Recording tunes at a session

Subject: Recording tunes at a session
From: G-Force
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 08:12 AM

I know there have been various threads about this in the past but can't quite find the answer to what I want. I'm also extremely non-technical, which doesn't help!

We sit in lots of sessions and are often impressed with new tunes we hear. The trouble is that although you can Google the tune, (abc notation is very good) quite often there are 35 different alternatives offered and by this time you can't remember which one you heard last week!

Consequently what we want is a little, inexpensive recorder we can just stick on the table in the pub which will pick up the tune we want to learn. I guess a bit like a dictaphone that will pick up sound from a distance. Quality not specially important as all we need to do is take down the dots so we can learn it later and then delete. I suppose being able to play it on the computer would be useful too but not if it will cost a lot extra.

I'm sure someone out there knows all about this so we'd be very grateful for any advice.

Subject: RE: Recording tunes at a session
From: Will Fly
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 08:17 AM

I use a Zoom H2 myself - around £150 new, but you might get a s/h one on eBay. Comes with a little table stand and all-round mic direction.

Subject: RE: Recording tunes at a session
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 08:18 AM

For simple not very high quality, use you mobile phone. Most of them now gave a quick record function.

Subject: RE: Recording tunes at a session
From: G-Force
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 08:40 AM

Thank you Peter, but I have to reveal myself as the owner of a very unsophisticated pay-as-you-go Tesco phone with absolutely no gismos at all.

Also Will, many thanks, but £150 is far too much.

Am I a hopeless case?

Subject: RE: Recording tunes at a session
From: Howard Jones
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 08:49 AM

I didn't realise you could get mobile phones with no gizmos :)

If a proper digital recorder is too much, then an ordinary office dictaphone will work, and can be obtained quite cheaply. The recording quality may not be brilliant as they are designed to be used close-up, but they should be sufficient for capturing tunes to learn.

Subject: RE: Recording tunes at a session
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 08:54 AM

Zoom H2 is brilliant - only problem is small screen

L in C#

Subject: RE: Recording tunes at a session
From: GUEST,LDT
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 09:04 AM

My (casio) digital camera has a sound only option. It was £99 -2yrs ago-new but I belive its cheaper to get hold of now you might find one for half the price.

Subject: RE: Recording tunes at a session
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 09:10 AM

I admit to owning an, according to my son, pre-historic Nokia without any features at all. I see a lot of people using phones at sessions to snatch a quick tune. All my music students have rapidly dropped the MP3 recorders in favour of their phones too (they don't even know what a (cassette) tape recorder is at this stage).

Subject: RE: Recording tunes at a session
From: Noreen
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 10:00 AM

Somebody mentioned a simple recorder for such use, on another thread, for £30-ish. Will see if I can find the reference for you.

(Have you investigated your phone? It may be able to do more than you realise!)

Subject: RE: Recording tunes at a session
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 10:29 AM

I've got a Blackberry phone (older model "pearl") and it will only record 30 seconds at a shot. Very annoying.

Check office supply stores for options on inexpensive sound recording, there are various small digital gadgets out there now, as well as those with tapes.

A quick check here in the U.S. found a 1G digital recorder for $30.

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Recording tunes at a session
From: s&r
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 10:36 AM

Sony ICDBX800 MP3 Digital Voice Recorder £24.00 at Amazon

Stu

Subject: RE: Recording tunes at a session
From: Marje
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 10:41 AM

I've got an MP3 player that does the job very nicely. One advantage is that it's so tiny, no one notices when it's on. The downside of this is that I can fail to notice too, so I end up with a long recording of chatter and mumbling as well as the tunes.
Not all MP3 players have a recording function - I think mine cost about £50.

Marje

Subject: RE: Recording tunes at a session
From: Noreen
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 10:50 AM

This post from Gedi on the 'Tune Req: Current Session Tunes' thread mentions a:

digital voice recorder, Sony ICD PX720, for about £35 and I can highly recommend it.
It will happily pick up tunes over a full session ina crowded room, and you can download it to a pc later in MP3 format where you can chop it up and edit it.
Sound repro is very good for a small item, perfectly good for learning tunes from, although not of course CD quality.
Battery life is good and it will record around 70 hours or so in medium quality mode.

Sounds good.

Subject: RE: Recording tunes at a session
From: GUEST,schlimmerkerl
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 12:43 PM

Zoom makes several models. I picked up the H1 for US$ 136, but i got it in Ireland, so VAT is probably included. They seem to be offered at discount for about $100.00. Sound quality is very good. Be sure to REMOVE the battery when not in use, or it will drain.

Subject: RE: Recording tunes at a session
From: olddude
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 12:48 PM

video or mp3? for video use what Will said but if you want mp3 for sticking on a CD get yourself a USB Mackie recorder with Kristal as the recording software .. perfect.

Subject: RE: Recording tunes at a session
From: Gedi
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 04:54 PM

Thanks Noreen for picking up on my earlier post. As mentioned above I can heartily recommend the digital voice recorder - I use the Sony mentioned above but I daresay that other makes are just as good for a similar price. Very useful item!

Ged

Subject: RE: Recording tunes at a session
From: G-Force
Date: 15 Nov 10 - 05:42 AM

Thank you all very much for being so helpful. This is what Mudcat is all about. I really appreciate it.

Subject: RE: Recording tunes at a session
From: treewind
Date: 15 Nov 10 - 07:16 AM

The Zoom H1 is a new successor to the H2, only recently available. Though I haven't tried one, I'd guess it's perfect for this.

I know people who use cheaper voice recorders with success - personally I'd want to check the recording quality carefully before purchasing one because some of them really are voice only, and sometimes a reasonably clear recording is needed to discriminate the tune from the background noise in a session.

Subject: RE: Recording tunes at a session
From: alex s
Date: 15 Nov 10 - 07:31 AM

Olympus do some small digital recorders at a very reasonable £30-£40. I use a vn2100PC (the PC bit is important as it downloads to a computer). This model has been replaced but is still available on ebay now and again. The new ones look to be OK.

Subject: RE: Recording tunes at a session
From: jennyr
Date: 15 Nov 10 - 08:11 AM

I've got an i-River MP3 player which I chose because it does reasonable quality recording - don't know what they cost now, though.

Probably the cheapest option is to swap your phone, though! I've just bought one for £20 which has a 60 second recorder (ample for most tunes).