Portable sound recorder recommendation

[mcbpete]

I'm a volunteer so I don't get paid at the music group ! I was hoping for something under £100, ideally even half that. I don't need multi tracking so I'd prefer a built-in mic, a very portable thing, just better than my shitty phone mic. Would be good to transfer the files to PC

You can probably get a second hand Zoom H2 for under 50 quid (just googled and CeX has one for £32 for example - https://uk.webuy.com/product-detail/?id ... m=category ). It records to SD cards in a non-proprietary .wav format that you can just drag and drop to the PC

Had mine for nearly 20 years now, mainly for doing field recordings - great little thing !

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

I'm a volunteer so I don't get paid at the music group ! I was hoping for something under £100, ideally even half that. I don't need multi tracking so I'd prefer a built-in mic, a very portable thing, just better than my shitty phone mic. Would be good to transfer the files to PC but doesn't have to be optimum quality at all.

I mean, when I heard a DAT recorder years back, it was great quality with it's built in mic, I was impressed. I was hoping for something like that but budget, if that's possible nowadays

You could get one of the cheaper Zoom or Tascam field recorders, though I believe you'll hit your £100 ceiling. These are extremely portable. Whether they beat your phone might depend on the phone. Certainly, if you have a recent high-end iPhone it might be worth sticking with that.

One of the advantages of the field-recorders (even the cheaper ones) is that if they have a 3.5mm mic input (I think many do), then you'll later be able to upgrade your quality by adding some great quality external mics, for non-bank-breaking prices.

[Stokely]

I have an older Zoom h2 that I bought for recording band practices...it also served me as an audio interface/microphone for home recording for a while too.

Those little microphones on those are surprisingly good. I still favor multi-tracking for a serious demo just because it removes the room sound (mostly). Definitely more work and you need everything coming into the mixer, but it's also a lot of fun to mix later if you are able to do it. Some digital mixers will let you simply plug in a drive or sd card, others you'd have to bring a laptop.

In any case, you can do some work in the computer to spiff up the recording from the Zoom. Some compression and EQ can help a lot to even things out. That said, in my case with a practice room I had to experiment with the best spot for it so that the drums didn't overpower everything. I also played with the recording file settings, settled on higher quality mp3 as a nice compromise between quality and recording time/space.

[cthonophonic]

You might also consider getting some external mics to connect to your phone. Though still a little outside your budget, this is a pretty good solution:

https://micbooster.com/clippy-and-plugg ... ype-indoor

I have a friend who used this kit for a while before getting a dedicated recorder, and the results were very good. It's basically a mini audio interface for your phone, with a couple of good omni mics that you can clip to anything that's handy. Those Clippy mics are well-regarded in the field recording community, and they can also be used with any recorder that has plug-in power, if you have any plans to upgrade in the future.

[Sub LX]

Maybe an old Zoom H2 is a good option. I recorded a lot of rehearsals and some live gigs with my band 10-12 years ago, and the recordings sound surprisingly good. I really like the overall sound balance!