At 09:15 AM 2010-03-18, Jones, Randye wrote:
>Good morning.
>
>I'm looking for a small digital recorder that will a good job of 
>capturing the singing voice.  Most I've seen are more suited to 
>recording speech.  Any suggestions?  BTW, price *is* an object.

Hi, Randye,

The price-performance continuum presents difficult choices because 
adequate performance for one person may be inadequate for another.

The digital "voice" recorders fall off the curve and into the "bit 
bucket" as far as I'm concerned. You really want an "audio" recorder, 
not a "voice" recorder.

I think the lowest price recorder on the market--at least the one 
that I have used--is the Zoom H2 and, for the price, it's amazing. I 
think it's around $140 in the US these days. My other digital 
recording system is a pair of DPA 4006TL mics and Sound Devices 722 
recorder. The DPAs/SD blow away the Zoom, but they should as the 
price difference is around 50x.

http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/products/h2/index.php
http://www.amazon.com/Zoom-H2-Portable-Stereo-Recorder/dp/B000VBH2IG
for reference:
http://www.dpamicrophones.com/en/products.aspx?c=Item&category=186&item=24002
http://www.dpamicrophones.com/en/products.aspx?c=Item&category=188&item=24010
http://www.sounddevices.com/products/722.htm

There is an interesting series of blog posts here:
http://www.theatreofnoise.com/2009/11/summary-of-portable-digital-audio.html
http://www.theatreofnoise.com/2009/11/which-portable-digital-audio-recorder.html
http://www.theatreofnoise.com/2009/11/choosing-audio-recorder-for-ultimate.html

I would only purchase ONE of any of the recorders straight away so 
you can be sure it meets your needs. The Zoom H2 met my needs for 
several applications and one of the needs was lowest cost acceptable 
option, but as they say, your mileage may vary.

How you plan on operating may influence your choice.

One of the things I like about the H2 is that it is a true 
four-channel recorder with four directional mics under the grille 
which provides me with lots of options for oral histories and other 
applications. It does surprisingly well for the price on music. I 
have successfully intermixed Zoom recordings with those from my 
high-end rig and they did NOT stand out like sore thumbs.

One other question you did not ask: How are you going to store the 
files. I record at 44.1 ks/s, 24 bits on the Zoom H2s most of the 
time. That's about 1 GB per hour. Depending on where you are going 
with this, you might want to use 48 ks/s which will produce a 
slightly larger file. You probably should use 24 bits and set levels 
conservatively.

Recording to MP3s is an option for saving storage space, but at a 
loss of quality.

Good luck -- please let us know how you slice this pie.

Cheers,

Richard


Richard L. Hess                   email: [log in to unmask]
Aurora, Ontario, Canada       (905) 713 6733     1-877-TAPE-FIX
Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.