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My favorite portable recorder broke!

Spectrum

Spectrum

Apr 10, 2011
10,000
24,574
Alexandria, Virginia
#1
I'm bummed. For the last 4 years or so I've been using a Korg Sound on Sound recorder for pretty much everything.

It does multi-track layers up to the limit of the memory card, has built in guitar effects, vocal effects, tuner, metronome, drum patterns, has guitar and stereo line inputs as well as stereo condenser mics, and just sounds awesome to record off the cuff stuff.

Unfortunately the line-in jack broke while trying to record synth gear tonight. Since it's out of warranty I opened it up and saw that the jack unit had broken off the circuit card it was soldered onto. I know a local Korg service center and the guys there have done great work on my vintage turntable and other gear, so I will stop by them and see if they can re-attach the part without damaging the board.

Meantime I managed to find a new unit on Amazon for less than I paid originally, which is very lucky. For some stupid reason this thing didn't sell well and Korg discontinued it.

If I can get my broken one fixed I will have a backup. This machine is that important to me; I think it's the most useful and heavily-used accessory for my music gear save maybe my tuner.

Does anybody know if any such device even exists now? Korg seems to have given up on portable recorders altogether.
 
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#3
beans-on-toast said:
I think that Korg got out because other products such as Tascam and Zoom were more popular. Here is a list of what is available: Invalid Link Removed. The Zoom F8 is a recent product that is being well teceived.

It shouldn't be a problem fixing your broken recorder.
Click to expand...

Thanks. The Zoom F8 is a thousand bucks, is almost a foot wide and weighs over 5 lbs; the Korg SoS was less than 200 and fits in my pocket. I bet the F8 is great at what it does but it doesn't really look like anyone makes a comparable device to the SoS.

So it looks like a repair is the main hope, plus the second unit I have on the way for a backup.

I find it weird when technology seems to go backwards sometimes. Maybe the SoS was ahead of its time?
 
#4
If you have something that works for you, no need to find something else. For the price of the F8, it's clearly a serious tool for location recording. Tascan and Zoom are among the top selling handheld recorders these days.

I have a Korg CD trainer that I used for many years. It has held up well.
 
#7
Spectrum said:
That's even more awkward to carry around than the Zoom F8. Using a laptop at home is fine, though.
Click to expand...
It's not so bad. I use a rack so I can fit an interface into it and simply set the laptop on top. One extra cable from the preamp to interface (inside the rack so no messy cable) and I'm ready to record. Depending on the interface, you can mic up 7ish more sources and record the entire rehearsal/jam/etc, or overdub your heart out.
 
#8
Grumry said:
It's not so bad. I use a rack so I can fit an interface into it and simply set the laptop on top. One extra cable from the preamp to interface (inside the rack so no messy cable) and I'm ready to record. Depending on the interface, you can mic up 7ish more sources and record the entire rehearsal/jam/etc, or overdub your heart out.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but a pocket-sized recorder means I can take it to jams and rehearsals, pull it out of my coat pocket and just record. And the Korg SoS does so much other stuff. Too bad they dropped it. I'm really surprised Zoom or someone else didn't pick up where it left off.
 
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#10
Zoom R8?
Zoom has occasionally temporarily dropped the price on all the R series recorders by $100, too. I record full bands with an R24, and the R8 is small enough to backpack easily. I track at 24 bit / 44.1 khz and import the wav files into a DAW for actual mixing. The R series are excellent for audio capture and are almost as easy to use as a cassette recorder.
 
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#12
rudy4444 said:
Zoom R8?
Zoom has occasionally temporarily dropped the price on all the R series recorders by $100, too. I record full bands with an R24, and the R8 is small enough to backpack easily. I track at 24 bit / 44.1 khz and import the wav files into a DAW for actual mixing. The R series are excellent for audio capture and are almost as easy to use as a cassette recorder.
Click to expand...

Looked that up on Zoom's website, looks really nice, lots of features, and pretty portable. I might keep that one in mind, thanks.

Meanwhile, I just got a replacement Korg SoS delivered today, so I will try to get the old one fixed. At least there's no learning curve with this new one.
 
#13
Some of the Zoom Handy-recorders have built in effects, too. The Zoom R8 is very good for the money and has a lot to offer (effects, battery power if wanted, drum machine, phrase-sampling). The new Zoom interfaces that have much in common with their handy-recorders are interesting too (the U-44 and U-22). You can even use it with the mic-capsules of the handy recorders in case of the U44.
 
#14
DirkP said:
Some of the Zoom Handy-recorders have built in effects, too. The Zoom R8 is very good for the money and has a lot to offer (effects, battery power if wanted, drum machine, phrase-sampling). The new Zoom interfaces that have much in common with their handy-recorders are interesting too (the U-44 and U-22). You can even use it with the mic-capsules of the handy recorders in case of the U44.
Click to expand...

Yeah there are some cool things out there. The SoS is the only ne I know of that does unlimited multi-tracks (to the memory limit of the card) and does all that other stuff, too, though. To be honest I don't use all th onboard effects often, except maybe for the reverb, but that multi-tracking and all the input options make it ideal for me.

So I got mine repaired and in the meantime picked up a new-in-the-box one, which gives me a backup. If I decide to upgrade to something a bit less portable, the Zoom R series looks pretty good.
 
#15
Spectrum said:
Yeah there are some cool things out there. The SoS is the only ne I know of that does unlimited multi-tracks (to the memory limit of the card) and does all that other stuff, too, though. To be honest I don't use all th onboard effects often, except maybe for the reverb, but that multi-tracking and all the input options make it ideal for me.

So I got mine repaired and in the meantime picked up a new-in-the-box one, which gives me a backup. If I decide to upgrade to something a bit less portable, the Zoom R series looks pretty good.
Click to expand...

After reading your initial post again: Multilayered...
Did you ever think about a Looper?
 
#16
DirkP said:
After reading your initial post again: Multilayered...
Did you ever think about a Looper?
Click to expand...

You mean a pedal? Sure, but that's a whole different animal. I use this thing to record synth tracks, layering one on top of the other. The tracks don't start or stop in the same place at all. NO way to ever do that with a loop pedal. Here's an example. All of this was done with one synthesizer and a drum machine, played in several layers, all recorded into the SoS. I get to throw out and re-do the bad takes. This whole thing was recorded on my living room coffee table in one day (after lots of practice).

 

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