More portability? Recording out in the park? Light weight? Not familiar with the Sony you are talking about but I would suggest a cheap portable MiniDisc recorder/player and a matching cheap stereo condenser microphone. Or try the cheap "tie tac" Microphones at Radio Shaft and get 2. it's amazing what you can accomplish with a little experimentation.

Hmm... I don't know if I would be so willing to stick with everything so "Cheap."

Wakisan -

If you're looking for a pretty decent quality at a very fair price - you're going to want to check out some of the modern solid state recorders. Check out some of the stuff on this site:
http://www.cascademedia.net/categories.asp?catid=94
They have some great devices by M-Audio, Edirol and Marantz that would all serve your purpose. Be sure to look for those which have a built in mic pre with phantom power. This will add to the cost a little, but will be well worth it.

In addition, you'll need a decent microphone. For on-location stuff, you're usually looking for at least a shotgun if not a parabolic array. These can get QUITE expensive. However, there are some affordable but good solutions out there.

Some good solutions for shotguns are:

AKG
Sennheiser
Audix
I think Rode has something like that now.

You'll also need a way to hold it. You can hand hold the mic, but you'll find that there will be a lot of excessive handling noise. A small boom pole (you won't need a 12 foot one... maybe a 2 foot one or so), shockmount and wind-screen.

J.

Cool thanks guys

Cucco- That M-Audio MicroTrack is looking pretty sweet. I'm not so sure about the shotgun mics. I heard of them before and know they are AMAZING but i need a mic thats a bit cheaper. But thanks for that link, ill definetly look into that.

If that M-Audio unit had Time Code or 4 tracks
!!
or both
it would change the location recording landscape

" ... 24-bit/96kHz "
will keep many people happy

I've been using an Apogee Minime and 2 C1000s in X-Y formation. I send the SPDIF from the Minime to a SPDIF/TOSLINK converter then to my MiniDisc recorder. Digital the whole way. The whole set up is battery powered (using a 9.6V RC NiMH battery) and one 9V battery. The results are amazing! It all fits into one slim backpack too.

Not trying to kill the enthusiasm for the MicroTrack, but very few people still has actual experience with them. On taperssection.com a few people has reported a few odds and bits that would make me wait a bit before plunging out the money.

There is one so called 24 bit machine I cannot recommend at all though, the Edirol R1. To my ears it sounds like the noise level is very high on the analog side of things, my guess is that Signal to Noise distance is actually less than 16 bits.

The Edirol R4 on the other hand is a rather nice box. A bit pricey I would say, unless you compare it to other 4 channel alternatives. It does provide 48V phantom, has usable mic pres and can record 4 channels at the same time. (Just check that you get a revised version, some of the early ones had channel 4 phase reversed, I think they did a product callback on that one). In my mind the single really annoying thing about it is that it turns off when you change power supply (say from external power to internal batteries, or vice versa). You have to restart it, losing say 20 seconds of recording.

Gunnar

I looked at the Edriol, nice product but no digital in killed it for me. The MAudio recorder looks nice, I'll follow that one. I've had a hard time finding a portable recorder with a digital input under $600. My MiniDisc is so rock solid and for samples that get mixed into music, the quality is just fine. Even with the MAudio recorder I'd still use my Minime as a preamp because of the soft limit, compression and great preamp. Not to mention the cherry A/D for a portable. Also the Minime runs for several hours on one 9.6V NiMH 1600 MAh battery that can be bought for $15 while phantom powering two mics. The MD recorder runs for about 5 hours in record mode on (2) AA Alkalines. 8-)

I know this thread is more than dead, but I own the unit mentioned above and I have a question as well.

I love my MD recorder EXCEPT it has too small of a screen. The screen size is no problem if you're in a bright lit room but don't expect to see a damn thing on it once you leave that lit room. No backlight. That is really my own complaint. I've recorded at least an hour and a half straight without anything going wrong during the recording. All you have to do is connect the mic, press the record button and the enter button at the same time and you're rockin.
I've used lav mics, shotgun XLR, a little sony single point stereo without any problems. I need some kind of preamp for my lavs when I want to record shows because the line in is not powered and the music isn't quite loud enough for it to record. I recommend minidisc recorders very much.

Here is my question. Anyone ever use the Boss Micro BR four track recorder?
Minidisc is two channel and I want four anyone use it?

I use Boss Micro BR. It is a great four-track recorder. has a big easy to read screen and is very versatible. It has 3 inputs, Guitar Dedicated Input to connect electric guitars, a Stereo Line In for external Plugin Electret Microphones and a built in mono electret microphone. I would say the quality is very good. Check for yourself in http://microrecorders.org/articles/bossmicrobr_review.html, and listen to the sound samples.