) isn't allowed or isn't practical.

I realize that this recorder won't do as good a job as my RME Babyface and AT 4051's, but as I said there are times when it would be great to get a recording for archiving purposes.

I want to keep it in the $200 to $250 range, and these are some of the recorders I was considering:

Olympus LS-14
Tascam DR-40
Zoom H4N Pro

I don't really need the extra mic inputs, but there might be an occasion where I might use it. I'm more concerned with just picking up a decent neutral recording. My music is contemporary classical/concert music and jazz.

Thanks!

[MIDI Life Crisis]

My Zoom H4 is amazing. Great options.

[bayswater]

I looked around about a year ago. I thought the Tascams sounded better, but the Zoom was better overall value.

[westla]

Thanks for the info guys.

"I thought the Tascams sounded better, but the Zoom was better overall value."

Just curious why you thought the Zoom was a better value.

I guess I'm most concerned with setting it up and capturing a performance (ww quintet, string quartet, instrumental sonatas). Not sure I would use much of the other feature that most of these recorders have.

[bayswater]

"I thought the Tascams sounded better, but the Zoom was better overall value."

"Just curious why you thought the Zoom was a better value."

Simply that, among the models I considered, it did more things for the same or less money.

[mikehalloran]

An iPhone is very good but I wouldn't go more than 2-track—can be done with the right interface but too much hassle.

I use the Zoom iQ5 M/S mic:
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/iQ5B

If I was buying now, I'd get the iQ7 but it wasn't available when I bought mine,
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/IQ7

Zoom has their free iOS recording app called HandyRecorder and it's pretty good in that it lets you control the mic. This also works with Apple's MusicMemos, Voice Memos and GarageBand plus TwistedWave (my default iOS recording app).

If you want 4 channel, get the Zoom H4,

[stubbsonic]

I have an H2n that I like very much. But Mike's suggestion for getting the mics you can connect to your iOS device seems like a better option.

The H2n has M/S mics that sound pretty decent. It has an SD card slot, and runs on AA's. I've also used it with some decent earbuds as a kind of make-shift in-ear monitor and that has been great.

It can be used as an audio interface with your iOS device or Mac. It has a built in speaker, and can record in lots of file formats including mp3, wav, and quad.

[Prime Mover]

I have a Zoom H4n and I use it a lot for work, it's very useable. But I should warn you, NONE of the options talked about are great for everything. All of them use very cheap, hissy preamps that are pretty noisy in high-gain recording situations (by that I mean, quite stuff that you need to turn up the preamps for). In fact, supposedly, they become worse when using external microphones. And the iPhone iQ4/5 versions likely have even lower quality pres, so that route is probably a poor one.

Honestly, if you think you're going to do quite a bit of high-gain recording, I would consider investing in a mid level unit like an Foster FR-2 ($550). The other option is getting external preamp units. One company (forget), makes an interesting product that's a phantom powered preamp built directly into the XLR cable, which would be extremely portable. I think they run about $100 per channel.

However, maybe you're gonna be recording really loud stuff. Like, I wouldn't worry about preamp quality when recording a rock or loud jazz band, and the actually quality of the H4n mics is quite good!

[stubbsonic]

I'll confirm that. I've mostly been recording pretty loud sources. I occasionally record voices and medium level things-- which is also fine. I rarely have to crank the gain. I expect it will be pretty hissy.

[Prime Mover]

Fortunately, since my job is to create smooth, noise-based ambiances for people to fall asleep to, a little hiss isn't actually that bad, I often end up adding some pink noise anyway. But I do often wish I had the ability to get a really clean recording if the time comes.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

An iPhone is very good but I wouldn't go more than 2-track—can be done with the right interface but too much hassle...

If you want 4 channel, get the Zoom H4,

Exactly. As a live performer playing an electric piano solo it's great to use the Zoom built in mics for the room and the inputs for just the piano. Even with acoustic piano, I prefer to get a feed from the board and have the Zoom in the back of the house recording the audience. The larger capacity discs do take significantly longer to boot up, but if you need to record 9 hours (which I recently did at LACMA in L.A. for a solo gig - yes, I played nearly that long non-stop) then you live with a longer boot time. Usually I use a 32GB card but also have a larger card (128?) that takes about 2 minutes to boot up. Crazy world we live in...

[HCMarkus]

Fortunately, since my job is to create smooth, noise-based ambiances for people to fall asleep to, a little hiss isn't actually that bad, I often end up adding some pink noise anyway. But I do often wish I had the ability to get a really clean recording if the time comes.

Steady state hiss should be removable using software...

[mikehalloran]

Steady state hiss should be removable using software...

RX Plugin Pack ($129 or less) and SoundSoap 5 ($99?) are two products that can 'listen' to the noise and remove it only. Both have upgrade and Crossgrade pricing. There are others.

I use my Zoom R24 when I want 8 channels of simultaneous recording that fits in a briefcase. Izotope RX removes the slight hiss that I get in certain environments.

As an old BIAS customer, I qualify for the $49 upgrade to SoundSoap 5 but, with RX, I don't feel the need.

[stubbsonic]

The Noise Reduction in Audacity works pretty well for most steady state noise, especially if there is a reasonably good signal-to-noise ratio (which this would have). But you just need to make sure you have a nice portion of noise-only audio. If you are only dealing with the hiss of the unit, you can go to a quiet room (a vocal booth) set the gain where it was on the recording and leave the room. That gives you a "profile" you could use over and over.

[wylie1]

I've been using a Zoom Q3 for years it does Video as well.
The audio on it is amazing for what it is I wouldn't use it for production but its a great tool for recording reference material.