Best Solid State Recorders

The recent launch of the Marantz PMD620 Digital Audio Recorder announced Marantz entry into the world of entry level digital recorders. I say entry, because that's what it is compared to the rest of the Marantz Digital range from the PMD660 through to the PMD670 and its big brother the PMD671.

As a high performance handheld digital recorder the Marantz PMD620 records to SD flashcard media in either PCM (.WAV) or MP3 audio formats. Coming in at the miniscule size of 62 x 102 x 25 mm the PMD620 is small enough to take anywhere.

Remember those Sony ECM-MS907 digital microphones that you had to carry about? Well worry about them no more as there's no real need for a microphone as its inbuilt stereo condenser microphone offers easy point and shoot digital recording. Obviously, if you're going for true high quality recording, which this unit is more than capable of - then its best to use an external microphone.

Its worth noting that Jeff Towne at Transom says in his review that the PMD620 sounds better when recording with an external microphone than any other low-cost recorder he's tried - going by his site I take that to mean the Zoom H2, Edirol R-09, M-Audio MicroTrack II, Zoom H-4, and possibly even the legendary Marantz PMD660, which is the machine that arguably pretty much set the initial standards for digital audio field recording units.

Compact isn't the word for the Tascam DR-1 - ultra compact is more like it. It's a high end SD solid state recorder - yet still high end.

I'd say one of the most unique features about the Tascam DR-1 is its variable angle built in stereo condenser microphone mechanism. This allows the recorder to pretty much record from any angle. Whilst the mic setup offers more than suitable recordings - don't worry, an external microphone can still be used.

The DR-1 uses SD cards, and is compatible with SD HC up to 64GB. It is also one of the few machines to come with a 1GB SD Card as standard.

Auto gain control and analog limiting offer easy setup for anyone, regardless of your level of expertise, and a low-frequency cutoff built into the Tascam DR-1 helps eliminate handling or wind noise when you're doing true field recording.

In summary, the Tascam DR-1 offers fantastic features for the money involved (sub £200). To highlight this, it's probably worthwhile highlighting that the DR-1 also offers a very useful feature for home recording enthusiasts - the ability to overdub on top of existing tracks, as well as the ability to remove vocal lines from tracks recorded in the studio in order to record your own vocals on top (in case you need practice!)

The Edirol R-09HR was introduced in April 2008 as a development on the Edirol R-09 Solid State recorder and is very much considered the flagship of Edirol's R-series of solid state recorders.

Similar to some of the other recorders on this page, it has an integrated stereo condenser microphone. The integrated speaker on the R-09HR means you can immediately replay recordings you've made. It's obviously more of a preview speaker, than suitable playback quality - but it does what it says on the tin admirably.

The Edirol R-09HR will record at 44.1 and 48 kHz bitrates on MP3 in addition to 44.1 to 96 kHz on WAVE.

What about flash media then? The R-09HR records onto an SD or SDHC card. On an 8GB card that allows for approximately 220 minutes recording time in WAVE at 24 bit/96 kHz.

A nice touch on the Edirol R-09HR is that it also comes with a wireless remote controller. The unit also offers extremely useful features like speed control, variable low-cut filter, limiter, A-B repeat, record pause, time and date stamping, power save and more.

So you're probably asking whats the difference between the Edirol R-09HR and the R-09? Well, amongst other things, it's slightly taller than its predecessor and features a new rubberized-grip body. Improvements have also been made on the power front with the battery-powered R-09HR allowing over 6 hours of recording on Alkaline batteries, and over 8 hours of recording with NiMH rechargeable batteries.

So, whats different between the M-Audio Microtrack II Solid State Recorder and the original M-Audio Microtrack?

In looks terms, not much. The Microtrack II is a slightly darker colour, which isn't a bad thing - the main plus being that it has rubber edging which makes handling and gripping the unit a bit easier.

The M-Audio Microtrack II is easier to use than the first version with red and green lights making level setting much easier. The record button can also be used as a record pause button, which means no more annoyance with a new split track being created every time you have to stop.

Big downsides to the Microtrack II include difficulties when trying to mount the unit on a mic stand - you just can't! The battery also can't be changed by the user - but it does offer a reasonable 4 hour life, although this isn't fantastic going by the other offerings in the solid state recorder marketplace today.

It doesn't come with a CF card in the box, but a lot of retailers will offer this as an inclusive deal package. Alternatively, you might just want to consider some other models which come with a card as standard.

However, the M-Audio Microtrack II Solid State Recorder does come with a lot of plus points in the box, including a stereo 'T' microphone, which some afficionado's may prefer to the inbuilt versions on so many other units now. Personally, this isn't a big issue for me, as the quality of the inbuilt microphones more than suffices. I suppose it just depends what you're looking for.