Hand held or compact multitrack rec. that's quick & easy to use

[quadrogong]

I'm looking for a small multitrack unit to lay down song ideas,
and to sketch out arrangements

I don't want anything too complex or large,
It's something for all of us to use for ideas in the rehearsal space, to present new songs to the band etc

I'd like a built in mic and easy to use menus, something user friendly that will actually get used often,
(rather than ignored because the user interface is too tedious or confusing)
Looking for a one piece unit that doesn't require external mica, interfaces, etc

The goal is
easy easy easy..
I've had a laptop system for a while and it collects dust..
Unless it's quick and convenient it stays in the closet unused,
Thnx!

 

[4Mal]

I have used a Zoom H4 with great results. It is also now available as a shameless plug... In the GFS.

My recording setup these days is mac based and for me very convenient so the Zoom collects dust... One nice thing in the Zoom is that while there are mic/instrument/line inputs, there is also the XY stereo mic. The beauty is that they build in a decent condenser mic emulation (neumann u87) and a decent limiter so live recordings sound sweet!

 

[seamonkey]

Smartphones are easy. You might have one in your pocket already. The built in mics are not bad, don't let the quality of the cell phone sound confuse you with what the mic can actually do.
Invalid Link Removed

Android phones are fine for recording and playback, what android doesn't do as well is interactive/latency type things like running modelers live. But there are DAW apps both Android and IOS