Which Laptop would you recommend?

Hydroman52
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Thu Oct 17, 2013 1:08 pm

Chris,

I bought my Tascam DR-40 digital recorder about two years ago and use it more than once a week. This has been one of my better purchases. I started out using my computer for recording, but got tired of lugging around (and setting up) all the stuff necessary to do a simple recording. The recording quality with the DR-40 is as good or better than what I was getting with my computer rig. Now that we are beginning to write our own material, it's become even more valuable. When inspiration hits, I dig it out of my gear bag, turn it on, and I'm recording melodies, chord progressions, lyrics in under a minute (most time is spent finding it). I have already written about it here on the site:

http://www.totallyguitars.com/forum/4-g ... t=10#91000


You can see more about it here:



I use the XLR/1/4" input jacks all the time. And it has the ability to supply phantom power for my condenser mics. Did I mention that it can be powered with 3 AA batteries? In fact, I can't remember the last time I used external power. All my batteries are Eneloop rechargeables, and I change them out every 2 - 3 hours of recording time (that's when supplying a condenser mic with phantom power.....additional power draw).

If I had to nit-pick about something on the DR-40, I would say that the input volume controls for the internal mics and external jacks do not have the ability to adjust left and right levels independently. But I usually have a work around for this if it becomes a problem. In nearly two years, this has never become a problem.

If I were tied to my house and had a studio set up, I might tie myself down to a laptop. But I like the freedom and versatility of the digital recorder. I did a lot of shopping before I settled on this brand and model, and I'm still very satisfied with it.

A good example of the quality of recording is in my latest posting of Down By The Water in the Busking Decemberists thread here:

http://www.totallyguitars.com/forum/149 ... =40#117587

Setup was simple. I recorded using the two internal condenser mics and had a cable connected to one input jack from the PA sound board along with a cheap (very cheap!) dynamic mic connected to the other input jack. When I got home, I pulled the SD card from the DR-40, popped it into my home computer, transferred the .mp3 files, and did some minor volume adjustment in Audacity before prepping for upload to YouTube. I'm not sure if uploading to YouTube has degraded the sound quality, because I've only checked the upload using my cheap tablet speakers.

If you are planning on playing gigs or jamming with others in different locations, you might want to consider one of these devices.

Hydroman52


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neverfoundthetime
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Thu Oct 17, 2013 5:04 pm

Yeah, the Tascam was the other one I had on my mind Hydro... many thanks for the info and links... I remember that Decemberists song you posted. Great! Yeah, two best options, Boss Micro BR and Tascam DR 40. Many thanks!


Hydroman52
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Thu Oct 17, 2013 5:37 pm

Hydroman52 wrote:
If I had to nit-pick about something on the DR-40, I would say that the input volume controls for the internal mics and external jacks do not have the ability to adjust left and right levels independently. But I usually have a work around for this if it becomes a problem. In nearly two years, this has never become a problem.
Well, I'm really glad you brought up this subject, Chris. As I was searching for information for my last post in this thread, I found out that Tascam has released a firmware update (Version 1.30 0074) for the DR-40 which includes the ability to adjust the left and right levels independently on the input jack channels. Just what I wanted! I've downloaded it, upgraded, and tested it. So far it works great!

So, thanks again, Chris, for leading me down a path that helped me to discover this.

Hydroman52


wiley
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Thu Oct 17, 2013 5:46 pm



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neverfoundthetime
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Fri Oct 18, 2013 11:17 am

That's great Hydro, I love these win/win situations. And thanks for the Zoom info Wiley, I have the Kodak Zi8 for filming so my focus now just the audio so with the Tascam and Micro BR, I know I can cover that base. I really appreciate the inputs from everyone, its fun to gather intel like this and bounce ideas off you folks and be better equipped for the hunt ;-).


willem
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Fri Oct 18, 2013 4:04 pm

neverfoundthetime wrote:
Hi Dermot & Willem, yeah could be a fault, seems most likely to me so I will check up with the sales people ... only I don't want them to say, yeah its faulty we'll replace your notebook or we'll repair it so just give it to us for a week... then I'd rather write off the microphone function and get an external gizmo as I just spent a week loading all my programs and setting the thing up! I am chasing a Boss Micro BR on a Swiss second hand site ...

Great Gadget,,I have one,,,have'nt do much with it,,its very menue driven but with the use of the simple things in it you get a fine result...

W.


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neverfoundthetime
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Sat Oct 19, 2013 2:49 am

.... yeah Willem, I remember that was Al's comment to, that the Micro Br is very menue driven. That's not my style but I can bite that bullet.


Hydroman52
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Sat Oct 19, 2013 10:27 pm

neverfoundthetime wrote:
.... yeah Willem, I remember that was Al's comment to, that the Micro Br is very menue driven. That's not my style but I can bite that bullet.
Chris,

I feel your pain and this was one of the things on my list of "must haves". Must be easy to operate. Wait a second.....let me qualify that. Must be easy to operate after initial setup. Once I had it set up (time, date, record quality, record mode, etc.), all I do now is press the power button to turn it on, press the record button once to check audio levels (these usually don’t need adjustment 90% or the time), and press record again to start recording. When done, press stop and remove SD card to plug into my computer to copy over to the hard drive for editing. These devices do have USB ports, so I wouldn’t even need to pull the SD card, but I don’t always have a USB cable handy.

If I were to begin using all the fancy stuff (overdubbing, effects, slow down, etc.) I’d probably get totally lost. I’m only using it as a basic 4-track recorder with the two internal condenser mics, a line-in from the mixing board, and a condenser mic using 48v phantom power on the second line-in. It’s very simple, as long as I remember to turn it on!

That being said, I’m sure other comparable devices (Zoom H4n for one) would probably be able to do the same thing. I really stopped looking once I got the Tascam, because it did everything that I wanted it to do.

Let us know how you solve your dilemma,

Hydroman52

Note: I learned that a wind filter (a “dead cat” type would probably be best) for the internal mics is essential if you use one of these things in a wind or have a fan blowing on them.


kanefsky
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Sun Oct 20, 2013 2:14 am

I have the Zoom H4n which is very good and I also got the Tascam DR-100mkII recently which is even better. I got the DR-100 mainly because it has a digital input, and my Roland V-Piano has a digital output so I can make the purest recording possible off of that. It's kind of cool because the V-Piano doesn't use samples at all, so it's all 1's and 0's all the way until you actually listen to the recording, and yet it's this incredibly realistic piano sound. However it also has built-in mics and locking XLR connectors with phantom power and 96Khz 24-bit sampling and all that. It can use either a rechargable lithium ion battery or AA's or both, and I think you can hot swap the batteries without stopping the recording. It also charges via USB which is nice. It has a very nice level control dial which you can adjust without introducing noise into the recording even if you're using the internal mics (unlike push-button level controls).

Having said that, if you have an iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch you might consider getting something like the Apogee MiC and running one of the many available recording apps like Garageband: . It also works great on Mac and PC.

--
Steve


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neverfoundthetime
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Mon Oct 21, 2013 10:50 am

Thanks Mike and Steve, yes I will let you know how it plays out... I am stalking a Micro BR on Ricardo.ch (like Craigslist) so in a few days I will know if I am a successful bidder... ;-). Decided against using the iPhone.


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