Plz recommend some good portable digital recorders!ZOOM R8 or H4N?

[joshmalory]

I use it mainly for practise.

Thank you so much in advance.

[AirBagTester]

What's your budget like and what features do you want? If it's just to record your practice there are some good ones for under $100. Even the Zoom H2 was on sale somewhere recently for like $119 and that's probably more than you need. If you want to get into multitracking and/or overdubs it will start to cost a bit more. Then there's the issue of how it connects to a computer.

[joshmalory]

Originally Posted by AirBagTester

What's your budget like and what features do you want? If it's just to record your practice there are some good ones for under $100. Even the Zoom H2 was on sale somewhere recently for like $119 and that's probably more than you need. If you want to get into multitracking and/or overdubs it will start to cost a bit more. Then there's the issue of how it connects to a computer.

Thanks.

I think it will be much better if it has built-in drum machine and multi-effects.

[joshmalory]

How about zoom H4N or zoom R8?

[AirBagTester]

Originally Posted by joshmalory

How about zoom H4N or zoom R8?

Oh, well yeah, if that's in your price range I've heard that both are very good portables.

I have a Korg Sound-on-Sound which has some effects, built in drum tracks, but more importantly, unlimited overdubs. I do all my solo recording on it.

I also have a Tascam Digital Portastudio 004, which will record 2 tracks at once and has panning/level knobs but no effects or drums (does have a click track.) It's good for simple live 2-track recordings where I put one mic stage left and one stage right, and then mix and pan afterwards. But it's more of a hassle to export everything to the computer than itis with the Korg, which uses an SD card like the Zoom H2 and H4n.

I'm not familiar with the H4n or any of the R series, but I got the H2 for my brother recently and he uses it as a usb mic interface for his computer and likes it. I think if you want effects the R8/16/24 will have more options, but I'm not sure how good the effects are. I don't add many effects to my recordings aside from a bit of reverb or compression in Audacity.

It really depends on how you want to use the portable device. For simple live practice recordings you want something easy to use and transfer one stereo 16bit .wav to a computer, but for studio quality overdubbing you want 24bit and might need more knobs and dials, or inputs for multiple mics/mixers etc.

[backalleyblues]

I've got the Zoom R`16, which is 8 tracks in, 16 total... probably overkill in your case (I record my band with mine, so I need all those tracks!) If you like any of the Zoom pedals, you'll probably like the R8, since it has the same effects MOL as the pedals... of course, since you have a computer, you could just get some software to do all that... are you running Mac or PC?

Franc Robert

[joshmalory]

Originally Posted by backalleyblues

I've got the Zoom R`16, which is 8 tracks in, 16 total... probably overkill in your case (I record my band with mine, so I need all those tracks!) If you like any of the Zoom pedals, you'll probably like the R8, since it has the same effects MOL as the pedals... of course, since you have a computer, you could just get some software to do all that... are you running Mac or PC?

Franc Robert

Thanks, I'm using PC but I'll get a Mac soon.

[joshmalory]

Originally Posted by AirBagTester

Oh, well yeah, if that's in your price range I've heard that both are very good portables.

I have a Korg Sound-on-Sound which has some effects, built in drum tracks, but more importantly, unlimited overdubs. I do all my solo recording on it.

I also have a Tascam Digital Portastudio 004, which will record 2 tracks at once and has panning/level knobs but no effects or drums (does have a click track.) It's good for simple live 2-track recordings where I put one mic stage left and one stage right, and then mix and pan afterwards. But it's more of a hassle to export everything to the computer than itis with the Korg, which uses an SD card like the Zoom H2 and H4n.

I'm not familiar with the H4n or any of the R series, but I got the H2 for my brother recently and he uses it as a usb mic interface for his computer and likes it. I think if you want effects the R8/16/24 will have more options, but I'm not sure how good the effects are. I don't add many effects to my recordings aside from a bit of reverb or compression in Audacity.

It really depends on how you want to use the portable device. For simple live practice recordings you want something easy to use and transfer one stereo 16bit .wav to a computer, but for studio quality overdubbing you want 24bit and might need more knobs and dials, or inputs for multiple mics/mixers etc.

Thanks. I've seen Korg Sound-on-Sound and it's a good one. But I'm always worring about the tedious operation of those digital devices.LOL. Besides, I really like the appearance of boss micro BR-80 new addition.

[T Prior]

ok..you went from I just use it to practice to I need drums and effects...


When making a purchase of a recorder, with so many choices..purpose matters....


What do you really want to do with it, today ..and..tomorrow...

record by yourself ?
record with others ?
How many others ? How many at the same time ?

Are you tracking a song one track at a time ?
or are you wanting to play your guitar and record your idea's ?

You can see where this is going...

My take is a 4 or 8 track unit such as a Zoom R8 for example, or any Tascam, Boss...Grow into it...

You can start simple, record your practice sessions..

then move up to multi tracking using the same unit...

Many units in the lower price point allow for two tracks to be recorded at the same time...even if it is an 8 track unit...this is intended to record in STEREO or record two players at the same time...( mono)

The only issue you may have with the very small Boss Micro is size..it is really small and the display/ functionality is what it is, where a larger unit won't require a magnifying glass to record a few tracks. The small Zoom H units fall into this category...I have an H2 and without reading glasses ..well...

I do feel the Zoom R8 has potential here ...as do some of the Boss units ...I would head to 8 tracks and grow into it...

One thing I would recommend is download the manuals of the units in question..take a look at how they operate, what files they use, do they record in WAV, MP3 etc..or proprietary files ? How easy is it to get the files from the recorder to your PC ? These things matter...compare...know what you want it to do for you...before you find out it doesn't do something important that you want...

good luck

t

[AirBagTester]

Originally Posted by joshmalory

Thanks. I've seen Korg Sound-on-Sound and it's a good one. But I'm always worring about the tedious operation of those digital devices.LOL. Besides, I really like the appearance of boss micro BR-80 new addition.

I should emphasize up font that the Korg SOS is not flawless. It's made of plastic, and every once in a blue moon it will freeze up for a few minutes (IN THE MIDDLE OF RECORDING!!!) But it's very easy to use just by turning it on, hit the right arrow to make a new track, set playback volume, hit the recording button once to monitor and set recording in/out levels, press record again and start. Then stop, return to zero and record an overdub. Keep going until the battery runs out or the memory card is full. Very easy! But it just wasn't made for mixdowns and that sort of thing... you export all the separate .wav tracks to a computer for mixing. You can always bounce .wav mixes to and from the Korg SOS too (Comes in handy when I need to program drums in Hydrogen and get them on the recorder to play with.)

I haven't had any buttons break on it yet or anything though, if that's what you're worried about.

The Boss Micro looks cool too. Maybe the effects are better than Korg also.

[AirBagTester]

Originally Posted by T Prior

What do you really want to do with it, today ..and..tomorrow...

...

then move up to multi tracking using the same unit...

This is an excellent point. If you get a smaller, cheaper unit (just saw the Korg is $99 on Amazon! I paid almost triple that a few months after it was demo'ed at NAMM when it was first released ) if you are like me you will probably want a more capable recorder later as well, mostly one that can record 8 tracks at once. When you look at it that way, the R16 will probably be better in the long run (I know I have been eyeing them myself )

[backalleyblues]

well, I can't enough good things about the R16, ABT, it's great for recording my band, and I'm using it to record my next CD... one of things I REALLY like with it is that I can record in the R16, then transfer the tracks into a DAW (it records in WAV format, and has USB 2 for transferring files). Haven't played with the models, drum tracks, etc. but I'll bet they're at least good enough for demos...

Franc Robert

[klusterfunk]

I was in the market fairly recently for a portable guitar training aid that could record.

From everything that I looked at, I went with an ipod touch 4g 64gb.

For a little under $300 on ebay, it does the following:

1. 100s of quality fx available from virtual amp modellers like amplitube
2. 100s of drum machines and metronomes available, some of the best ones are free
3. several excellent speed trainers like the acclaimed Amazing Slow-Downer
4. plays all my videos in unbelievable quality, and can be connected to a monitor for the bigger screen
5. several quality tuners available. I went with the virtual strobe tuner from Peterson called iStrobosoft, for $10
6. lots of options for tab readers, so I can carry all the tabs and notation I want in my pocket
7. reads pdfs so carrying ebooks along is a breeze
8. records audio and video in atleast youtube-worthy resolution. great for practice.
9. not to mention the countless apps and timewasters, that I generally ignore for the most part
10. Size. This thing is smaller than any trainer I've seen.

So for a little more (or less) than twice the price of a low-end trainer, I could not pass this up.

There are many other advantages (mp3 playback etc) that I have not listed.

You could even go for an older generation like the 3G, or lower capacity like a 16GB and save big bucks. I like the 4G because the screen quality helps readability on the small screen.

[CoachJM]

josh,

I've got an H4N and I'm quite pleased with it.

Remarkable sound quality and an amazing range of features.

It does NOT have a "drum machine", but it does have a metronome.

Pretty wide array of amp models and effects.

JM

[Del Pickup]

I've got an old Korg D8 which is fine but I'd really like to have something with 16 channels and a bigger memory. But I use my Zoom H4 to transfer the final mix done on the D8 onto my laptop and edit and 'master' the songs there on Cubase.

It works well for demos.

I use my H4 to record basic acoustic ideas and also band practices with the built in mics which are very good.