Topic: Smallest recorder I can get reasonable sound on???

[dnvechoes]

Hi everyone!

Sorry for the newbie question, but I'm a paranoid occassional concert goer. I've been sneaking in my little NOMAD II into a few venues. It fits nicely in my wallet (well maybe not nicely), but the sound quality isn't what I would call "listenable".

I am looking for a good solid state recorder that I can easily sneak inside a venue. They're getting more, uhhhh, invasive lately, which makes me even more paranoid.

I don't need the recording to sound fantastic (or in stereo), just passable/listenable, and I have pretty low standards. I'd like the recorder to be very low maintenance during the show so I can enjoy the event itself and then still walk out with a reasonable archive of the concert.

Any tips would be appreciated, and I apologize for the newbieness!

david

[jpschust]

why not just take in a jukebox 3 with a pair of headphones and tell em its your mp3 player.  they wont know the difference.

[Simp-Dawg]

a minidisc would probably be your best bet...very small.  and get a pair of giant squid mics or something.

[Sean Gallemore]

MD is the smallest and most economical

[johnw]

If you own a windows PDA with a CF slot, you could try this. I doubt you'd have to sneak a PDA in, so it might be good for stealthing. Not as small as a MD though.

http://www.core-sound.com/HighResRecorderNews.html#PDAUDIO

[Terps]

If you own a windows PDA with a CF slot, you could try this. I doubt you'd have to sneak a PDA in, so it might be good for stealthing. Not as small as a MD though.

http://www.core-sound.com/HighResRecorderNews.html#PDAUDIO

Needs a Pre-Amp with a digital output, but an HP5550 with a 4 gig flash card is a very small 24bit recorder indeed.

At 96 kHz, phenomonal sound, much better than CD

[George]

You could go the MD route if you want, the new Hi-MD recorders should be coming out any day now and those MD discs will be 1GB storage.  Pair that MD recorder with a battery box and a pair of mics and you'll be all set.

[F.O.Bean]

hmmm, not to thread highjack, but what a waste of time theyre putting on HI-MD, they SHOULD concentrate on HD recording or something better

[C.Clark]

hmmm, not to thread highjack, but what a waste of time theyre putting on HI-MD, they SHOULD concentrate on HD recording or something better

i very much agree with you here bean, but this is sony's way, just take a trip down memory lane with all there breakthrough? products

[Sean Gallemore]

yeah, but for every 5 products that suck, there's a good one.

Just part of the process

[George]

yeah, but for every 5 products that suck, there's a good one.

Just part of the process

gotta agree, what pissed me off about Hi-MD is the inability to transfer your recordings via the usb back to your pc...total bs.  If you can transfer your recordings back ala njb3 i'd be all over a Hi-MD unit.  

it appears that Sony is doing everything possible to screw itself over out of customers.  

[Sean Gallemore]

but that technology might not have even got off the ground if they didn't agree to add that copy protective feature (scms?)

[Chanher]

Hey since it sounds like you're not planning on going all out you could possibly go with the new Hi-MD, they are the smallest recorders.  you'll probably be running the mics into mic in or line in so you could still transfer to computer via usb.  you'll have 90 min. of pcm wav, but it's somewhat pricey (~$200-300 + media costs and then costs of mics).

you mentioned solid state, is MD considered solid state? if not jb3 is next best option, get a refurbished nomad jukebox 3 off ebay for $179 and you transfer to computer via usb or firewire.  size of a personal cd player, can pass as one too (as mentioned earlier). could run mics into line in.

if you really are on super budget and you just wanna experiment with simple recordings, you could go current MD style, find a cheap recorder off ebay or brand new (can be had for under $100) and some cheap mics and your're set.

do whatever you wanna do and have fun.