I'm curious how you can quantify if a recording of a live band is "decent" or not?
Hey skip! The way you quantify it is to record something that sounds nice, not some PA that sounds bad, then listen to your recording. How does it sound? Would you listen to it again? Would you give it to somebody else to listen to? Many years ago (78?) a guy I knew went to the Ramones concert at the Armadillo World Headquarters and recorded it using one of those old cassette recorders. He said after the show that he thought it sounded pretty good, then the next day he listened to it and realized how bad it was.
The point being, can you listen to your recording a few days later and still enjoy it? If so, it's decent, or at least decent enough for you. As you know, I'm pretty spoiled when it comes to audio, and I'm not sure the H2 would live up to my standards, but I freely admit I'm spoiled. That said, if it works for you, who cares what I think.
I'm still working on your mic question, thought I would pop in here and see if folks had used an external mic with the H2. Doesn't sound like too many have, at least not self-powered full size mics.
Skip, several times you mentioned recording at 96/24. What happens at 44.1 or 48/24? Does the unit not sound as good? FYI, the only time I record at 96 K on my Deva is when I'm recording acoustic music or orchestras. There isn't a need to use a sample rate that high. The big bang for your buck is 16 > 24, not 44.1 or 48 > 96 or 96 > 192...
Wayne
Wayne, I did sample recordings at each and the 96/24 just seemed like it had more detail to me. The other settings sounded fine, but to my ears... 96/24 had a more refined sound.
Regarding how you qualify good recordings... etc. I meant that more based on when you hear someone's sample recording... and it either sounds great, or it sounds horrible.. as a third party who wasn't there and doesn't know what the conditions were or the quality of the PA.. how can anyone make any honest evaluations from this? Seems like too many variables. I used an example of going to the bar down the street and recording the band who was playing. They sounded horrible, and the PA was horrible. Not worth recording. But, let's say I DID record it and the H2 had done a flawless job and reproducing just had bad it was. Someone who wasn't there might say the H2 sounded horrible.. when the PA was to blame.
Regarding the H2 not being for you.. and you being "spoiled", etc. No, I don't suppose it would. You don't mind carrying alot of extra gear, mics, cables, pluggin into the board, etc. When I first asked you about portable recording devices.. my criteria was something that sounded decent, with care could also sound very good, easy to use, standard battery power, and small enough to fit in a pocket of my camera bag in case I want to capture some ambient sound of a "place" I'm photographing. The H2 meets ALL of this criteria in spades. If I was earning a few bucks going to record live sound for bands, or dialogue... and thats ALL I was doing.. I'd carry more gear like you and have a different "rig" with the best mics and preamps I could find. But, that's not what I'm doing, so the H2 fits perfect.
Thanks for looking into the cable question. I'm just baffled as to why some of my external mic recommendation and cable requirement questions have been soooooo difficult to get a straight answer on. I tried to get the answer in another thread and got many answers that conflicted with each other. Who are you supposed to listen to?