Hi All — Long time no see!
My old Fostex FR-2LE finally bit the dust and I'm in need of a new 2-4 channel recorder. I have about a week to get one in-hand before my next recording and I have
no clue about the current landscape of recorder options. What better place to take advantage of the hive mind and identify a good replacement recorder?
Looking for something that roughly satisfies the following:
- ~$500-ish, but not set in stone.
- 2-4 channels of 48v phantom power (though I'm not opposed to more channels)
- Min of 24-bit / 48 hz (I assume everything these days will do this)
- Low noise analog components / internal preamps / ADC at high-ish gain. I record a bunch of unamplified choral music and while the ambient noise floor relative to source sound isn't particularly low in the field — even with dead quiet audiences (e.g. HVAC) — I'd rather not add to it unnecessarily with noisy analog circuitry
- Internal / onboard battery power of minumum 3 hours actual with 2-ch P48 / 10 ma draw
- Ideally a plug for an external DC power source
- Seamless WAV splitting
- Non-proprietary media, e.g. SD
- Non-proprietary file format, e.g. WAV / BWF (I assume everything is WAV / BWF?)
- While not critical at all, I'd prefer to NOT have built-in X/Y mics sticking off the side / end (what a waste of space)
That's all I can think of off the top of my head.
These days I record mostly choral and organ music, with the occasional amplified bluegrass mixed in. I anticipate getting back to louder amplified shows at some point in the next ~6 years (when the kiddo starts driving himself around).