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Who Here Uses Portable Music-Making Devices on a Regular Basis?


Anderton

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I'm thinking things like the Zoom R8, the various iPad or iPhone recording apps...those sorts of "portable music" devices.

 

What got me thinking about it is doing the pro review on the Zoom. It really is quite impressive in terms of what you get for the price, and you probably could do real songwriting on it. But what I'm wondering is how many of you actually DO use these to capture inspiration, record samples, do location recordings, write songs, etc. Or do you wait until you get back into your studio?

 

Thoughts?

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well i am really thinking about it. my wife is due for a phone upgrade and i can have her i-phone. i would not buy one for this but i would like to capture some live ambient sounds to use. mostly city stuff, voices, construction, traffic, whatever.

 

grab some vid clips too for a multi media thing or music vid, someday! lol!

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Personally, I don't use an interim recording device other than a little handheld. To me, working something up on a mutitrack Zoom etc. and then either transferring or starting again... it's just redundant. I'm not nay-saying the concept, just reporting on my work habits. So, I'll either hum, beat box, or sing into the handheld. I have gone as far as recording live click on the handheld, then sing, then transfer the file into Pro Tools at the same BPM and go into arranging mode. That was cool...

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What got me thinking about it is doing the pro review on the Zoom. It really is quite impressive in terms of what you get for the price, and you probably could do real songwriting on it.

 

I have the Zoom Q3. In fact, I won it from EQ Magazine. Wheeeeeee!!!!

 

I realize that you're talking about a multitrack unit, which the Q3 is not, but still...

 

I love it. It's easy to use, and it sounds great. Oh, and as a bonus, it takes video! I've used it several times already and absolutely love it! I could see writing songs, throwing down song ideas, that kind of thing. That said, I haven't done this so far. I should. I've recorded stuff going on in my classroom at work, recording the bell choir that we are doing and some other stuff. And I've taken it on a trip with me to record crickets in West Virginia. It did a stellar job in terms of audio for both of these things.

 

As Yump mentions, it'd be great for capturing ambient sounds. It has a really nice sense of stereo (harrumph, retains an accurate soundstage). Oh, and did I mention that the Q3 throws in video as a bonus? :D

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I have the Zoom Q3. In fact, I won it from EQ Magazine. Wheeeeeee!!!!


I realize that you're talking about a multitrack unit, which the Q3 is not, but still...


I love it. It's easy to use, and it sounds great. Oh, and as a bonus, it takes video!
:D

 

Can you set the recording volume on it? IOW have you heard it record a loud band? What is the quality of sound for a loud band? Most camcorders have no volume control and greatly distort the sound.

 

Dan

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Not exactly a dedicated music making device... but I've found my 'free' Android to be quite helpful at capturing quick recordings. Which it does surprisingly well, consider it works at a 22 kHz sample rate. (I suspect the steepness of the anti-alias filter results in a certain occasional tweakiness of loud sounds up near the upper threshold.)

 

I use Hi-Q MP3 Rec Lite, a free version with a 10 minute maximum record time. Which so far, has been more than enough. I also have a free version of a four tracker, but, while it's sort of usable, all the overdubs require headphones but if I use phone headphones, the recording is made through that mic, but if I use regular headphones, the recorder is stumped and doesn't fall back to the phone's built in mic -- which sounds a lot better. But, anyway, I'm not really the kind of guy who generally comes up with full arrangements in his head.

 

I also have found that the free gStrings chromatic tuner I have is the best tuner I've ever had, for the most part, although the AP tuner (which only runs standalone on a PC) is very nice.

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Can you set the recording volume on it? IOW have you heard it record a loud band? What is the quality of sound for a loud band? Most camcorders have no volume control and greatly distort the sound.


Dan

 

 

You can set the mic gain to low, med., or auto. I have not heard it record a loud band personally, but I've heard recordings of acoustic drums with it and it sounded really really good.

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One thing that's really frustrating to me about my Android (and perhaps all Androids, or all 2.2 Androids?) is that when shooting video, the audio quality is dumbed WAY, WAY down... sounds like about 24 kbps, no more. The video quality is entirely decent -- but the audio is awful. Record an acoustic guitar and it sounds like it's underwater.

 

But since I've been exploring the DADGAD tuning over the last year or so, it's become somewhat more important for me to be able to capture the how of what I'm playing when I'm working out something new or exploring some new aspect. The audio is just barely usable for that. But the picture's pretty good... [sigh]

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I'm thinking things like the Zoom R8, the various iPad or iPhone recording apps...those sorts of "portable music" devices.


What got me thinking about it is doing the pro review on the Zoom. It really is quite impressive in terms of what you get for the price, and you probably could do real songwriting on it. But what I'm wondering is how many of you actually DO use these to capture inspiration, record samples, do location recordings, write songs, etc. Or do you wait until you get back into your studio?


Thoughts?

 

 

Craig,

 

If I knew how to post audio on this site, I have a really cool sample to share. Steve LaCerra and I recorded an orchestra several months ago. He used two mics recording into a pre straight into DP. I used a Zoom H2. The results were surprisingly similar. I was really quite impressed with the Zoom. If you could tell me how to post audio, I`ll put up both samples.

 

EB

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yeah. actually
is reporting more views, but this seems like just the thing to encourage me to buy an iOS device. With clever apps, things like
and the new MIDI and audio i/o, portable is really starting to arrive in a useful way.

It's worth keeping in mind that there are some real differences between platforms, particularly in what they call and how they approach multitasking: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/235187/apple_ipad_day_6_ios_multitasking.html

 

But, clearly, iOS has a mature app scene -- and the tight integration of OS and hardware and lack of fragmentation presumably make app development easier in some ways. (Android is often customized by individual hardware makers and apps designed to work across the platform may not make use of specialized capabilities of specific phones.)

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It's worth keeping in mind that there are some real differences between platforms, particularly in what they call and how they approach multitasking:


But, clearly, iOS has a mature app scene -- and the tight integration of OS and hardware and lack of fragmentation presumably make app development easier in some ways. (Android is often customized by individual hardware makers and apps designed to work across the platform may not make use of specialized capabilities of specific phones.)

 

 

I can understand the pcworld complaints, but iOS 5 will be a more fully realized platform for portable. The hardware i/o stuff in the iOS camp will remain an area of some fragmentation.

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I'm in between a smartphone recording app and a portable multi-tracker, like the Tascam DP-008 or Zoom R8.

 

I use a high-quality 2-track recorder, the Roland R-05.

 

L4GoH.jpg

 

It allows me to capture fleeting thoughts and ideas, music from the car radio, impromptu interviews, better sound for my videography (including close-miked interviews in a noisy environment where I can

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I got an R8 recently to have something failsafe to use when the computer is acting up. I sometimes have trouble with my drivers when switching from MIDI to audio input and back again. The inspiration often fades once I get bogged down troubleshooting computer issues.

 

However, I have so far only used the R8 to do room recording and as a DAW interface. When working on original ideas, I usually just record the original inspiration as a mono room recording of live musicians, which means all the tracks have to be redone if I decide the idea is worth a mastered multi-track version.

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I use the zoom q3 and h3n pretty regularly, and I have a masterlink that I cart around in an anvil rack if its really important.

 

IME, the stuff is really flimsy-- I desperately want a sound devices 702.

 

I couldn't image trying to do any editing on any of these kinds of devices, so how folks are handling that would be interesting as far as a review goes. I have done a whole lot of listening on the h4n-- I used it to record a feature film that was being shot on DSLRs. they are nice and simple, though.

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I use the voice recorder on my 'smart' phone as a doodle pad occasionally. Just to get little ideas down in case I forget them, like specific strum or picking patterns for instance. Better to record the 3am inspiration on something lest it go to waste!!

 

It's helped me finish a song or 2 in the past..

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I've always been a user of portable music-making devices.

When all the guys at college were wearing Sony's WalkMans and later DiscMans to listening to their favorite music, I was always wearing this:

 

800px-Yamaha_QY10.jpg

 

I still have it, together with its bigger brother, the QY70.

 

I've always loved portable, battery-operated music making devices. The last one I had (instrument) was Korg's microKorg. But today, with my combo of iPhone / iPad I just need more hands. Ok, more cool apps and iGadgets.

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Steve LaCerra and I recorded an orchestra several months ago. He used two mics recording into a pre straight into DP. I used a Zoom H2. The results were surprisingly similar. I was really quite impressed with the Zoom.

 

 

On several occasions I've put my Zoom H2 on the same stand as my Studio Projects LSD-2 (two C-3s in a single case) and found the results from both mics to be close enough so that for most purposes I could use either one. The Zoom is a little noisier, which is apparent on small classical groups, but for live "open stage" kinds of acts, it's just fine.

 

I'm eager to get my hands on the newest version, the H2n. Hey, Craig! How about booking me for a Pro Review? My marketing contact has left Samson so I have to develop a new one before I can get them to lend me one to test.

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I have used a Zoom H4 to record friends' bands, and the quality is quite good, as is the quality of one vox + acoustic. My only complaint is that it uses batteries with the appetite of Jabba the Hut. If you set it to MP3, it is less power hungry, but that kind of defeats the purpose.

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