Looking for suggestions for an inexpensive recorder for my live rehearsals

[msowl61]

I use the Tascam DR-07, since I just use the onboard mic the trickiest part is finding a place in the room where everything is balanced. It is by no means professional but it sounds good enough to help us with mistakes and such. The auto limiter was a must have feature for me too.

[cruisemates]

It's funny - ever since reading about the Zoom R-16 here I've gotten somewhat obsessed with them, and I have a ProTools rig.

They just look so fun and easy. For the money it really sounds like they do a lot, including letting you mix on a daw with faders.

They use Mackie mode - anyone know if that interfaces with PT 10? They have a built in drum machine & effects, etc. The R-16 RETAILS for $399. ($299 used).

[maydaynyc]

I use the H4n for exactly the same application. Usually I'm just recording our practices in normal stereo mode using the built in mics. I import the wav files into reaper then eq them and trim out the unwanted sections, label the songs, convert to mp3 and send them around to the band using wetransfer.com.

But sometimes I record in 4 track mode where I use the built in mics to capture the room sound and I take a stereo feed from the mixer board to capture the vocals on their own tracks. This gives me a lot of flexibility to eq and change the levels of the vocals in Reaper later.

A few points to keep in mind:

• experiment with where you place the unit in the room. I find if I mount the H4N too high I get too much cymbal and if I am in direct line of fire of one of the guitar amps they take over the mix.
• to increase the volume of the vocals you can position the H4N facing the lead vocal monitor. Its a good way to ensure you'll be able to clearly hear the vocals even if your guitarists or drummer is playing too loud.
• Make sure you remember to use the pause button to start and stop recordings rather than just leve the recording on for the entire session. It becomes very time consuming to have listen thorugh and edit 2 hours (in my case) of band practice to get to the 10 minutes of music that is worth sharing with everyone.

[kenneth]

Originally Posted by Shiny McShine

Do any of the inexpensive hand helds (like my Zoom H2) have IR remote control? I'd love to be able to start stop it from the stage and have it out in the room somewhere.

The only one I know of is the Olympus. There is a separate remote you can buy for the LS-10, LS-11, etc.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...ntrol_for.html

I use the H4n extensively, and use the wired remote. I agree the remote is nice, it reduces handling noise a lot. The H2n might be good, if you want to use the internal mics. It has many options for the internal mics, while the H4n has XLR inputs.

The iphone adapter is nice, but I prefer to use that as a phone.