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what do you use?

I have recently begun the seemingly impossible search for pocket sized audio recording equipment.

I borrowed a friend's minidisc and recorded through a Sony ECM-MS907 (battery powered) and (unfortunately) the line in and the results were poor, naturally.

It may sound like a ridiculous question but recording through a line will obviously yeild inferior results to recording through a dedicated mic input, yes?

Anyway, the minidisc route was abandoned as it was difficult to get a decent transfer between MD and sampler/pc.

The Edirol R-1 seems to be up to the job but at ₤329 it's a bit out of my current capabilities.

missing peice
what do you use?

anything really. i like all fidelities. but the highest quality i am capable of now is realized through a marantz pmd420 cassette recorder and some condenser mics.

missing peice
It may sound like a ridiculous question but recording through a line will obviously yeild inferior results to recording through a dedicated mic input, yes?

my short answer is: not necesarily.

my long answer:

it's all about the path of the signal, not so much what each input is intended to be used for (i.e. labeled as). you'll hear audio uber-geeks use the term "discrete" a lot when refering signal quality: in general the more discrete the signal path is from the mic to the recording medium, the better the chances are for better audio quality. basically, the less electronics the signal flows through before it hits the recording medium, the more discrete that signal path is. an input on your recorder labeled "mic" is feeding into a microphone preamp designed to drive a weak signal up to "line" level. an input labeled "line" is expecting an already stronger signal, but it is still fed into a line level preamp (that's why most inputs labeled "line" don't work when you plug a mic into them).

so what am trying to say, in my longwindedness, is that it is not the type of preamp that determines the quality of the signal, but the quality of the preamp that determines the quality of the signal. if you are able to get a recording using a mic plugged into the "line" input you must be using a mic that takes batteries, and therefor has a "mic" preamp inside it to amplify the signal from the mic to a line level before sending it to the "line" input on your recorder. so the mantra for clean signal is, "high quality preamps and as little of them as possible".

on that note, i would add that the quality of the mic itself is the only thing that is more associated with the quality of the audio than the quality of the preamp. a really nice condenser mic going into a really nice mic preamp going into the line input of a cheap minidisk recorder is going to yield higher quality audio than a crappy mic going into the mic input (i.e. stock onboard mic preamp) of a nice DAT recorder; even though a DAT recorder itself records without data compression at a higher bit depth/frequency (i.e. the medium is abble to store higher quality audio) than a cheap minidisk recorder.

hey there, i just posted my review of the sony mz-rh910 minidisc today in this thread
http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=97

it is a pretty killer deal but something like the edirol is dedicated to just portable recording so it's worth looking at. i dont know how the reviews on it have been. but the sony records in wave quality and dumps onto the pc with usb. they definitely had the recordist in mind on that one but limited in a few ways that you can read in my review.

m-audio gave a sneak peak of their new recorder at musicmesse too. im not one to wait for products to come out cause who knows when that one hits the market they didnt even make a formal press release about it yet.

you can also look at the marantz gear i think i saw a small recorder for cheap lately. the fostex unit is a great one but the more expensive devices are clunky and awkard to use in public. that's why the handheld route is really cool. you might want to avoid DATs a little because they use moving parts(spinning heads) whereas compact flash devices wont break down as easy. the minidisc falls into the category of moving parts too unfortunately. good luck and dont stress too hard about your search.

mrtunes
. . . you might want to avoid DATs a little because they use moving parts(spinning heads) whereas compact flash devices wont break down as easy. the minidisc falls into the category of moving parts too unfortunately. good luck and dont stress too hard about your search.

great point. as far as life span, i will put my money on the flash / rom recorders before anything else. unfortunately, the amount of money one would put on flash / rom recorders is still quite a bit more than their moving-parts contemporaries . . .

hey i'm sorry i wrote my response forgetting that you were in that other thread with me on minidisc recorders. i just hadnt been in for a while so i forgot

Hi all, this is a very intersting topic and I just want to ask a question about mics. I just checked out the Marantz PMD671 on the web and it looks quite promising and seem to suit my needs. any other recommendations?
My aim is to record some ambient sounds, ranging from train stations to shopping malls. My other is to record more specific sounds such as mechanical sounds produced by cars etc. Since I am quite new to this kind of portable recording, I am just wondering what kinda mics you would recommend for these two different kind of applications, that is also portable enough to carry around. Would a typical dynamic mic do the job? would I need to set up a stand in the middle of nowhere to keep the mic from being touched? Also, would I need to have a huge windshield when recording outdoors?

Thanks in advance. I know that this is actually a big question with lots of mini questions.

ChinoK

chinok
Hi all, this is a very intersting topic and I just want to ask a question about mics. I just checked out the Marantz PMD671 on the web and it looks quite promising and seem to suit my needs. any other recommendations?
My aim is to record some ambient sounds, ranging from train stations to shopping malls. My other is to record more specific sounds such as mechanical sounds produced by cars etc. Since I am quite new to this kind of portable recording, I am just wondering what kinda mics you would recommend for these two different kind of applications, that is also portable enough to carry around. Would a typical dynamic mic do the job? would I need to set up a stand in the middle of nowhere to keep the mic from being touched? Also, would I need to have a huge windshield when recording outdoors?

Thanks in advance. I know that this is actually a big question with lots of mini questions.

ChinoK

a wind shield is pretty indispensible, but it's nice to have a removable one so you can ditch it when you don't need it (i.e. when it's not windy). i would keep a dynamic as a backup mic and get my hands on a condenser for your main mic. condenser mics need phantom power, but they have a much crisper response than dynamic mics. look for a stereo condenser with built in power.