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What to record band practice with on a budget?

Metalbasspro

Metalbasspro

Feb 9, 2009
1,848
922
WA state
#1
I am talking like boom box budget. There does not seem to be anything on the market that get a clear recording like the old boom boxes used to get.

I bought a used one but the tape deck would not run, I used my old one and the tape deck would not run. I bought a old style cassette recorder and used that. The motor had some issues and were noisy. It made the recording pretty awful.

Short of buying one of those 4 track recorders I don't see anything that works well. SO much for progress.

I do have a digital lecture recorder but the bass drums distort it, not bad but I need a better recording.

Is there any way to filter the mike?
 
#2
our drummer uses his iPhone, but he puts it right outside the practice room door. That really helps with keeping the kick & the bass clear. It sounds surprisingly OK to hear what everyone is doing and to play along to at home thru slightly better speakers.
 
#4
In my jam band, my buddy uses a USB microphone connected to his laptop. He already had the laptop, so no additional cost for the recorder. His mic was a little over $100 dollars. I use a Tascam mic/preamp connected to my iPod Touch. I already had the iPod. The Tascam device was about $70 dollars.
 
#5
I like the USB mike idea.

We use a Zoom H4N, which is great. We used to use a Zoom H1, which is similar. I see an H1 on Craigslist for $70. We record the entire rehearsal and then use Audacity to extract the songs into individual MP3 files.
 
#8
I need something mobile to bring into the jam room not at my home. Cheap and decent, I know that is asking a lot but an the old boom boxed were cheap and I used to get some really good recordings out of them. Clearly hear all the various things being played. They just don't seem to have anything like this anymore like they had tape decks that could record but CD players? I've never seen one.

I did try putting the tape recorder outside the room. The sound was better but the fidelity was degraded to the point of being useless.
 
#9
Why haven't ANY of you recommended the Zoom H1? Bastids!

Seriously, you turn it on and push record. I'm just listening to the recording of the Clifford Brown Birthday performance we did a couple of weeks ago. It's $99. Go to an ATM now.

All the stuff up on my soundcloud page was recorded with the H1.
 
#12
I have two needs for the recordings one is taken care of by my lecture recorder the other need is a format I can put into my boom box, tape or CD and play along to the original music I am trying to get a handle on but can't because I lack the one of the above mentioned needs. While the recorder I have to take to work is OK it seems to distort some of the music to the point I cannot tell some of the changes talking place in the song to they are not clear enough to hear the notes I need to be hearing. For example when the played notes are moving in half steps.
 
#14
If you have a mixer with a headphone out for rehearsal, you can probably go from the headphone out to the mic in on your computer and record with some freeware like Audacity. The headphone out is actually very hot for the computer's mic input, so start with the headphone-out volume very low and keep it low so it doesn't distort.
 

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