Topic: best small recorder

[noam]

Someone mentioned in another thread the OLYMPUS LS-100 as the best recorder. I stealth the SD 702 but I'm tired of it, it's too big. Is there any small recorder out there with phantom power and XLR's that can give me the same quality of pre amps?

Noam

[GDfan]

Oade Modified Marantz PMD661. . small enough to  , P48 - xlrs, and digi in. nice pre's!

http://www.oade.com/digital_recorders/hard_disc_recorders/PMD-661MODS.html

[jbell]

http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=162706.0  Here is a good deal and Busman will modify the DR100 mkII!!

[obaaron]

^^^
this

[H₂O]

The Sonosax minir82 - but it is $5k - and you will probably need external power to get more then 3 hours (or you could swap the AA's at a break)

The Sonosax SX-R4 is a bit smaller then the 702 as well.

[John Willett]

Someone mentioned in another thread the OLYMPUS LS-100 as the best recorder. I stealth the SD 702 but I'm tired of it, it's too big. Is there any small recorder out there with phantom power and XLR's that can give me the same quality of pre amps?

No pocket recorder will give you the quality of the SD 700 series other than the Sonosax MINIR82.

An alternative is the AETA MIXY, using the digital out into a Tascam DR-100-II or Marantz 661-II as a "bit bucket".  This is the same sort of quality as the Sonosax, but is larger and more unwieldy than the MINIR82, but smaller than the SD and, IMHO, slightly better audio quality.

If you just want a pocket recorder, then I would say that the LS-100 is probably the best, but certainly not the quality of your DS 702.

I hope this helps.

[sacchini]

No one suggesting Roland R-26.
I've just started using it and at the moment I'm happy with it.
There's something wrong that I'm going to discover or what?

[udovdh]

Please adjust the thread title. Anything in the `pro` realm with XLR's is not small.

(my idea of 'best' would be the M10 with PiP up to 7-9 volts)

[H₂O]

The minir82 does not have XLR's but 2 7pin binders and can provide full 48v phantom - it is small about the size of a Sony PCM M1 (it's prob 50-75% larger then the M10)

[WiFiJeff]

The MiniR82 is small but surprisingly heavy.  If you drop it while it is recording you can trash the HD (I've done that) and break a toe.  With a SSD drive it's close to bullet proof, and the SSD uses less power as well. 

Jeff

[F.O.Bean]

The MiniR82 is small but surprisingly heavy.  If you drop it while it is recording you can trash the HD (I've done that) and break a toe.  With a SSD drive it's close to bullet proof, and the SSD uses less power as well. 

Jeff

How big is the SSD HDD

[WiFiJeff]

The SSD drive is internal, it doesn't change the form factor of the MiniR82 at all.  It's a 64Gig drive sold by Sonosax, either as original equipment instead of the HD or for upgrading your machine.

Jeff

[F.O.Bean]

The SSD drive is internal, it doesn't change the form factor of the MiniR82 at all.  It's a 64Gig drive sold by Sonosax, either as original equipment instead of the HD or for upgrading your machine.

Jeff

Gotcha. Thanks Jeff!

[404 Not Found]

The Marantz PMD661 can be purchased at a decent price now that the MKII version of the PMD661 is out.  I have my PMD661 with an Oade Warm Mod, but also use when I have the allowance, my Sound Device MixPre-D and use the Marantz as a bit bucket as has been noted using the Dig connection.  Either way, I can expand from it if needed with the MixPre-D or use the Oade Warm mods utilizing the XLR's when size is to be considered.  It's all about what you think is small enough, but perhaps scalable?

[StrayFeral]

Hey there,

I know it's not popular and I see on this forum there are mostly Sony PCM10 fans, but I can give my opinion on Roland R-05 - my first handheld recorder. Got it just a week ago and it's not bad. Actually before I used only my cell phone, so you can imagine for me it's a huge upgrade. Price is not bad - I got it for $199 Canadian from Long&McQuade music store chain.

Since I have no previous recording experience, still a long way to go. And no matter I just taped yesterday one guy for first time, I won't use it for taping music. My application is to record urban sounds, which is everything appearing on a street, plus sometimes street musicians. Also I am music maker by hobby and when inspiration strikes I usually use my cell phone to sing what melody I have in mind, but when listening back to it it sounds bad, so wanted something which would catch better my ideas. So I was not aiming at the hi-end recorder, neither I need it, neither I got the money for it right now. Also important - I need the urban sounds for my samplers, so I always record at the 16bit 44kHz - unfortunately my samplers does not support better quality. Well at least the guy I taped yesterday could make it on 96kHz, but just forgot to switch. Anyway.

What I considered initially was Zoom H1, then Alesis TwoTrack came out, but the guys in the store recommended me R-05 over H1. Guy from another store recommended me some Olympus, but from the moment I saw R-05 it really attracted me.

And in short - a very intuitive, easy to use product, nice casing, very user-friendly menus, some on-board sample editing, including conversion to MP3. Formats: WAV 16/24 at 44-96kHz, MP3 too but I didn't researched the MP3 functionality as it's out of my needs. However noticed mentioning the support of VBR and also recording of both WAV and MP3 at the same time, considering the MP3 for uploading purpose. 2GB SD card included with manuals and demo songs. USB cable included but off no use - serves only to transfer files back and forth to a computer, but same could be achieved by simply pulling out the memory card if you have a card reader on the laptop. Foam windscreen included but it's a total joke - looks very clumsy and barely covers the mics, however a basic ordinary foam $5 screen fits perfectly (I got one Apex from the same store same day). Via on-board switches it does have mic sensitivity control high/low, a switch which controls either limiter or automatic gain control on/off, and finally a low-cut filter on/off. 2 standard alkaline batteries are included. The unit supports NiMH as well. The user manual is wonderfully written, English only, but the quick-start guide is on 7 languages.

In general - I'm happy with it, at least for now. I have it always in my backpack, ready to shoot. So far still use the same batteries, no idea how long I have been recording but I think it's less than 2 hours.

If any R-05 related questions - shoot. Will be glad to answer. I did put on Youtube both unboxing video and a review, a demo and the guy I taped yesterday.

[Dave_Scream]

If any R-05 related questions - shoot. Will be glad to answer. I did put on Youtube both unboxing video and a review, a demo and the guy I taped yesterday.

Thank you! for your review. I still cant make choice between Sony M-10 and Roland R-05 / Roland R-09HR.

Did you compared this recorders between each other and if yes why Roland R-05 ?

[F.O.Bean]

Just go with what mostly everyone has and buy a Sony M10 KILLER battery life, decent internal preamps and super small. Also, not to jinx myself, but the MIC-IN/LINE-IN of the M10 are built pretty ruggedly too And the M10 can take a pretty hot signal/level as well

[voltronic]

Just go with what mostly everyone has and buy a Sony M10 KILLER battery life, decent internal preamps and super small. Also, not to jinx myself, but the MIC-IN/LINE-IN of the M10 are built pretty ruggedly too And the M10 can take a pretty hot signal/level as well

Agreed - there's a reason so many of us use the M10.  I've also found that the M10's self-noise is low enough to reliably record very quiet performances through MIC-IN.  Here's the chamber choir performance I sang with / recorded this past Sunday:
http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=123523.msg2049345#msg2049345

As it says in the post, I ran MIC IN at level 6, which had me peaking at -12dB but only hit that 2 or 3 times for the entire concert.  Most of the time the level was sitting around -20 to -30, and I was using a battery box - no preamp.  If the Sony's electronics were of lesser quality this wouldn't have worked.