Re: [Harp-L] recording your own practices

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Nick Kirkes" wrote:

<I've been wanting to start recording my own practices (and lessons that I
<take) but I haven't been able to decide on the type of device to use.  I
<tried using a standard tape recorder, but the recording quality was so bad
<that I took it back. 

Absolutely true that recording practice sessions is very valuable.  Dunno why a standard tape recorder shouldn't be good enough.  I use a Radio Shack cassette recorder with a builtin mic.  It's portable and inexpensive, and certainly good enough for recording practice sessions and fleeting ideas that would otherwise be lost.  For the latter in particular, you want something that starts up instantly and works reliably.

If you want high quality recordings from a practice sessions, a mini disk will certainly work, at about 10 times the price of the cassette recorder.   You might also consider one of the portable recording studios offered by Zoom (PS02 and PS04), Korg, and Tascam.  These provide bass and rhythm accompaniment as well as recording with a builtin mic, and so can be more fun for the player, at prices ranging from $200-400.

But again, a cassette recorder works really well for this stuff.  If you want higher quality recording, maybe what you want is a real recording system, as opposed to something that will be useful for recording practice sessions.  That opens up an entirely different discussion.

Rgeards, Richard Hunter