Portable Digital Recorder

[chriscarcinogen]

Hi, I was looking at the various options around $125 on Musicians Friend, and the usual suspects.

Has any one successfully made a clear and decent rehearsal recording with one of these---in a typical carpeted small room with a loud drummer and guitarist?

Just curious, as recording on cellphones is draining my will to live.

 

[Basslice]

I have made hundreds of decent recordings of practice and gigs with both of the following. I guess it depends on what quality you want and need. I used to convert the cassette tapes into wavs and mp3s. The Zoom, of course, is digital. I have hundreds of hours of recordings. The great thing is that you can pop either in your pocket, set it up in a corner and hit record. Cheap, no cables, no adapters, no muss, no fuss. Not commercial demo quality but great for listening back or sharing on the internet. I have never compared the quality to cell phone recordings.

 

[seamonkey]

Bands have recorded entire albums using these things. Or even on iPhones with an added mic.
Listen to the rehearsal on the way home with a bluetooth connection in the car.

 

[KeepItMoving]

Whether you're using a phone or one of the portable recorders, the quality of the end result will be very highly dependent on where you position the device in the rehearsal space, and what direction it's pointing in. Trial-and-error work is essential - record a song in one spot, listen back, make adjustments to improve the mix, and repeat until things sound the best they can. Then take a picture or mark the spot so you can recreate it later.

In general the inexpensive dedicated recorders are probably capable of making a bit better recording than a good-quality recent phone, but it likely won't be night and day. Before spending your hard-earned you might try going through the positioning exercise with your phone - it could surprise you, and if nothing else it will give you a valuable head start on placing a dedicated recorder. Best of luck with it, whatever hardware you end up with!

 

[One Way]

I record each band rehearsal with a Zoom H5, Shure MV88 iOS mic plugged into my iPhone, or sometimes just the native iPhone mic (newer phones are amazing).

I then export the .wav file from phone or other device into my DAW software and touch up the recording with compression and eq as needed. The results are quite acceptable

 

[And I]

i use a Tascam DR-07. most of the ~$100 digital field recorders are about the same quality-wise. they will give you an accurate picture of what things sound like in the room. so if your drummer and guitarist are too loud that's how it will sound on your recording. it will beat the heck out of a cell phone recording. just be sure to set the mic level low enough so that it's not distorting.

 

[devnulljp]

Zoom make a whole range of recorders, from simple field recorders to 24 track multitrack machines that can do what you want, depending on what exactly you want. I often record rehearsals with an older H2 recorder, that I bought because I played one time in a documentary and the audio engineer used a pair of them to capture audio. Workd fine.
A friend has the bigger 4 track version the H4 (or is it 6?) that you can plug external mics into, and that seems to do a good job.
I also have the Q8 camera, which I use as an audio recorder and to video gigs and sometimes rehearsals.
Used to have the R24 multitrack recorder, and did a demo album on it.

 

[ClusterFlux]

I use the Zoom H6 for rehearsals, it works great. I use both the built-in mic, as well as line-in for bass and guitar.

IMO the additional flexibility of the H6 is well worth the additional cost.

 

[DirkP]

I record each band rehearsal with a Zoom H5, Shure MV88 iOS mic plugged into my iPhone, or sometimes just the native iPhone mic (newer phones are amazing).

I then export the .wav file from phone or other device into my DAW software and touch up the recording with compression and eq as needed. The results are quite acceptable

I do the same as @OneWay. And I agree that even the internal mics of recent iPhones work very well. The newer version of the Shure mic MV88 allows more flexibility and can be used with usb devices, too.
The Shure software allows some basic compressing too and is very flexible. Another advantage is that you can use these mics when using the camera.
It is a simple calculation: if you have only 125,- to spend and already own a halfway decent smartphone, you get better quality if you invest your money into a mic than into a recorder with lower quality internal mics.
The more expensive small recorders only have the advantage that you can record more tracks and use external mics, even those who need phantom power. But this is above your budget.

And I agree 100% with @KeepItMoving:
the positioning of the mic and the room accoustics are way more important than the gear you use, unless you use really crappy gear.

 

[tothemax]

I've got a Tascam DR-05 that works great for recording practices, it's cheap and easy. I use the auto settings and just make sure to set it back a bit from the drum kit, where I can get a good room sound. After practice I'll download the recording do a quick conversion to MP3 with Audacity, takes under 10 minutes for a 2 hour practice. I copy the MP3 to Google drive where we have a shared band folder, and everyone can grab a copy.

It's the modern version of keeping a cassette boom box in the back of the practice room to record with.
I think there is newer version of the DR-05, mine was about $90.

 

[rudy4444]

I have a Tascam DR-05 also. It makes good quality "room" recordings and unlike many of the other choices, it's mic capsules are omni pattern, which I think sound better for capturing many sound sources at once.