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Guitar teachers, what do you use


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Posted

to record lessons nowadays?

 

I can't find a decent tape recorder for years. They used to have nice built in mic with compressors right into the boom box. But tapes are such a thing of the past. Many students don't even have cassette players.

 

I'm thinking of going to digital. This seems perfect for teaching, practicing, but it's so high $.

 

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=home/search/detail/base_pid/241085/

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Posted

I've got a variety of recording devices. I think you can get
cheaper than the Roland pretty easily. Plus have something
taht you can use in a variety of ways for lessons.

Korg D4. $350. 4 track recorder with tuner, drums, metronome, effects. Records to Compact flash. ABout the size of a VHS tape.
USB

Digitech GNX4. $499. 8 track recorder, tuner, drums, metronome,
effects, expression pedal. Compact flash. A largish pedal board.
USB.

Zoom MRS802B. $599. 8 track. tuner. drums. metronome. effects. 40G Hard disk. Haven't got this yet but I'm expecting it
in any day now. Seems real nice, but I didn't like the fact that
you need to buy a separate addon so that it would do USB. Oh,
this one also has a CD burner.

The Digitech is the swiss army knife of guitar accessories. I really
like it. The Korg is very handy for portability. The USB setup
on the Digitech is rather Byzantine. I can't really seem to get
it to interface correctly with the supplied Cakewalk software.
That's why I got the Zoom. That way I can play loops via the
digitech and record onto the Zoom. I also wanted to have
the Zoom for plugging into another pdealboard I have.

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Posted

I've been using a little hand held Sony digital recorder (can't think of the model number). It was about $100 @ Staples. The sound quality of the recording is OK (far from terrible) - especially for me since I just use it as a sort of play back to review the lessons. I think it can record around an hour (a little more) at a time. I load the lessons in to my PC and burn them on a CD. Cheap, simple, effective - I'm very happy with it. Highly recommended for what you are looking to do.

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Posted

That seems like too much "home work". I would like to keep that work at work. .:D

Mrsteed, do any of those multi tracks have built in mics? That's important to me. But I do have an SM57.

A buddy had a recent Boss model with the cd burner in there. That thing seems to complicated. I only have a half an hour. I need to be able to record and burn very quick.

The old days of casette tape were so easy.

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Posted

Hm, The Korg D4 has a builtin mic, but I *think* it's only for
tuner.

Not sure about the Zoom. I don't think it does. BUT, I ordered
mine from Music123 and they include a free mic with it. :)

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Posted

I like the multi track idea. Would come in handy for adding parts and writing. What I like about the Roldand thing is it has speakers and has pitch/tempo change. Great for transcribing stuff for students.

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Posted

How about MiniDisc ????

I used a Sony for recording lessons as well as rehearsals ....
It doesn't have a microphone built in, so I got a special microphone for the mini disc recorder, and the sound is surprisingly good, even for recording rehearsals !
Unfortunately the mini disc thing seems to disappear from the market, iPods might be more handy as a portable music-player , but for recording lessons or rehearsals a mini disc recorder is just perfect, and smaller than a multi track (cheaper as well, BTW).

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Posted

i got a digital recorder from radioshack for about $30.....it holds 8 hours worth of quite reasonable quality audio. Then I just plug it into my computer and record it, bounce it into itunes.

If not that, just a decent microcassette recorder will work.

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Posted

Just got my Zoom in yesterday.

Probably not what you're looking for. It's a big honkin thing!

But it's got a GREAT array of features for the money. Superb
8 track features and track edit capabilities, it can read in CDs
and you can make phrase loops off of them, writes CDs,
extensive drum track programming, effects... nice little home
studio system! Plus it came with a free mike ($150 value they
claim). That didn't hurt either :)

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Posted

Depends on your student base really

If the baseis sort of "generalist" - honeslty, it's probably just going to be a problem as digital file formats vary (not all students will have compat players) and the physcial tokens (mem card, etc) can be expensive
CD-R is an option but the convenience of burn times is still a little inconvenient (though those dedicated thing might have gotten a lot better abt that kind of stuff) and not all home players will read dye-sub disks
(ugh, it's a crappy problem kinda like when you couldn't count on a turntable as part of the equipment)

If you are teaching more a stable of dedicated students or through a university program -- just spec whatever inexpensive format you'd like as part of the required equipment

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Posted

That was a very thought out answer. Thanx.

And I say that's why cassettes were so friggin' easy. Not as crystal clear but so quick and gets the job done and everybody had a player. And towards the end, where they were putting those condensor mics on boom boxes, the quality was getting very good.

I remember several band rehearsals with my little Panasonic box that recorded incredibly well. People asked us where we recorded it! The whole band was clear right from that little boom box.

For my needs, I may bite the bullet and buy that Roland thing. Looks like the ultimate teaching tool and it's a tax write off.

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Posted

Originally posted by MorePaul

Depends on your student base really


If the baseis sort of "generalist" - honeslty, it's probably just going to be a problem as digital file formats vary (not all students will have compat players) and the physcial tokens (mem card, etc) can be expensive

CD-R is an option but the convenience of burn times is still a little inconvenient (though those dedicated thing might have gotten a lot better abt that kind of stuff) and not all home players will read dye-sub disks

(ugh, it's a crappy problem kinda like when you couldn't count on a turntable as part of the equipment)


If you are teaching more a stable of dedicated students or through a university program -- just spec whatever inexpensive format you'd like as part of the required equipment

 

 

Well if he's got a PC he can either get or (probably already has - Media Player anyone?) a program that can convert digital format (e.g. mp3) and burn an audio CD.

 

If you teach from your home you could even record directly on to the PC using a mic/sound card/appropriate software.

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Posted

Originally posted by Knottyhed



Well if he's got a PC he can either get or (probably already has - Media Player anyone?) a program that can convert digital format (e.g. mp3) and burn an audio CD.


If you teach from your home you could even record directly on to the PC using a mic/sound card/appropriate software.

 

 

yuppers, but the burn time and UI nav during a lesson always seems problematic compared to popping the tape

 

and not all home players will read dye-sub disks (This is prob becoming less so as the tech marches on)

 

the PC solution doesn't have to be restricted to home with laptop travel, but like so much that is gen purpose, workingwith the PC during a lesson gets a bit much

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Posted

hmm, what about the hand-off to the student?

(CF ain;t that expensive, but it's not like slinging them a comp cass when they forget and then there's the "I don't hanve a reader" deal and all that)

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