Photo courtesy of Alesis
June 21st, 2008 – Lately, I’ve become more and more interested in portable recording solutions. I already use a laptop to run my music software, and I have portable preamps and audio interfaces for portability. Sometimes, though, I feel like it’s a hassle to bring all that gear, and microphones, to a location to record. As well, even when I’m at home and I just want to record some simple song ideas, the act of turning on my computer and launching the appropriate software up is, in itself, a barrier.
Remember those hand-held tape recorders for recording notes to yourself? They’ve come a long way. Companies like Alesis, Olympus, Sony, M-Audio, Edirol, and Marantz all make high quality portable recorders, some of them not bigger than a pack of cards. What’s great about them is that they are meant to do only one thing: capture sound. They load fast, don’t have many bells and whistles, and are designed to just get the job done.
After a lot of research, I bought a Sony PCM-D50 and it should arrive sometime next week (expect a review soon after). It received good reviews and has most of the features I want (except for balanced XLR inputs with phantom power). Most high quality recorders either have the inputs for two microphones or have to built in microphones that match for a stereo image. Prices for reasonable pro-sumer models range from just $200 all the way up to $2000.
If you’re looking to get a portable recorder, you should really know what you want to use it for. For me, I wanted good portability, great battery life and good built-in microphones and preamps since I intend to carry it with me everywhere and use it to record ambiences; I don’t want to have to carry extra mics with me. If you are using it for podcasting, you will probably buy a more basic recorder.
Another option that has only been viable within the last couple years, is adding mics and preamps to something you likely already have: an iPod. Alesis anounced that it will be launching its ProTrack later this year. It is able to take your iPod classic or older generation iPods and use it as a storage device. It has two stereo mics built in, and also contains two XLR-1/4 inch hybrid connectors with 48v phantom power if you want to add external microphones. This is a pretty good option for those that want more storage since you can get iPod classics with up to 160 gigs of storage which is many times more than what you get on most dedicated recorders. No word on price yet.
2 Comments, Comment or Ping
koikoi
I was thinking of getting a simple recorder that I could hook up to my ipod, for school. I can turn it on, point the mic at the prof, then catch up on some z’s.
Jun 22nd, 2008
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