I'm hoping some of you can give me some good advice! I've been to several electronic stores in my area, when I explain what I want, they have no clue what to recommend. It's simple. I need a small, portable recording device that I can capture either conversations or music rehearsals with. I am having a lot of old family film that is 40-50 years old transfered to mini-DV. I want to create a sound track that consists of the older generation watching the films for the first time, their reactions and explanations of what the video (silent of course!) is about. Then I will combine that sound track with the DV to DVD. I also attend several music rehearsals a week as a vocalist and need a device to capture these sessions. I've not had much luck searching on the web either, maybe asking google the wrong questions. I am fine with also buying a condensor room mic but sales people can't seem to even tell me which models allow recording other than with the built-in mic! Thanks in advance for some recommendations!

One of the biggest problems you'll find is that microphones on any portable recordable device are usually s***. Most are aimed at recording conversation level voice.

Getting a condenser mic is probably a good idea. In another thread, the AKG C1000S was recommended to me. I haven't tried it yet, but it does have a place for a 9V battery, so you don't necessarily have to worry about having enough power for the mic.

As for the recording device itself, I can't think of anything that specifically meets your needs, but I can think of at least one thing that will be an overkill for your needs: Roland's BR-1180. It's a hard drive based 8-track recorder that will provide you with more than you'll ever need. The upshot is that you can record different sources at the same time.

I don't know if normal audio tape would be sufficient for your needs or not. I'm actually not as familiar with that recording medium as I am with HD.

Hmm... depending on what you are able to spend, you might want to think of the same approach used to record live concerts. Get a decent mic (you probably want an omnidirectional mic so that it captures everything around the room instead of just what's in front of it) and if necessary, a cheap mic amp (ART Tube amps are great), and feed that into the line-in (or mic-in, if not using a mic amp) of either a Minidisc recorder or maybe something like the iRiver iHP-120 which basically acts as a hard disk recorder. This may be more elaborate than what you wanted, and perhaps a bit too much stuff to carry, but I figured I'd put in my two cents anyways. Good luck!

Nick

minidisc recorders have served bootleggers and musicians very well for a long while now, i'd say they are tried and tested when it comes to recording live. only problem may be the lack of a digital output on portable models. try to get one that displays decent sized meters and allows manual adjustment of levels when recording

as for mics, i wouldn't mind a few pointers myself. i once tried recording some stuff at a festival with a cheap tie-clip stereo mic. the recording was awful. the only bits you could make out were of myself, shouting, dancing and screaming

Thanks for all the suggestions. I decided on a Sony min-disc. The line out is solved with an adapter using the headphone slot. I've not tried transfering out yet, but I'm pretty pleased so far with the recording quality using the Sony mic that attaches directly onto the player/recorder. (finally found a sales-person who knew the difference between mp3 players and minidiscs and understood what I needed for my project)

might be worth checking thru the menus on your minidisc recorder. some models have selectable headphone/line output

If you really want to go with the Minidisc format, check out http://www.minidisco.com and you'll find some great deals on Sharp minidisc recorders. Sharp's minidisc recorders are actually better suited for setting recording levels and recording than the Sony's. As for microphones, go to http://www.soundprofessionals.com. I've been using their services for customized and off-the-shelf microphone systems. They're great people and they offer quality microphones and portable preamps (if you really need them) that work very well with portable recording systems. Give them a call and explain what you need and they'll provide a high quality Audio Technica, Shure or AKG microphone that can plug-in directly into a Minidisc recorder or any other recording device with plug-in power.

Personally, I like the DAT format since I can use portable DAT recorders with digital output. The format records in uncompressed, loss-less formats unlike the Minidiscs which actually employs some form of compression and dithering. For most people, they can't hear the difference between Minidisc sound quality and CD sound quality. DAT recorders like Sony's PCM-M1 are pretty expensive (about three times the cost of a Minidisc recorder), but it is actually professional equipment and built to last. It also contains a preamplifier which allows you to use lower output microphones without having to buy and carry a separate mic preamp.

For recording in analog format, I use a Sony professional Walkman that has a Quartz-locked drive mechanism, plug-in microphone power input, recording level meters, Dolby B noise reduction and tape type selector. I bought this little unit in mint condition through eBay for less than $100, and it's barely larger than a regular Walkman. People are amazed at the recording quality.

Hi, you might want to take a look at the Rode NT4 Microphone(s).

Using minidisc would require using external microphone and that would make you carry pretty big equipment, right?

There has got to be some MP3-player that has a built-in mic that will do for live recordings, small enough to sneak into concerts where they don't want to you record. The once I have tested made the audio distort on live shows when the sound volume got a bit high. The device needs to be able to handle really high volume. Also, the bitrate ofcourse need to be high enough for music.

I am not aware of a mp3 player that records & encodes in realtime. They exist?

If you purchase a pair of SoundProfessionals binaural mics (can be clipped to your glasses) and plug them into a small Sony MD recorder, you have a very small setup. The mics are about 1/4 inch in diameter and terminate directly into slim mic cables into a 1/8 inch stereo plug.

With the new Hi MD equipment coming in April, you will be able to record in 1.4mbps PCM linear (almost 2 hours per disc) and in Hi SP (cd quality) mode (about 8 hours per disc).

There are MD recorders with built-in mics, but they do pick the motor spin up noise.