Portable Recording device or Laptop recording advice needed

racman

I need a small portable recording device to record mainly acoustic guitar and vocals for songwriting purposes. I am currently considering the Boss Micro BR but am uncertain regarding the application suitability and the internal mic and external mic cable system etc.

Any suggestions and/or alternatives to consider?

Also any ideas of alternatives ways of rather using a laptop to do this i.e. what software etc?

ZarK

Hi Racman

I use a pod studio UX2, monitor earphones and laptop. All the necessary software is included with the UX2 (Pod Farm, Riffworks, Ableton lite) and it's very portable. Excellent for guitar, bass and vocal recording. (There are smaller Pod Studios also available such as the UX1, but I've never used the other versions.

Regards

Fingerpicker

In terms of ease of use, portability and capturing ideas the order is probably:

1) record on a cellphone to keep the idea

2) record on a Boss Micro BR. You can keep this in a guitar case. Lay down the original track and add harmonies and lead breaks whenever convenient. The little condensor mics on these are amazing. Record to wav or mp3 format. Transfer the wav files to a computer DAW if you want to expand it a bit further with Cubase/Ableton/Protools etc.

3) go the Laptop/audio interface/cable/microphone route. Less convenient than 2, but you are moving closer to full home recording. Buying the interface and lite software versions allows you to learn to record using mainstream software at a fraction of the cost.

My opinion is that for songwriting, option 2 is the way to go. You will love it. Also consider the bigger Boss BR600. Won't fit into your guitar case though.

Squonk

+1 Fingerpicker

Rac you will most probably are going to have to buy a condenser mic with any of the options. Still gives the best sound, but might not be needed if you are going to use it for song idea/ writing purposes.

There are some very good "free" applications out there. Audacity and Reaper work very well if you are going the laptop route.
Line 6 have brought out an even smaller studio pod http://line6.com/podstudiogx/ , but you will need a computer for this.

Maybe the time has come to build a home studio ?

Ray

I got the Micro BR sometime back bit I havent used it at all except trying to play and sing a song so I stopped right there. But my kid uses it plentry and reports that it is hellish powerful. I scouted around on http://songcrafters.org/community/index.php and they maintain that the onboard mic is great. Also the available little plug in mic for the Micro BR is impressive apparently.

ZarK

I highly recommend you take a look at the Line6 UX range if you're going the laptop route. Close to plug & play. The podfarm software offers sound and amp combos for guitar, bass and vocals. Excellent recording quality with no latency. Quality sounds. I use riffworks for riff progressions and idea capture. Easy and quick to use with metronome and/or drums included with the software. The UX1 has both a guitar input and a balanced XLR input with high quality mic pre-amp. Its smilar to my UX2 which I'm very happy with. The UX-GX is tiny and still has all the powerful software. Definitely worth considering...

All of the best!

Squonk

Another Option would be the Zoom Handy Recorders

http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/products/h2/index.php

Ray

Or the Tascam DP-004 which is under 3 G's on take2. Just not too sure of the AC adapter is gonna work too well here in SA becasue it is from USA.