Hi there!
I’d like to buy field recorder and have narrowed down the list to Olympus LS-p4 and Sony PCM-A10. This would be a first one for me, I know only what I read on the Internet in past few days. I know that with this recorder I want to:
- EDC and travel with it
- record mainly short snaps (~5 min) for light postprocessing and cutting in Audacity
- record Digitakt jams
The smaller, the better, tech junk piles up easily. Ideally I want to fit it in a fanny pack with my phone and wallet or a backpack phone pocket.
I suspect the quality will be good for my needs in both cases, my question would be rather if any of these recorders miss a key feature that would block me from using it as I intend? Would you rather recommend other field recorder?
I use a Tascam DR-05, which looks to be similar to the other choices you mentioned. I can’t speak to those, but the DR-05 is great, runs off batteries, small, easy to use.
My tip: just make sure to get a mic windshield for whatever recorder you get (if it doesn’t come with one already)
2 Likes
I have a Tascam DR05. Been using it for years. I do field recordings with it (home made dead cat for the on board stereo mics) and sometimes use a mono lav mic ( for super low noise recordings).
I also record tracks with it direct from the mixer. Very good little recorder.
2 Likes
I’ve been using an Olympus LS-10 for years, and I’m happy with it. The P4 looks to be the updated version.
1 Like
@spikysimon It was on the list for a long time. I heard that these new Tascams have problem with radio interference and my concern is that this would be present too often in the recording, as I live near fairly big railway station.
@Microtribe I was considering DR-05X or H1n but work bonus is going to me and I might have a bit bigger budget. As for the wind protection, Sony comes with foam socket, Olympus requires separate dead cat and brings the prices of the full sets much closer together.
@Kpucski so this would be one voice for Oly
@pasquada this thing is huge af and also the most expensive. While I might be able to somehow persuade myself that I absolutely need H6 in my life because of features, I would leave it at home more often than take it because of how gigantic it is.
An update: bought the Sony PCM A-10. Reason? There were more sound comparisons on the youtube, and for the way I intend to use it, rechargeable battery and inner 16 GB make a lot of sense.
Will try to write about my experiences in like 3 months, feel free to HMU if I’ll miss the date.
I know the 3 months didn’t pass yet 
but I’m very curious to hear about your experience with this recorder, as I’m considering to get it.
I’d be using it as my first field recorder, I sometimes record nature sounds just for the sake of it (i.e. from places that are particularly meaningful to me – like my native village sounds during a summer night in Sardinia, Italy) and other times, I record ambient sounds to use with some simple videos I put together (i.e. I record myself being out taking pictures).
The Zoom H1n is a contender, so I was curious to know if anybody had experience with both as well.
I also thought to go all-in and get a Sony PCM-D100, but that seems to be my sense of inadequacy speaking, as if getting a gorgeous tool would somehow compensate for my lack of expertise. I don’t know… The compact size is probably of more value in my situation, as I’ll be using it more, and improve my skills.
I sometimes think the size issue of recorders can be a moot point.
Personally i’d get the most versatile, best sounding recorder that i could afford. Something to grow into. On top of that, choice of mics would be more important.
When in stock, LOM sell some relatively cheap but great mics.
I agree. The ‘size’ issue is quite subjective, I should have probably clarified that I’m worried I would probably leave a bigger recorder at home more often than not, with the consequence of not using it as much as I’d need to get better at recording sounds.
Thanks for mentioning the LOM microphones. I subscribed to their back-in-stock alert a couple of weeks ago. It is indeed how I intended to use the recorder when sound recording is the main subject of my hike for example.
However, I was hoping that the internal mics of the Sony PCM-A10 would still be a decent backup when I’m out with my camera and I’d recording the ambient sounds for my videos. I noticed that some filmmakers use the Zoom H1n for this purpose, and I was wondering whether the A10 would serve me well in that case.
One could argue: why not getting directly the Zoom then?
Well, I’ve read that with external mics, the A10 outperforms the H1n for nature sounds because of its quieter preamps, so if the internal mics are not worse (ideally are better) than the ones on the H1n, I might have found a small recorder that’s perfect for my purposes.
I hope this clarifies my point and gives a better context to my question.
Do you need the highest quality for Professional Work?
if not Zoom is perfectly fine
If you need to capture the highest quality sounds, Sound Devices or Sony PCM series.
While your point is reasonable and I personally agree with it, my question was a bit more articulated and concerned a comparison between the on-board mics of the H1n and those of the A10.
Do you have any experience in that sense?
I had a Zoom H1N, it does the job, the A10 is the in the same league - the difference is subtle
If you need to capture the highest detail be ready to invest £600-£1000
Hi and welcome to the forum!
I wish I had more info for you, but due to the virus situation, a lot of work and knee injury combo I did not use it as much as I wanted to (sadly, same goes to Digitakt) but I’ll share what I have. I still have to try a to record Digitakt on the PCM-A10, play some songs from it as an old school mp3 player, as well as bluetooth connection capabilities.
My reasoning behind the rechargeable battery and internal memory turned out to be correct for my use cases. Additionally, having a usb connector without needing an extra cable is useful. This thing is tiny, I often keep it in my bag’s front pocket or when I’m biking I put it in into a fanny pack, so I have an easy access. H1n seems to be similar, but it has a fairly big mic protector which adds the bulk.
I live near a busy street and I have limited options of recording clear samples at home, so I’ve recorded some outside and cut them in Audacity, then played around with them in Digitakt - quality is great all worked out. One con that I’ve found is that there is no dead cat dedicated for this recorder and I had to guesstimate which of available ones to take; took a little bit too big, but it works. Also dead cat covers the top portion of the device, where clipping warning light is placed. It is still big steps away from recording soudns to fill a whole piece of music with samples from a certain location but I’m working on a track with some recordings, when time allows. H1n would probably serve me well, with PCM you have less noisy background, boader recorded frequency spectrum (from what I could find on YT), two mic settings (X/Y and A/B) and even smaller size than H1n.
1 Like
Thank you for your thorough reply. I’m glad to hear the device is working well for you.
I might finally pull the trigger on this one.
Good luck with your projects (looking forward to listening to something, whenever ready) and best wishes for a speedy recovery with your knee injury!
1 Like