I'm finally in the market to buy my own digital recorder and I need a little advice. I've narrowed my choices for field recorders to the Edirol and the Zoom H2. Based on the reviews I've read, the Zoom has more mixed reviews than the Edirol but then some people said they prefered the Zoom. Does anyone have any insight from personal experience on which one is a better product? Thanks!

I've used the Edirol R-09 and was largely satisfied with it. Last year, I did a very informal review of the recorder. Phil Clark of "The Brit and Yankee" also uses this recorder and provides a much more detailed assessment of it in Podcast User Magazine.

Leigh Hanlon
ChicagoScope.com

Thanks, Leigh!

I'm finally in the market to buy my own digital recorder and I need a little advice. I've narrowed my choices for field recorders to the Edirol and the Zoom H2. Based on the reviews I've read, the Zoom has more mixed reviews than the Edirol but then some people said they prefered the Zoom. Does anyone have any insight from personal experience on which one is a better product? Thanks!

Hello Diane, and welcome to the group!

I have personal experience with both the Marantz PMD671 and the M-Audio MicroTrack (I own the 24/96 version which is currently discontinued). Both are excellent, low pre-amp noise recorders--an important feature if you don't want hissy original recordings. Although the first one might be beyond your price range. I also took the liberty of purchasing the Marantz recorder from Oade Brothers Audio which offers a number of upgrades to the stock unit for various recording applications. Oade Brothers also sells upgrades of several other recorders as well. These might not be the best prices on the Internet. Also, the modifications void the manufacturer's warranties, but Doug Oade stands behind his work, and my Marantz unit hasn't failed yet.

By the way, the lowest price I've seen for the Marantz recorder is here, likewise for the M-Audio MicroTrack II.

I've heard good things about the Samson Zoom H2 units. They might be clad in cheap plastic, but I've heard their microphone pre-amps are clean. And you can't go wrong for $200. I've also heard good things about Marantz's new pocket-sized PMD620 units, and the new Tascam DR-1 recorders as well.

For my money, the sweet spot of features on a portable field recorder are:

• Use of standard batteries such as AAs, rather than a proprietary battery pack. If you run out of power in the field and you're not near a wall outlet, you're out of luck unless you can replace the batteries on the fly.
  
• Use of some kind of standard digital storage media such as compact flash or SD cards. Internal memory stinks. First of all, it's usually low-capacity. Second of all, once you fill up a card, you'll want the ability to slap in a new card and keep recording.
  
• At least a 1/4" TRS input. Most field recorders use internal mics of dubious quality which seem best at picking up handling noise. If you want the flexibility of different mic setups, you will find yourself wishing for either professional XLR inputs or a 1/4" input.
  
• Ability to record to 48kHz or 44.1kHz sampling as .wav files. MP3 files don't hold up in quality to an uncompressed .wav file.
  
• Ability to power condenser microphones. And no, plug-in power isn't the same.

Niceties include:

• Low-cut filter to reduce wind and handling noise
  
• Automatic gain control to equalize recording levels
  
• Automatic limiter to avoid audio clipping

To date, every affordable recorder has some, but not all of these features. I was encouraged by the Fostex FR2-LE until I heard that the battery replacement was somewhat problematic. The only low-cost recorder I've heard of that accommodates every item on the list is the Tascam DR-1, except for the battery which is at least swappable in the field (unlike the M-Audio Microtrack's.) It also helps that the unit features good quality mic pre-amps, a 1/4" input, and is $100 less (street price) than the Edirol R09. I just noticed that there is a new R09-HR unit just put up on Roland's webpage. I'll have to check that one out, price notwithstanding!

-Tom

THank you, Tom. All your feedback has been really helpful!

We use a Zoom H4 and we love it. It actually has nearly every feature Tom describes in his posting above.

I looked at the Zoom H2, but we wanted XLR inputs so we could use our "regular" mics in addition to the built-in ones.

Hope this helps!

--Joe