Freesound Forums

Well, there seems to be a new recorder on the market and from the video it seems a brilliant one!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdTaVIExFhw

I wonder , if it is any good for field-recording?

So if there are any recordings about, please publish them!

I concur, would be nice to hear some samples. Probably a better investment then some other hand helds in the $ 300-500 range that are available today.

One should beware of the rather strange limiter implementation this machine seems to have inherited from its D1 bigger brother. They both record a mirror track at -20dB to a buffer memory and replace overload peaks with the buffer information on the fly. This potentially gives rise to a "pumping" sound much like a compressor that's pushed too far and has inadequate attack and release times.

--Peter

That's an awesome, compact alternative to lugging around hd or cf card recorders with some one else holding boom and shotgun mics.

wonder , if it is any good for field-recording?

"pumping"

more suited to recording rehearsals, interviews, lectures and that sort of thing. still a very cool and versatile device. Cheers for sharing,
Dan.

Here's some more info. A very non-scientific test, but...

http://www.bradlinder.net/2007/10/comparing-sony-pcm-d50-fostex-fr2-le_06.html

The only thing is the internal mics. You know, when you know that most of the time you're going to be recording with an external mic, internal mics just increase the price, sadly enough... But I guess that for 90% of people they do come in handy...

- bram

I really don't like Sony stuff/policies, but why don't they remove the mics and drop the price a $100 ?
Nah, definitely I prefer the new Marantz PMD620, much cheaper, smaller... Looks good

http://www.d-mpro.eu.com/index2.php?CID=3&Pid=139&action=detail&lang=eng

yeah, this marantz certainly looks good...

Sorry to get a little offtopic now, guys (well, topic was "there's a new portable in town, after all, wasn't it?... ) I'm about to get a portable recorder myself for christmas, and after reading all the possible forums here and there, I would like to throw a couple of questions, cos I'm stuck:

1.- wich one has the best preamp? I come from a MD + external preamp setup, so I want to buy one of these and get better results. I'm afraid the zoom H2 (wich also looks cool) would give me similar quality than my MD.

And second question:
Do you think the XLR plugs (in the Zoom H4 for instance) Vs. minijack are worth it? (considering my external mic is self-powered, that is...).

So basically: recommend me one of the following, please...:

Zoom H4
Zoom H2
Marantz PMD 620
... anything else (edirol, M-audio...)

thanks!

Well, it depends mostly on what you want to use the recorder for. I find that a lot of recorders are good for loud sources, but to record s.th. very quite is the problem.

At the mo. I still favour the Sony MZ-RH1 Hi-MD recorder, because its preamp is just brilliant.

You can read more about it here:

http://www.wildlife-sound.org/equipment/himd/rh1.html

It also will enable you to put your old MDs on your computer in a quick way.

XLR plugs are good, but often you have to carry more gear, even if it is only the more heavy cables and often the recorders are bigger.

Recently I bought the Zoom H2. Its a nice tool, but it is not as sensitve as the Sony and believe it or not, even the SD card broke, not in a physical way, and I had to get a replacement. That never happend to me with a MD or MI-MD.

I just scored the Sony. So far I love it. I used to use the original Microtrack and I don't think I'll ever buy another product from M-Audio again - it was so unreliable and I couldn't count on it to do what it was supposed to do. I'd guess however the software is mature enough at this point to be allright.

I like many things about the Sony: it is far more solid than the other low-end recorders in the market. There are numerous buttons for things so you don't have to often go rummaging around in software menus to change things. The volume and gain knobs are smooth feeling. Once you try that you'll never want to click a piece of plastic to set levels. The prebuffer is rad. When your in standby and something cool happens before you started recording you can still grab it (its like time travel!). I love how you can swivel the mics to suit whatever it is your doing.

Sometimes its hard to hold because of all the stuff on it. I wish there was a cap to go over the mics and a swivable shell to go around the body because I feel like I can't grasp it with all the buttons and stuff.

In the future I'd love to see one of these things with voice recognition for naming files. That would rock.

hey thanks for your answers.

Don't know what am I going to use the new recorder for... I guess I prefer it to be small and portable more than big and top-quality.

I believe you, stomachache, the new sony must be awesome, but it's too pricey for me.

@ Inchadney: hmm, you made me think again the MD option... one of the things i don't like about mine is the fact that I have to re-record sound realtime into my pc. but the new ones....
so you say the preamp is good, huh?

I've narrowed the list to

a) Sony MZ-RH1
b) Marantz PMD 620 -> anyone can share experiences about this one?

thanks again!

I had bad experiences with the ZOOM H4. Would not recommend it at all. My main recorder is a Sound Devices 744. I cannot live without it! The Sound Devices 702 could be a great option. It will give you an outstanding performance and it is really worth each dollar. FYI, I use a Edirol R-09 as a backup digital recorder or on the fly. It does a good job.

Laurent

I visited the site Bram had quoted in this thread and listened to each sample.

I agree with laurent. The Sound Devices 700 series stand out without a doubt.
Sound quality is determined by mic-preamp. Zoom, Sony, M-Audio, Marantz (and other counterparts) are thought to be good recorders with a decent mic-pre, but actually those equipped in them are not so much. I guess The Sound Devices' built-in mic-preamp is almost equal to the one at 1000USD (or more).

I own a Sony MZ-RH1. The sound quality is good for the price to be sure, but unfortunately MD is slowly going out of date like DAT. Brand-new PCM D50 seems to be nice, but it isn't supposed to have a high-quality mic-preamp inside, so you may need an additional one for pursuit of as good sound as The Sound Devices.