Portable recorder recommendation?

[szurcio]

I already have a couple of condenser and dynamic mics. What I would need is a portable (battery-powered) recorder with a mic input that I could take outside - any options under $200? Or should I just buy an all-in-one recorder with a microphone (like Zoom H2)? I would need it mostly for recording short (not longer than 10-20 seconds) samples to use and edit/transform later with software instruments (like Geist), not for full recordings.

[Lejurai]

Well I do my field recordings with my cellphone. It's more than enough and after processing you won't notice anything about what was used to record the sample

But I'd almost dare to say that some zoom recorder would be enough. Planning to buy one by myself too when I feel that my phone isn't enough anymore (may take long).

[Meffy]

I love my Zoom H4n. An employer, who had agreed to pay for a small job with a studio mic but then couldn't find the mic, gave it to me instead. At first I thought it was a cheap toy and I'd been ripped off, but after learning Zoom was a respected company I tried it and was very pleased. Turns out it's worth a lot more than the SM58 mic I hoped to be "paid" with. (I bought one of those later.)

A bit bulky, but it's a darned good piece of kit. The stereo mics are in a proper X-Y arrangement so you can mix its recordings with others without annoying phase problems. It's got two quite good preamps for external mics (it can do four-track recording) and accepts phone plugs or XLN connectors.

Last time I checked, whyterabbyt was selling his in Market Place.

[edit] Yup, here 'tis. http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... hilit=zoom

[Spiritos]

If you have an iPhone or Android I would opt for a IK Multimedia interface. Brandnew it will set you back between 40-125 dollar.