Topic: gear questions from a band director

[dolphy]

OK...complete newbie here.  I have read a lot of posts on this board in the last few days.  What a great forum!  If I am asking something that has been discussed ad nauseam, just point me in the right direction.

I am a band director and I record 1:1 lessons with my students.  I also record local jazz groups occasionally.  For years, I have been using a MD player w/ a Sony ECM-MS907 mic for both venues.  My MD player just died, so I am looking for a (hopefully much better) replacement.  I don’t want to schlep around a bunch of gear--preferably just a mic, a recorder, and perhaps a battery box.  For portability sake, I want to continue using a setup that operates soley on batteries.  I'd like to keep the cost under a grand for everything.  Here are some considerations right now...


Marantz PMD660, Edirol R1, and JB3.
I’m leaning towards the PMD660 since it has XLR inputs.  However, it only supports 16-bit recording (the R1 supports 24-bit).

Regarding the mic...I have no idea.  I have used Shure mics for years (with great success) for live performances, but never for recording.

Is a battery box a must for this kind of setup?  I'm just trying to get away with using as little gear as possible, without making too many recording quality tradeoffs.


Suggestions would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks.

[Scooter]

for the marrantz, and the R1, you'll need to buy expensive media to record on(CF cards).  w/ the JB3, no media to buy (hard drive).  and the JB3 is quite cheap on ebay.  you need to consider what mics you're gonna use (stealth mics, or full size mics) before you can really make a descision on the recorder.  small stealth mics can be had for cheap w/ a batt box, no preamp required, and you can run line-in on a JB3.  full size mics would most likely require a preamp.  you should be able to use your existing sony mic w/ the JB3 as well??

[rocksuitcase]

existing Sony ECM mic will work in to JB3.  no media, battery powered cheaply, cheapest solution.

IF you want to use other mics with Lo impedance outputs (like the Shures) you will need some sort of Pre Amp with the JB3.  I am not familiar with the R1 or PMD660, but if they have mic pre amps, that may outweigh the expensive media part of the equation.

Also for your music students, you are prolly not going to have to archive the stuff, so you don't need to worry about hard drive storage space or transferring from one medium to another for storage.

[Ray76]

+T to a music teacher. We sure need more of you guys, and yall sure are underappreciated. My band teacher is one of my mentors. Introduced me to this great world of being a musician, and ive never looked back. Good luck Sir.

Ray