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Thread: Looking for a good pocket recorder and small keyboard...

  1. #1

    Default Looking for a good pocket recorder and small keyboard...

    I'm trying to improve my practice game. I know I don't record myself enough and want to make it as easy as possible. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good pocket recorder?

    Also, I feel like a small electronic piano would come in handy for working out melodies, transcriptions etc. Does anyone have a small keyboard that they like?

  2. #2
    Registered User John Kelly's Avatar
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    Default Re: Looking for a good pocket recorder and small keyboard...

    Have a look at the Zoom and Tascam ranges. I use the Tascam DR-05 for a lot of my stuff now and have found it easy to use and offering very high quality. You can record in wav format or in mp3 format and the files are easilt transferred to your pc or laptop for further processing should you wish. The Tascam lets you listen through headphones and it has a tiny speaker as well, but I use a bluetooth/usb external self-powered speaker for listening as it offers much better qualityconnrcts from the Tascam's line out socket via a 3.5mm lead.

    I believe that the Zoom range offers equally good facilities and quality but I have not used any of their recorders so cannot comment.

    As far as keyboards are concerned, I have a couple of M-Audio midi devices, one the Oxygen 8 V2 which has 25 keys and the other a KeyRig 49. Both are used with my computer and DAW (REAPER) as they do not have any in-built sounds, but load in their sounds from vst effects. Maybe you want one with its own sounds built in?
    I'm playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order. - Eric Morecambe

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  3. #3

    Default Re: Looking for a good pocket recorder and small keyboard...

    Hi Dad...if you have a smart phone use the voice memos feature, I do this often when I just want to record something short or listen to my playing and then delete it. If you have a tablet there are some good recording apps out there, I use Recorder Plus on my iPad and it's pretty good and easy to share files with, etc.

    That said I have a Tascam 07 from a few years ago that is great and easy to use (the DR05 is a great one too) but the playback doesn't sound good so I have to upload mp3s (easy) and listen that way so it doesn't work for me to use as a quick spot check recorder just to see if I don't suck playing something.

    Last, can't help with the keyboard. I thought of that a few years ago but decided against getting one and I just work out things on the mando...YMMV.

    Have fun!
    Northfield F5M #268, AT02 #7

  4. #4
    Registered User treidm's Avatar
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    Default Re: Looking for a good pocket recorder and small keyboard...

    Tascam DR-40
    Too many keyboards to mention...
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    2011 Black A5 (#9) Mandolin
    1952 Gibson A-40N Mandolin
    1924 Gibson TB-1 Trapdoor Tenor Banjo
    1975 Gibson MK-35 Hybrid Braced Dreadnought Guitar
    1993 Washburn M3 SW/TS F-Style Mandolin
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    1997 Seagull S6 Dreadnought Guitar
    1970's Kay KB-52 5-String Banjo
    1960's Pirles 4-String Tenor Banjo

  5. #5

    Default Re: Looking for a good pocket recorder and small keyboard...

    How small does the keyboard need to be? You can get fairly large 76 key Yamahas for not very much, smaller ones for less than that.

  6. #6
    Spencer Sorenson Spencer's Avatar
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    Default Re: Looking for a good pocket recorder and small keyboard...

    Quote Originally Posted by John Kelly View Post

    I believe that the Zoom range offers equally good facilities and quality but I have not used any of their recorders so cannot comment.
    I have a Zoom H4 and it works very well, is versatile and easy to use. I'm sure either that or a Tascam would be fine.

    Spencer

  7. #7

    Default Re: Looking for a good pocket recorder and small keyboard...

    Thanks for all the great input! I'm torn between getting a full-sized keyboard with weighted keys and a decent piano sound or a small MIDI control just for noodling. I have two young kids so I'm leaning towards full-sized so that they can play it whenever.

    On the recorder front, I'll pick a Zoom or Tascam and call it good.

  8. #8
    Confused... or?
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    Default Re: Looking for a good pocket recorder and small keyboard...

    Quote Originally Posted by dadsaster View Post
    ... torn between getting a full-sized keyboard with weighted keys ...
    FWIW, when I shattered my right humerus in '07 (6 months out of work, 4 months not driving, 18 months w/out guitar, BUT it got me into mandolin!), it was a friend's $1 yard-sale-special 1st-gen Casio keyboard (2 1/2 octaves?) that kept me sane and let me work thru (left hand only!) "The Idoit's Guide to Music Theory".

    Since then, a Yahama 61-key (5 octaves) w/ "semi-weighted" keys and a vast array of sounds has been wonderful to have around. I rarely need more than 3 octaves anyway (just like guitar or mando) and, on a Yahama 400-level guy, the keys FEEL weighted but aren't, AND their response changes based on the sound selected. For example, faster/harder makes a piano sound louder, but an organ sound not, just as on the real instrumment. I've really enjopyed it!
    - Ed

    "Then one day we weren't as young as before
    Our mistakes weren't quite so easy to undo
    But by all those roads, my friend, we've travelled down
    I'm a better man for just the knowin' of you."
    - Ian Tyson

  9. #9
    Gibson F5L Gibson A5L
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    Default Re: Looking for a good pocket recorder and small keyboard...

    Of keyboards I know next to nothing. Recorders I use a Tascam DR-40 and it dose more than I need it to. The Zoom gets a lot of good reviews here and on other sites. The "big" thing is rechargeable versus replaceable batteries. Each has it's good points and bad. But do be aware of it. R/
    I love hanging out with mandolin nerds . . . . . Thanks peeps ...

  10. #10
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    Default Re: Looking for a good pocket recorder and small keyboard...

    I have a Tascam DR-05 and I find it easy to use and works extremely well. It was a gift from a fellow Café member, Thanks "D".

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