Topic: Best Recorder for String Quartet

[flintstone]

Take a look at the Wingfield Audio web site for comparisons of recorders by a professional musician (cello).

Wingfield Audio's ranking of recorders (used with their internal mics):
outstanding: Sony PCM-D1
excellent:  Sony PCM-D50, Olympus LS-11
very good plus:  Marantz PMD-620 (review mentions the "sweet" sound quality)
very good:  Edirol R09HR, Sony PCM-M10, Zoom H4N

Stephanie Wingfield is available for consultation about your recording project. Give her a call.
http://www.wingfieldaudio.com/

[Knight_Rupert]

If you think recorder research is head-spinning, mics....
Anyway, post a budget range and you should get some good recommendations here.

Yes, mics, OMG the choices!

I'm starting to wonder if I might be better off stepping up to the PCM-D50. It sounds better with the internal mics than the M10, and it's still small enough to carry around with me. Since the D50 is about $200 more than the M10, is there a microphone I could get for that amount of money that would sound better then the D50's internal mics?

Thanks everyone!

[Knight_Rupert]

Ok, looks like I should consider the Olympus LS-11 as well. The cello sample on the Wingfield Audio website sounds good, though not quite as good as the D50. Does the Sony have any features that might be helpful for recording our quartet that are absent on the LS-11? Perhaps down the road if I want to upgrade further? I must admit the LS-11 looks more like a voice recorder to me.

Thanks!

[Knight_Rupert]

ahhh, I see the LS-11 has a wireless remote control available. That would be extremely useful! Maybe I underestimated this recorder?

[expatCanuck]

ahhh, I see the LS-11 has a wireless remote control available. That would be extremely useful! Maybe I underestimated this recorder?

The LS-11 is a very nice recorder.  Very good sound, wireless remote, outstanding battery life --
I'd suggest that its tragic flaw is the known bass roll-off (very nice cello recording notwithstanding). 
You can Google it & read up.

But if you're now considering external mics, I'd suggest that the Sony M10 is your better bet --
insanely great battery life, takes MicroSD cards (the D50 only takes the more costly
Sony memory sticks)  and, if you feel it's warranted, you can put the $$ difference
into external mics, which almost certainly will give you better sound (and more mic'ing
flexibility - perhaps important for a quartet?) than the D50, for about the same
(or possibly a lower) price. 

And a lighter overall package than the D50.

That's the route I'd have gone if

• I'd been considering external mics
• battery life was a concern
• I didn't want the overdubbing / dual source possibility

 - Richard

[Knight_Rupert]

But if you're now considering external mics, I'd suggest that the Sony M10 is your better bet --
insanely great battery life, takes MicroSD cards (the D50 only takes the more costly
Sony memory sticks)  and, if you feel it's warranted, you can put the $$ difference
into external mics, which almost certainly will give you better sound (and more mic'ing
flexibility - perhaps important for a quartet?) than the D50, for about the same
(or possibly a lower) price. 

Thanks! Can you recommend some external mics that would make the M10 sound better than the D50?

[rjp]

The LS-11 is a very nice recorder.  Very good sound, wireless remote, outstanding battery life --
I'd suggest that its tragic flaw is the known bass roll-off (very nice cello recording notwithstanding). 

I thought the LS-11 fixed the bass roll-off that afflicts the LS-10 internals and mic-in. I've seen a lot of conflicting information about that. Does anyone know for sure? In my experience, the LS-10 rolloff isn't a bad thing when I use my SP-TFB-2 mic set, but it makes the internals sound way too thin.

The LS-11 also has considerably longer battery life than the LS-10 (not that the LS-10's is bad), and 8 GB of internal memory instead of 2 GB.

Note that the wireless remote is a simple start/stop control, and doesn't control levels or menu functions. It has a small IR receiver that plugs into the LS-10 or 11, and can be oriented in different directions.

[expatCanuck]

Can you recommend some external mics that would make the M10 sound better than the D50?

I can't -- but I'll bet that many on this site can.

[expatCanuck]

I thought the LS-11 fixed the bass roll-off that afflicts the LS-10 internals and mic-in.

My understanding (all from site trolling -- none of it first-hand) is that the LS-11 lessened the roll-off, but didn't eliminate it.

[dean]

But if you're now considering external mics, I'd suggest that the Sony M10 is your better bet --
insanely great battery life, takes MicroSD cards (the D50 only takes the more costly
Sony memory sticks)  and, if you feel it's warranted, you can put the $$ difference
into external mics, which almost certainly will give you better sound (and more mic'ing
flexibility - perhaps important for a quartet?) than the D50, for about the same
(or possibly a lower) price. 

Thanks! Can you recommend some external mics that would make the M10 sound better than the D50?

Well sure, but . . .  That's what this whole site is about.  Encapsulating the information about microphones on this site into a single post just isn't possible, nor would it be at all useful. There's many, many options available to you depending on what you're looking to do and how much you're willing to spend, running anywhere from a couple hundred bucks to a good 10K. 

So if you're serious about externals, spend a few hours getting data from the microphone information available on this site.  Go to archive.org and listen to various mic/pre-amp set ups and see what sounds good to you.  Figure out how much you are going to spend, find the mics that interest you in that price range, then come back and ask specific questions about what you've not been able to figure out.

You're absolutely in the right place to do that.  There's entire threads here dedicated to particular mics, brands, pre-amps, cables, recorders, techniques . . . have fun!