[kazakore]

Not sure if this is the best forum for this question but I am looking at a budget recording device. I'll start b explaining the situation.

I am putting on a music event with two room in the coming weeks and would like to be able to record the material from both rooms and make it available online, or at least that of it that is worthy of doing so. The night is going to run for 8 hours and I will have a lot to sort out throughout the night so don't want to babysitting the machines changing tapes/CDs or whatever.

Now I'm not expecting to find something that will do both rooms at once, so am looking for two devices. Who night in one take would be good but would settle for anything that can record 4 hours plus at a time. Preferably uncompressed, or at least a high quality compression.

Have seen long play MD recorders but they have generally been expensive.
Have considered looking for cheap, second hand netbooks and trying with them, although the onboard sound will be rather hissy.
Or a cheap portable recorder with a line input and either 320kbp mp3 or wav recording. No ideas of the options here.

Or anything else you may wish to suggest.

 

[majid]

You don't mention your budget. I would get 2 Olympus LS-10 recorders, but they probably exceed your budget if you think MD recorders are expensive. You could get a pair of USB microphones (you can get some as cheaply as $69 new) and a sufficiently long USB cable to bring them onto a single laptop. If you already have a microphone, a USB recording interface like the Blue Icicle ($47) should do the trick. You might want to give Sweetwater a call, they have good customer support and pre-sales.

Did you consider a rental shop? That would cost less than buying gear, even used. Another option would be to ask friends for a loaner for the day.

 

[kazakore]

When I say expensive I admit most of the true MDLP recorders I have seen, with LP4 mode, have been professional, rack-mount models and retail at around £400. Also unsure how Sony's LP4 version of ATRAC compares to mp3. IE what would be comparable bit rate for subjective quality.

Just had a read of the LS10 and see no mention of a line input. Not sure why you started going on about microphones (actually just re-read my first point and I did forget to specify line-in, sorry) but hoping both the band room, as well as the DJ room, will have everything mic'd up and going through the FOH mixer so we can use the main output for recording.

Don't currently have a laptop I am willing to use. I do not want to leave a machine worth £1500 unattended for much of the night! Would consider getting cheap, secondhand netbooks from ebay or the like if you think this may suffice though.

Want to spend as little as possible really. Under £100 per unit anyway, preferably less if possible.

 

[majid]

Not sure why you would bother with ATRAC or MP3 when straight 16-bit 44.1kHz linear PCM is well within the capabilities of the cheapest PC or Mac. If I understand correctly, both rooms are wired with microphones, mic preamps and a mixer, so all you need is a 2-channel line-level input. Pretty much any PC or Mac made in the last 10 years or so offers this. Use a bulky desktop model if you are concerned about theft, and software like Audacity to do the actual recording.

The LS-10 does have a line-in jack. To record 8 hours of 16/44 audio, you would also need 2.5GB of storage, so at least a 4GB SD card.

 

[grawk]

I can suggest you check out Taperssection.com - Index and Gearslutz.com - Powered by vBulletin, you'll find a wealth of knowledge there.

 

[kazakore]

Yeah if I go the PC route I would obviously be recording as raw data/wav but just wondered as portable devices seem a viable option. Don't have an old laptop to use, quite desirable for thieves and harder to hide than a small portable unit. Don't have transport so taking two desktops there is definitely out of the question!

Thanks for the replies though, currently looking at secondhand Net MD recorder, which seem to go for about £50 and do LP4 mode. Sure I remember something about using a different disk in some of the MD players though...

 

[grawk]

I used to have a m-audio microtrack that worked pretty well and used CF cards. I think things have only gotten better since then. I know the Korg MR1s are quite cheap these days as well, tho not under $100...

 

[memepool]

If you want to buy something which nobody will steal then a couple of VHS machines would be a good bet. Hi-Fi VHS is respectable quality and these were widely used in radio stations as a cheaper option than open reel for archiving live shows.
If you want something more Hi-Fi you could hire a professional location recorder like the Fostex PD-6 http://resolution.nodecube.net/produ...tex%20PD-6.pdf
which will record 4 tracks of audio at 16bit / 48k. Better Sound Ltd in London is a good place to rent one although you should check the insurance with them as most productions who hire these things have to be insured.