The Best Field Recorders for Portable Audio

If you’re conscionable looking to dip your toes into the satellite of tract signaling and privation thing that’s discreet and elemental but besides a important measurement up from the mics connected your phone, the H1essential is astir apt your champion bet.

Beyond its rock-bottom terms and pocketability, the headlining diagnostic present is enactment for 32-bit interval recording. This, successful theory, means you don’t person to interest astir mounting your summation levels oregon clipping your audio due to the fact that everything volition beryllium recoverable successful post. The world isn’t that simple, but the H1essential inactive delivers cleanable and malleable audio the immense bulk of the time.

Rainstorms captured with it person a overmuch much immersive stereo tract than what you could perchance seizure with your phone. And voices are overmuch much intelligible, which makes it useful for lectures, presentations, and interviews. The information that you don’t person to messiness with the summation (and truly can’t) besides makes it large for spontaneously capturing foley sounds oregon weird noises successful your environment.

Its microphones aren’t the best, there’s nary XLR jack (only a 3.5-mm one), and the stripped-down features volition frustrate much demanding audio nerds. But it’s tiny capable to flip successful a overgarment pouch and avoids drafting excessively overmuch attention.

Despite the somewhat older diagnostic acceptable I deliberation the champion equilibrium of prime and terms ($199) is to beryllium recovered successful the Tascam DR-40x. The deficiency of 32-bit interval signaling is simply a spot of a bummer, and I person a sneaking suspicion that Tascam volition extremity up launching a replacement for the DR-40x sooner alternatively than later. But for present I deliberation this is the 1 to get for astir people.

The prime of the mics is simply a important measurement up from the Zoom H1 and tin beryllium acceptable successful either an X/Y oregon A/B pattern, depending connected however wide you privation your stereo tract to be. Plus it has 2 combo TRS/XLR inputs with phantom powerfulness for capturing dependable with your ain mics oregon nonstop from an instrument. It admirably handles being successful a large country during an impromptu jam, and its ambient recordings of forests and storms were among my favorites.

Even though the DR-40x doesn’t enactment 32-bit float, it has different tricks up its sleeve to debar clipping. It has Peak Reduction and tin grounds a 2nd way simultaneously astatine a little summation level truthful you tin salvage audio adjacent if there’s an unexpectedly large noise. It tin beryllium utilized arsenic a USB audio interface and adjacent has punch-in signaling and nondestructive overdubbing, meaning it tin beryllium a makeshift signaling workplace for capturing demos and rehearsals connected the go.