Handheld recorders for band practice

[Mornats]

I'm looking at getting a handheld recorder to record band practices with and would like some recommendations please. There's a tonne of stuff on the internet about which ones are good (including audio samples) but I'm specifically looking for something that will handle bass particularly well.

so I'm looking for something that will record band practice, will record me playing on my amp by myself really well (recording well, not playing well…) and isn't too expensive. Around £150 new is my preference. It's to replace the use of my iPhone for recording band practice so that's the quality jump I'm looking for.

An added bonus, and I'm really not sure if I'm barking mad on this one, is whether I'd be able to use it to mic up my bass amp to record a baseline rather than going through my audio interface into Reaper. I'm happy to record it and import it into Reaper rather than use it as an audio interface. Am I a bit nuts expecting to be able to use a handheld recorder for this? I'd love a Shure SM7B but they're out of my price range for the use it would get.

I'm not too bothered by video but I guess it would be really nice to be able to record a video of a gig, or even band practice.

The Zoom H2, Roland LS-5 and the like are what I'm looking at at the moment. Nice and cheap and I can easily buy one once I trade my iPhone in for an Android.

[Happy Jack]

The Zoom H2 is outstanding.

Check out my band's website (follow the link in my sig) and over half the mp3's on that site were recorded with an H2, completely unassisted, no tweaking.

I also use it to record rehearsals, especially of new material, plus anything else that needs recording.

One of its biggest advantages (to me, anyway) is that once you've got the set-up right once, it becomes completely idiot-proof. Just press the big red button to start it, and then press the big red button again to stop it.

When it's hot, dark and sweaty, the load-in has taken longer than you wanted, and the guitarists are saying "Come on, let's get started", an idiot-proof recorder is a real boon.

[krysh]

I own the Roland R-05 and can't say anything bad about it. great usability, great sound quality, doesn't eat batteries and is well built. would buy again.

[51m0n]

Zoom H2 or H4, the H1 I've heard mixed opinions about when it gets very loud (not being able to turn the gain down enough).

I have an H4n, and its the dogs danglies.

[Happy Jack]

The H4 is very impressive BUT it's not idiot-proof.

It has so many jog-functions and clever features that it is entirely possible to set it up in such a way that it looks really cool but at the end of the gig the operator can discover that it never actually recorded anything.

Don't ask me how I know ...

[51m0n]

Thats pretty impressive work there HJ, nice one

Never managed to have that problem myself.

When I set up at rehearsal I plug it in to the wall for power, turn it on, check the folder (where the file will be recorded) hit the record button once to go into monitor mode to check the recording level, the button flashes when in this mode, then hit it again to go into full record mode, the button goes red at that point.

I think that that is about the minimum amount of button pushing you really need to do to ensure a decent recording on any kit. If you are doing less then you probably arent checking the level? That could easily be a mistake that can bite you later....

I leave it there until the end of the rehearsal, import the tracks into my lappie and use Reaper to edit the crap out and generate mp3s of the good bits, which takes about 15 minutes if you know what you are doing. Then I send those to other band members using wetransfer.com.