Portable recorder advice please

[Mudpup]

I want to get a portable recorder thingy to record a few of our gigs and rehearsals. Needs a decent battery life, sound quality, mp3 format (i think) and the ability to mix in a desk feed sounds attractive too.

I have narrowed it down to a Tascam DR40, Roland R05 or maybe a Zoom Q2HD (which will also do video)

Budget ideally under £180

Any suggestions/experience with them?

Edited December 28, 2013 by Mudpup

[RockfordStone]

i have a tascam dr-2d which is good, our drummer has one of the zoom ones with a camera which is also good... apart from it only ever looks at him so the visual is boring

they are handy, if you get the placement right you can get some pretty good recordings from them

[NancyJohnson]

I've used a Boss BR600 extensively. The on board microphones are fine so long as you have a decent mix in the room itself and control the recording levels. You can also plug in a couple of mics to get a wider separation. Battery life is decent (get rechargeables!). I also used this machine to track all the guitars and bass for the first collection we did (see link below). It's a great machine. You can pick these up on eBay for £90-ish.

Let's face it, you are never going to get studio quality from any portable machine either; they are what they are.
P

[MaGrOtTeN]

I highly recommend the Zoom H4n, perhaps second-hand.

I suppose you have to ask yourself how often you're doing video, and if it's not that often then a friend with a Digital SLR camera could help you out. This scenario would give you better all-round quality but the zoom [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Q2HD looks pretty cool although I haven't tried it[/font][/color]

[51m0n]

Zoom h4n

With a pair of line audoo cm3 mics....

[krysh]

I have the Roland R-05 for a few years now and it has never disappointed me. long battery life, decent recording quality.

[TheMissWolfiee]

Thought I'd throw my 2 pence in. The Zoom is really great I have a Q3HD and the sound quality is really clear and full and the addition of decent video quality is great though doesn't necessarily have to be used. Definitely useful for recording rehearsals & performances like I've done in the past, and produces good quality audio. As long as you position the device in an appropriate place you can really get a good representation of your sound in addition the Zoom has software with it to edit the clips and adjust the clip (its a standard editing program, nothing too fancy). Only downside for me was while the battery life is fairly decent you do go through a few packs of AA if you constantly use it like I did (or left it in idle by accident) although saying this there is an accessory pack that you can get which includes a Mains adapter which isn't too expensive. I haven't had experience with other recorders but my Q3HD hasn't ever let me down.

On another note if this has convinced you towards one have a gander at my sig I happen to be selling mine (sorry!)