Dave:
For over 2 years the only equipment I used was a $40 hand-sized cassette
recorder. After that (not knowing any better) I bought a $25 cardioid
microphone and that lasted me another year. I made a LOT of recordings
during that period that I was very happy with. 12 years later, a couple
of them are still among my favorites.
And I think learned a WHOLE LOT by using simple equipment, especially a
lot of tricks that let one maximize the performance of whatever
equipment one's using.
Especially because there's a lot of high-level and professional folks
offering advice on this group (that's one of the major reasons all the
result of us come here!) there isn't much sensitivity to cost in the
discussion of equipment. And field experience is so prevalent here that
it is likely undervalued.
I'd encourage you to pick some stuff that's well within your budget, use
any excess to fund a couple interesting expeditions (an overnight? 3
hour drive?) and spend as much time as possible using the equipment you
have. You'll learn a lot and have lots of interesting experiences. The
more recordings you make, listen to carefully, and think about, the more
you'll learn.
That said, something like an ebay minidisk (even and old version without
PCM recording) is probably cheaper and better preforming than a midrange
cassette recorder or bottom of the line mp3 recorders. Almost certainly
(once you're recording digitally) the microphone is the thing that will
limit the overall quality of what you can record, so that's where you
want to put your resources. Try and get one you can still use even after
you upgrade your recorder.
Mostly, have fun and spend lots of time with whatever equipment you end
up getting.
Steve P
jerkabobber wrote:
>
>
> Hello all. Thanks for those of you that provided me some starting out
> advice. I really appreciate it. I looked into everything you've
> advised. I found that the majority of you use mini disk recoders..
> highly recommending them. The Sony MZ RH1 mini disc rec. seems to be
> the "cheapest/common" item to record. Why? It is slightly out of my
> price range, but I would get it regardless, anything beyond that would
> be too much money :(
> Some of you mentioned that I wouldn't be able to start at around 200-
> 350 dollars. I now see through researching that that's true, unless I
> bought a mp3 recorder...
> Not knowing anything about this stuff, I figured a digital-mp3
> recorder would be fine. With out getting to technical, whats the
> difference in sound quality between a mini disc recorder and a mp3
> recorder? Is it that much where the mini disc is THE way to go?
> Someone said that I would be disapointed with mp3 recorders.
>
> For instance, I found the 200 dollar, Samson Zoom H2 digital audio
> recorder, would this recorder be comparable to a mini disc recorder?
> Like the Sony MZ RH1 mini disc rec?
>
> To look at it, it's at
> http://www.photoethnography.com/blog/archives/2007/03/info_samson_zoo.h
> <http://www.photoethnography.com/blog/archives/2007/03/info_samson_zoo.h>
> tml
>
> In the meantime, I'll look into the "getting started" area on the
> forum for some answers as well. I just like directly taslking to
> people :)
>
> Thanks everyone!
> Dave
>
>
>
>
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