Regardless of your recording needs, portable digital recorders  will definitely kick your recording quality up many notches.

In the last couple of years advancements in digital recorders have made it easier than ever to just record, quickly transport, download and listen.  It’s that simple.

Usually there’s two camps that are in search of a good digital recorders.  For music and voice.  For instance musicians or music fans will be interested in quality recording of instruments.  to capture as much of the original source as possible.

With voice it can be anywhere between interviews, such as reporter to university students for class.  there are other uses like personal for phone calls and memory tasks as grocery lists.

So whatever group you fall in the good news is today you can get incredible recording quality for less money that dat and cd recording decks of only a few years ago.

Olympus LS-10

In searching for the right digital recorder for you, there will be certain features to look for.

Are you going to need external mic hook ups or will the onboard mics be good enough?  Do you want 2 mics on top which is becoming the norm really for noise cancellation.

How much memory time will you need.  How many sound quality setting will you need.  these are usually a trade off  between recording time and fidelity,  Better quality results in shorter recording time because of the demand of computing power of the unit.

Regardless of all these features the sound quality of even the cheapest recorder is superior the decks of not too long ago.

Here’s one by Tascam from the NAMM show. Basically NAMM is where all the manufacturers show their products to buyers for music and audio stores. I’ve attended several in the past and always left with a list of new products to buy.

Id have noticed that some units are a snap to interface with your computer for quick file transfer and settings while others require proprietary software or just a bit cumbersome.  Again this will depend on your computing ability, some people can figure anything out on the computer given enough time and other people will get annoyed if something isn’t simple to use.

Here’s a simple recorder that gives a good shot of the USB cable. This one would work for school.

I’ve been partial to Olympus for years because the models I’ve used were built real well. Actually Olympus uses metal and the switches and programming were relatively simple and intuitive.   Great audio recording quality and you can ask any journalist what their favorite brand is and Olympus would come up in the conversation.

Yamaha also builds quality equipment that I’ve used over the years:

With that said, Sony makes great devices too and i would dare say that Sony knows a thing or two about audio quality so this is another brand to look into.

I hear good things from zoom especially from musicians that are used to their other audio offerings.

With audio digital recorders, are like any other electronic product usually, the more you can spend the better quality y you’re going to get.  So it gets back to what you want the recorder to do.  If capturing speech is your priority then almost all of the offering will suffice.

If capturing music is your intention then it will definitely be what you can spend will determine the quality.

Now for some fine print to look for in finding y our recorder.

What is the signal to noise ratio?  I would say  you want at least in the -90db range if possible

How much onboard memory is supplied?  1 gig, 2 gig, 3 gig, 4 gig or more?   Remember,  the quality of the recording will eat the recording time.

USB hook up?  is it easy to get to, do they supply a usb cord for easy hook up.(most do)

what formats are used for the recording files? wav, mp3, their own?

How many microphones?  I would say 2 for music is a must

How long is the battery life?  10-12 hours for top quality recordings is good.

Is there a built in compressor/limiter and what is the quality of this?

Frequency response is for the more advanced, since you have a small mic, the best low end is good to find if music is being recorded.

And last but not least, what kind of case is it?  Metal or plastic, in the long run this can make a difference.

Now the above info is for the hard core audio buff,  if you just need something for school then just about anything on the market now that is a digital recorder will work for class.