Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner A tired topic, but..which recorder?

I haven't used any of the hand-held digital recorders, but am just getting my restored Steinway M back from the shop next week, and plan to really apply myself to it. I thought recordings might help. in 60 years of playing, I've never tried it.

Without considering price, since all these recorders are in roughly the same ballpark, how do you compare the Zoom H4n, Edirol R09HR and whatever the equivalent Tascam is? If you have experience with them or, better, a comparison to make, I'd really appreciate it, as I'll be ordering in the next 3-4 days.

Even just a word or two would help me get a sense of the majority view.

Many thanks,
David

Hi David, I'm a happy and vocal Zoom H4 owner. You may want to check out the AB forum quarterly recital that's active right now (see top of the AB forum page). There you'll find lots of recordings made with different setups. (As you scroll down the pages that detail each recital piece, you'll see that one of the pieces of information given is recording method.) The Zoom is the most popular recorder used by those of us who hang out in AB forum, but I think there are a couple of submissions that used the Edirol.

David: I have the Edirol on the way--I have no experience with any of the units--but what pushed me over the line was that, of about 56 reviews of the unit on Amazon (who has a great price by the way) something like 50 were 5 stars.

Russ

I have an Edirol R-09 too, which I was VERY LUCKY to be able to buy on sale about 14 months ago - reduced by about 60%, I don't know why...

Perhaps because the R-09HR was coming out--some improvements to exterior--and I'm not sure--but I think the "HR" stands for "high resolution" I doubt it matters.

How do you like it, and how do you recommend recording a grand with it? Thanks.

Russ

I should add that I'm mainly interested in quality of sound. Other features are less important.

Thanks.

I do like it a lot.
It is so much better than the cheap microphones I used to connect to my computer, no comparison.... I hated the microphone...
I have a DP, and it is possible to connect it to the DP so no external sounds/noise will be recorded.

Quite recently one forum member - believe it was Crispin - provided this useful link to listen and compare samples from a wide range of portable recorders.
Wingfield Samples

I have a Zoom H4 and very satisfied with it, both for recording my acoustic, and directly from my DP without the external mic.

That is interesting, thanks for the link.... I actually wouldn't have had any problems with the Zoom H4, but because the Roland was reduced to the same price and I liked the samples I had found on the net, I went for it...

I've been recording with a Tascam DR-100 digital recorder and an AKG Perception 220 condenser mic. Gotta place the mic "just right" to get the best results - but so far so good !!

Great link, great idea. It's very unfortunate that the only samples in common for the three recorders we're talking about are cello and speech. Still, it's helpful. Thanks for pointing it out.

David