Urgent! Please help - recommend a recording device

[curtisstetka]

This is for my wife. She's an opera singer. She needs something to record her lessons - the ones she takes and the ones that she gives. I'm sure she'll also use it to record performances and interviews and stuff.

Here are the requirements, not necessarily in order of criticality:
1) Can be tape or some sort of digital. But if digital, needs to be very easy to render CDs for her students.

2) Must be elegant in design, easy to use. My wife is a brilliant woman but electronics are just not her bag.

3) Must be capable of handling the wide range of dynamics and frequencies that classical / operatic music can dish out. If there's a built-in mic, it's gotta totally rock. Otherwise, please also recommend a good external mic.

4) Portable, possibly even battery powered but that's not essential.

5) I'd like to say that price is no object but the reality is different. This is a tool for her professional career and will hopefully be useful for many, many years. I'd like to keep the price tag below $1000, prefer if it was below $500 but a good quality piece of gear is worth it.


Tammy's going to conduct an interview in about two weeks or so with some guy for a paper she's writing. It would be super duper to have the recorder for that.

I appreciate any advice you can give.

Thanks
Stetka

[curtisstetka]

I should add that it would be very neat if I too could use it for recording guitar stuff in which case, having multi-tracks would rock. Not essential though.

[Gravity Jim]

For recording a vocalist, the most important link in the chain is the mic, followed by the preamp. The recording device is secondary... they're all digital and sound fine.

1. MIC: bank $250 to $500 of your budget for this, because you're going to buy a good-quality large diaphragm condenser (LDC). You want one that fits your wife's voice nicely, so try to find a place that will let you try them out or return them. Mics to try: AT3035, AT4040, Shure KSM32 and KSM27, RODE NT1000, AKG C3000. IMO, there is no point wasting your time trying to find a great sounding $100 LDC. Stay away from MXL or Marshall branded mics... they're too inconsistent to recommend.

2. PRE-AMP: you want something ultra-clean but versatile. The Studio Projects VTB-1 is ideal and cheap. Ultra clean and powerful solid state circuit with a variable "tube" drive control. Provides phantom power for your condenser mic, sounds great, and lets you dirty up the output when you want to. a measly $100 at MF.

3. RECORDER: Depending on what you spend on your mic, you now have somewhere between $600 and $400 left to buy your recording device. Just check out the ones in that price range that do what you want... they're all about the same, just different menus to navigate. We bought a couple of Tascam DP-01's for Lisa's radio station production rooms because they're so easy to operate. You can get the one with the built-in effects (verb and so on) for $400, and can even opt for a built in CD burner for $600 or so...

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/produ...ers?sku=240492

[curtisstetka]

Hi GJ. I was hoping you'd respond. Thank you for the info!

1. Mic - I grok. I figured this was the most critical element and unfortunately I'm very ignorant of the possibilities here and even the terminology. What she'll need is a mic that she can set up in the room and not necessarily sing right into. Figure it'll be within 10 feet of the singer and the piano. Are the mics you recommended suitable for such a thing?

2. Preamp - Are there recorders with built-in preamps? Like I said, my wife is a supra-genius but oddly not that adept with electronic stuff. If I can eliminate a component that she'd have to setup, that would be very good.

3. Recorder - Simplicity is the key here. The link you provided looks really cool to me but I'm wondering if my wife would be scared by all the controls. I do like the idea of a built-in CD burner though.

I guess what would be really ideal is if she could go into her lesson with a bag. She opens the bag and sets up a stand. Puts the mic on the stand. Connects a cord between the mic and the recorder. Plugs in the recorder. Pushes a couple buttons and lets it just run for the next 1-2 hours. Is this possible?

I mean, if not, that's okay and I can write up some instructions for her to follow each time. All its really got to do is produce a high quality recording of operatic music. This includes the extremes of the vocal range and dynamics as well as usually a piano - again at the extremes.

I trust your judgment and appreciate your advice very much. Thanks, GJ!

[Gravity Jim]

1. Yes, they are. I forgot to mention you'll need a good-quality stand... maybe you already have them from a band or something. Most of the LDCs I mentioned come with their own shock mount... a rubber-band ting that screw on to the stand and isolates the mic from transfered noise. If I were using an LDC to record a singer and piano together, I would want a boom stand that would let me get the mic up a little above the singer's head.

2. They all have built in pre-amps, and you can use them just fine. But I've heard complaints about the quality of the pre's on the Tascam and Roland units... that they break up too easy, blah blah blah. You could always try this without a separate pre and see if it works for you. But we're talking about the sonic difference between a 10-cent op amp and a $100 unit built to amplify a mic.

3. Those controls actually make it easier to use. The Tascam design [philosophy is to provide a knob for virtually all function, so you're not paging through menus just to get basic work done (there is plenty of menu paging to get into disc functions and so on, but it's not terrifying). Keep in mind that you're looking at transport controls for a recorder and a complete mixer stage for 8 tracks of audio.

You can do exactly what you describe with a Tascam DP-01 (or a Roland or a Korg or whatever seems easiest to use to you) if you don't use a separate pre-amp... just use the pre and phantom power in the recorder (make sure the unit you choose provides pahntom power... the mic won't work without it). Just remember that the mic is the most important decision.

ALso, an LDC makes a great guitar recording mic... You don't really need a SHure SM57 for this, no matter how many times you've heard it. Thousands of pro engineers use either an LDC or a ribbon mic to record guitar cabinets.

[curtisstetka]

you = sland

[Gravity Jim]

I am here to serve. :)

[Gravity Jim]

U87's, U67's, U47's, C414's, Coles 4038's, Royer 121's, RCA 44's, Royer 121's, yes. Back in the day, SM 57's were used when you ran out of the others.

True 'dat!

The "stick an SM57 in front of it, that's what all the great ones did" thing seems to be largely an Internet driven myth.

[curtisstetka]

Dudes, this is some great information and I appreciate the expert advice. I'm going to go over this stuff with the wifey tonight and put the setup together. Most likely I'll get everything from M'er F'er. I'll post the final setup here before ordering to get your opinions.

Thanks again!

[Wilko]

Jim is the master.

Wait.. I like that U87 idea.. :lol :lol

Budget? what budget?

[curtisstetka]

Well, as expected, the wife REALLY did not like the idea of all that hardware. I did some searching around on M'er F'er and came up with this:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/produ...ers?sku=702520

I don't quite understand the mic inputs on that sucker. The manual says the stereo inputs are "TRS"???

Any thoughts, guys? That along with a good external mic and a bigger flash memory card would probably make decent recordings. In fact, she'll probably be happy with the included mic.

I know, I know, it offends the gearslut in me but really something simple like this would be better for her. She's not going to set up a boom stand, shockmount, mic, XLR cable, preamp, 'nother cable to the recorder, etc. She wants something she can take out of her purse and put on a nearby table and push no more than 3 buttons.

But there go my dreams of convincing her that we needed a digital multitrack recorder...

[JAM]

TRS = Tip, Ring, Shield. The typical 1/4 stereo type plug.

[JAM]

?? Sorry double post

[curtisstetka]

Get this instead. It's a little more pricey, but a great unit.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/produ...ers?sku=244005

Oooh! Good call, Chris. I didn't notice when I first glanced at that one that it recorded directly to CD. I think wife will really dig that. She can go to her lesson, record it, and listen to the CD in the car on the way home.

It's got XLR and 48v phantom power too. The other jobber had 32v phantom power????

[nabskater]

The "stick an SM57 in front of it, that's what all the great ones did" thing seems to be largely an Internet driven myth.

And i fell for it! Luckily thanks to you guys ive learned better!

[Gravity Jim]

Sorry, dude. I was hoping you'd go for the multitrack and mic.

Singers... harrumph. They never want to help move the gear!