Hey all,

   I'm doing some research for my show and I'm trying to find good recorders (or means of recording) to recommend to marimba students.  Personally I use a Sony PCM-D50 and it's AMAZING.

I've heard 2nd hand that the Zoom h4n is pretty good and the D50's little brother, the PCM D10 is great as well. The only trouble is these things are still quite expensive.

Does anyone have any cheaper solutions that fit a student budget better? I'm thinking under 200 bucks.

I've thought about things like the Blue Microphone USB mics, but frankly the idea of recording with a harddrive in a small room with a marimba is asking for a busted drive.

Any thoughts you have would be appreciated!

The Yamaha C24 that came out around February is pretty nice for $200 from Sweetwater.  I had a chance to mess around with it at TMEA and it's a powerful thing in a small package.  It also has a tuner and mete built in... bonus!

I also changed the topic heading so it would be a little more indicative of subject of the thread.

I've used the Zoom H2 with good results. It records to an SD card and easily transfers recordings to computer via USB. The interface isn't my favorite, but it gets the job done.

[url=http://www.google.com/products?client=safari&rls=en&q=zoom%20h2&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wf]Here's a list of decent pricing options under $150.[/url]

[quote author=Bryan Harmsen link=topic=3679.msg19358#msg19358 date=1275082698]
I also changed the topic heading so it would be a little more indicative of subject of the thread.
[/quote]

Haha Thanks! Sorry about that, I was in a goofy mood.

On the more pro side, got any recommendations for a cheap but good firewire interface? Reviews of the low end stuff seem to be really polarized. I didn't find anything with a decent review average until I found the Apogee Duet, and that's waaaaaay out of most people's price range.

As far as USB, the M-audio stuff has REALLY mixed reviews. About the best thing I could find was the Edirol UA-25EX at $259. Any ideas?

[quote author=perpetualpoet link=topic=3679.msg19362#msg19362 date=1275088047]
[quote author=Bryan Harmsen link=topic=3679.msg19358#msg19358 date=1275082698]
I also changed the topic heading so it would be a little more indicative of subject of the thread.
[/quote]

Haha Thanks! Sorry about that, I was in a goofy mood.

On the more pro side, got any recommendations for a cheap but good firewire interface? Reviews of the low end stuff seem to be really polarized. I didn't find anything with a decent review average until I found the Apogee Duet, and that's waaaaaay out of most people's price range.

As far as USB, the M-audio stuff has REALLY mixed reviews. About the best thing I could find was the Edirol UA-25EX at $259. Any ideas?
[/quote]

I have had two of the M-Audio Microtracks and I have been really pleased with them.  I gave the first one to my wife for her flute studio and she uses it daily.  M-Audio will be getting out of the handheld portable recorder business so they have dropped the price to $199.  You have to buy the compact flash card separately, my 2 GB card holds 17 hours of audio.

Wow check out this massive list of sound samples from various recorders.

Would be nice if they all recorded the same thing, but still useful.

http://www.wingfieldaudio.com/portable-recorder-sound-samples.html