Official Luthiers Forum!

I've been on the hunt lately for a small digital recorders. I know this isn't so much a guitar question but I would be using it for doing sound clips among other things so I hope it qualifies to be posted here.

The two I have been looking at so far are the Edirol HR09 and the Zoom H4. All I know about these units is they're very cool and the product info available on line that I've read. I play in a band with my 13 year old daughter on Friday afternoons and her violin teacher plunked an Edirol down in front of this group of 15 or so and the recording results were impressive. I did just try to attach an MP3 file she sent me but apparently it was too large.

The Zoom has 4 track capability but they make it sound like you have to be plugged into the unit, not by mic. I'm not sure about the Edirol. Multi track would be nice. If any of you have any experience or knowledge on these or other brands I would really appreciate you sharing some of it with me.

Thanks a Bunch,
Danny

I had a Zoom h4 and really liked it but my girlfriend bought a Zoom H2 and I didn't need both around so I sold mine. Al Evans used a Zoom H4 to record an RMMGA weekend of music in Texas a couple years ago to transfer to cd and the quality was excellent. But I just use it more for song writing to capture ideas so the Zoom H2 is perfect for me and can be had for about $150.
One of the guys in Texas, Jim McCrain, did a comparison of the Zoom and the Edirol and he liked the Edirol better but he does some professional recording so has more educated ear than I do. Check his comments here

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.musi ... 3c8807d86c

I am going to buy another Zoom, probably an H2.

Kent

Don't forget the Tascam DR-1. I have one and I love it. It has over-dubbing capability as well as utilities for guitar tuning, metronome, stripping vocals off of tracks, slowing/speeding mp3's to "tune" them, aux input etc. It's an impressive little device.

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John Watkins
CNC Guitar Parts

I have an H4 and really like it. I've used it both with the internal and external mics and they all work really well. A buddy has one of them sony $2k thingies and the mics definitely are not up to that standard but they blow me away, especially for the price.

the 4 track feature is there (as are a bunch of guitar effects etc) but they're quite hard to use because of the tiny display etc. However, for portable field recording it's great. If I had it to do over again, I'd buy the H4 again. The H2 looks really nice too but I use external mics often for field recording, something that's difficult with the H2.

I read somewhere that Zoom is coming up with the next gen H4 pretty soon that's supposed to have a bunch of upgrades but it will also have an upgraded price. Once that's out, you'll probably be able to pick up the H4 for a song.

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http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

Thanks guys, That was a good review of the both. And you're right Andy. Out for two weeks now,the H4n with new and improved price.
http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodID=1994&brandID=4
Looks very cool and has it's own speaker. Do you know if you can do multiple tracks with just the on board mic? I'm having a hard time getting an answer on that one.

Thanks for the Tascam info John, and the new kits rock! Loop capability. That's good for old guys. Less work. You say it was over dubbing. Is that the same as multi track?

Cheerio,
Danny

I'm pretty sure you can, but don't have time to investigate at the moment. I'll have some time to check it out for you sunday though.

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http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

I used the Edirol a few weeks ago to record a board meeting in a large room. I set it in the middle of the table and it picked up everything fairly clearly. I think it would be a pain to record music with it, especially multitracking, though. I have little experience editing sound on a pc or mac, though, so that should all be taken with a grain of salt.

I do all my multitracking on an old Tascam Portastudio 788. It's worked great for me, and I know Tascam has some inexpensive multitrack recorders out there now (DP-004, for example), but I don't know much about them.

Evan

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Evan McCartney

I have an H4 (I think) it was one of the first stereo units to come out that was affordable. I use it just to put down ideas. I have had various version of recording studios throughout the years from small home project rooms up to full fledged commercial facilities. The bottom line on all these units is that the ADCs ( analog to digital converters) and mics are all going to be in the same ballpark as far as quality. I doubt you could tell much of a difference if you A/Bed them. What will make most of the difference is the room in which you are recording and the placement of the mic (in this case the unit) itself.

Good luck,

Richard

I have the Olympus LS-10. One sweet little machine. Mark Nelson did a good review of DRs on Taropatch. Look here: http://www.taropatch.net/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7726 or in Da Kine Music Gear at that site.

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A higher purpose for wood.
Rich Smith
Issaquah, WA

I also have the Olympus LS-10 and I agree with Recardo: it's a sweet little machine. Very easy to use and I like the quality of the recordings although I have had no need to attempt multitrack recordings with it.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I couldn't find my manual for my H4 but found online here: http://s3.amazonaws.com/samsontech/rela ... manual.pdf

If you check on page 22, you'll see that you can use the built in mics in four track operation.

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http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

I have a Sony PCM-D50 - it's an excellent little gadget - my only complaint is that it uses a memory stick for the external memory.
It costs more than some of the others - but I can't say if the recorded sound is better. I notice that Tascam has a new 4 track digital recorder - the DP-004 that looks pretty nice and costs $200 w/ an SD memory card - might be worth looking at ....

john