Affordable Pocket Field Audio Recorder

John Doe 57 said:

...Some Questions:
- Are there good recorders that can be used while in a pocket? If my pants rub up against the device, will that pretty much ruin my recording?...

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in which case, i can recommend you don't buy the Zoom H1. it's extremely sensitive to handling noise. it's recording quality is good though. i have it.
hope that helps...

I have the Zoom H1 too, and really like it. The sound is amazing for it's price.

Nothing is going to work fantastically in a pocket - since it will pick up movement noise. If you don't want to be obvious that you're recording, it would work fine inside of a bad or jacket if you could take that off and leave it somewhere.

Alternatively you could hook up an external microphone to it.

The H1 is so cheap, it's worth buying just to experiment with.

First off all Portable Handheld Recorders are going to susceptible to clothing noise or any sort of 'brushing' type noise. That said I doubt your boss(es) would care if you recorded the noise would they? I mean unless you clandestinely harboring a OSHA type noise lawsuit...are you?<g>

If they didn't just put it near the machines on something not vibrating and relatively stable. Heat is an issue...most will tolerate up to 110 degrees...but anything you can't live in they can't.


Anyway there are many...Tascam DR series are my favorites for ease of use, bulit in formats (MP3 and Wav) Mic quality etc......I like the DR-7...flash recorder ( records to a SDHC flash card) - small and only about $75 online.
The 2gb flash card that comes with them will give you about 75 hours straight in MP# 128k format.

You can spend more...but you won't notice a quality difference until about $200 - $300 more.

Olympus LS-10. Hands-down the best recorder for the money, now that the LS-11 is out. (LS-11 has a larger internal memory, and threshold recording - recording starts when your audio reaches a certain volume!)

http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/product.asp?product=1350

If sound quality is not the highest priority, I suggest checking if your phone has a recorder before spending any money. Older phones will surely sound very bad, but for example an iPhone will catch a pretty decent (mono) recording, even with the internal microphone.