My old Olympus digi-recorder has struggled on occasion in such circumstances. A couple of speeches at a recent event I covered, when I listened back after to transcribe them, were so badly captured that they were practically useless. Yet at the event, I had placed myself close to the presenters’ lectern, and close to the PA speakers.

So I’m looking for something new, and was thinking of the Zoom H2

But I would welcome any recommendations based on journalists’ experiences with any machines?

for some reason my responses seem to disappear into the ether … there is a new very small Marantz which is excellent quality and has a great inbuilt microphone.

Your blog is a great resource and I have added it to our links

Benjamin

The Marantz yields excellent quality, I’m told, but it’s large, heavy, and VERY expensive, yes?

I’m a BBC Radio producer and have tested most of the products mentioned and even recorded BBC documentaries on the Edirol.

The best little machine though is the Marantz … it oozes quality. I’m not a big fan of the H2 but its adequate for most things.

The audio for this sideshow was recorded on the Marantz http://duckrabbit.info/blog/?page_id=74

Cheers
Benjamin

ALso, I recently did some recording over Skype with Call Recorder. I recorded video of myself in Florida and my a professor in Lubin, Poland. See the link:http://www.jannetwalsh.com/Site/Blog/B0A1FFEE-04EF-4930-B8F6-A1D8844B276B.html

Here is a recording I did also over Skype with Call Recorder. I was in Florida and interview someone in Rome talking on their cell phone about his visit with the Pope! Tell me what you think of the quality! See here – http://www.jannetwalsh.com/Site/Blog/768BE73B-D0C8-4802-87C6-CFDA54871474.html

Thanks,
Jannet

When I started out in the 1960′s I used a Uher Report 4000. Since then I have owned a Nagra, a couple of Teac decks, some Sony’s and a Revox or two. Without exception these machines cost at least ten times the price of the H2. And a dollar was a little harder to come by. At any given time my recording equipment generally exceeded the value of my car. Every microphone I ever bought cost more than the H2.

The H2 is the only recorder I have now and I love it.