Live Audio Recording Equipment?

A

Avalon

New member
Evenin' all. I'm looking to do some live recording on my next trip to the World and was wondering what equipment you people would recommend. My current setup is a Song MZ-NF810 MiniDisc player with a ECM-MS907 mic.

Since it's been several years since I bought any equipment, I figured it may be time to move on to a mp3 player with line-in to use for my recording. However, I'm planning on doing some longer length recordings (30-40 minutes at least), and I didn't know what players could handle that sort of length while still having decent quality.

Would I need a new mic as well? I see that many of you use binaural mics, so perhaps that's the way to go. However, sometimes when I'll be recording I'll probably be in one place for a while, so a one-point mic may not be too bad. If that's the case I could probably use what I already have.

Sorry for the questions, but considering the quality recordings that have been posted on this site I figured you guys would know some of the the best ways to do in-the-field recordings. Thanks a lot for the assistance.
 
I'm using a Sony RH1 minidisc recorder. You'll have to pry it form my cold dead fingers!

Personally, I love it. I think they finally fixed the mic pre-amp which helps a lot from what I hear. Pretty much everything I do is via line-in however. Well, everything that's NOT an induction recording.

That mic seems to be a stardard mic a lot of people use. If this is right, then this would be my biggest complaint.
Frequency Response: 100 - 15,000Hz
Click to expand...
That's not a very good range when compared to others. Granted, the price starts going up so I guess what you pay for generally.

I really can't recommend using a camcorder to record audio. That is how I started as well, and yes it does work. The Everest BGM Loop was recorder via induction pickup and a camcorder. The biggest problem I see with it is the AGC that's built into (and can't be disabled) I would say most camcorders. It really does hork your recordings. It's a great start, but you will quickly grow beyond it's limits. Only having a 60 minute recording window and the real time transfers of miniDV got old real fast.
 
I just sent a PM, but maybe I should have just asked here. When you record on the RH1, do you ever record to uncompressed wav?
 
kirky said:
I'm using a Sony RH1 minidisc recorder. You'll have to pry it form my cold dead fingers!

Personally, I love it. I think they finally fixed the mic pre-amp which helps a lot from what I hear. Pretty much everything I do is via line-in however. Well, everything that's NOT an induction recording.
Click to expand...

Did Sony finally fix that stupid restriction about not being able to upload to a computer? That's the main reason I'm looking to get a new recorder. I know on the old MD players at least, what you recorded was stuck on the disk, unless you want to do real-time recording. Sorta makes the idea of recording stuff a bit pointless. Or at least, a bit time-consuming.
 
Yes, the last bunch of MD recorders do not suffer from that restriction. The RH1 will upload older discs as well, so many folks are getting it just for that reason.

TheBeets: No I haven't done any WAV recording yet. I explained in my PM response.

Finally, I think Sony has killed the MD format however. Doens't mean the old stuff won't work, but it's going to no longer be available once hte current supplies are exhausted I'm afraid. No official word from Sony as far as I know. I'm thinking of picking up another RH1 before it's too late.
 
The Edirol is what I use and it is fantastic. I have no complaints at all. I can record in mp3 (which I usally do at 320k) or wav, it has great level settings, and produces a stereo effect when recording in mono. Very simple and portable.
 
I use an older Sony Minidisc Recorder with a Sony ECM MS-907 MIC, and I really think the recording quality is very good!

Eventually, I would like to upgrade to an Edirol Recorder, but my MD Recorder did very well on my last trip to WDW over the summer. (Check my uploaded recordings on this site.)
 
The Edirol looks nice, I might be sold on using that instead of MD, that is, once I have enough money to spend on it. How is it as a player?

I like the idea of using SD cards, and this looks like a professional recorder. Can you tell a difference between WAV and MP3? What about durability? How is the mic that is attached?
 
I don't primarily use it as a player, other than to take a listen to something I just recorded.

I have recorded a few things in wav, but I haven't noticed superior quality over an mp3 (recorded at 320k). It's pretty durable, although that was the one complaint I read about it before purchasing, especially the battery compartment. The attached mic has produced some good recordings, but I don't rely on it for my live recordings.
 
i use my iRiver ifp899T that is 1G of memory and i use binaural mics. they don't make the irivers with the lin in anymore. sad too because they do direct encoding of mp3. you can find them on ebay and the binaural from www.soundprofessionals.com if you want a direct link pm and i will post it here.
 
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