Firstly, nods to
Fishmonger for his original
recording tips post for spurring me to throw this together... (Be warned, this is a loooong guide made up of several posts).
As a taper of live music, the ability of the H Series to record was what first drew my attention to it when I was looking for my first ever DAP to take over from my old MD setup. Even though the Nomad Jukebox 3 is the gig taper’s field recorder of choice, I think the iRiver gets a lot of brownie points for portability/stealthability, plus it's preamp option is handy if you're trying to go super-minimal. And its WAV recordings sound far better than MD. (Though the advent of Hi-MD now makes them fairly equal again).
Having had it about 6 months now, I’ve tried it out in various settings to see how it coped – It’s done pretty well in my opinion. I’ve decided to put together a comprehensive guide for anyone who might be interested in using the record facility on the H Series to make decent live recordings you can listen to at home. I’ll also discuss its shortcomings as a recorder and how best to deal with them.
Main Topics:
- Restrictions
- Deck Settings
- File Format
- Microphones & Power
- Higher Budget Mics
- Soundboard Patching vs Mic Recording
- The Glitch (And How To Cope With It)
- Distortion