Audio Recorders are the best to check your voice and actually improve your production but for that improvisation, it should be a good kind of device that you’re recording your voice into. There’s no doubt that all the recorders work equally, of course not!

The market is flooded with thousands of audio recorders. But obviously, they all can’t be the same, right? If one of them has this feature, the other one may not have this but can have even more good than that. So, this is not the case at all that all the recorders work equivalent to each other.

You must have heard people saying that no matter how much you invest in a watch, how expensive it will be, but ultimately it’s gonna tell you the same time. There are many people who have this thing in their mind and not just only for one thing but for all other things, for all other gadgets, or I must say for all the expenses, hahaha! This watch is just a small example.

Once you’ll be gone through this quick guide, you’ll get to know all the pros and cons and it will be easy for you to get the one that you’re looking for as per your requirements, your budget, and convenience.

Getting a good quality portable audio recorder can literally be something life-changing for you. There are things that really are of no use to the common people but for the artists, these things matter a lot. The value of art can be understood at its best by an artist only.

So, If you’re confused about how your voice actually sounds or whatever like that, you just need to own a good audio recorder and that’s it. This is the best way to get to know your voice quality and hence making changes, getting improvisations accordingly.

What’s the Need for a Good Audio Recorder?

So, here’s the question now, what’s actually the need to invest this much in the audio recorders? Well! it’s the basic necessity for any musician, any professional, or any hobbyist. obviously, their life is just nothing, meaningless without having an audio recorder.

There are many like countless audio recorders that you can find in the market and undoubtedly, all these vary in terms of feature sets, specifications, designations, and all other aspects.

Also, it all depends on your requirement that you want to opt the one. Well! There are many audio recorders that come with built-in mics then some are the ones that can record the recordings directly to the internal memory and some with no feature to directly save the recordings to the internal flash memory rather they save the recordings to the external memory. So, it’s completely your choice.

“Analyse your Needs”~

The above explained is something very basic. That is there keeping a general perspective in mind for all. But yes, everybody has their own requirements, a different mindset, a different perspective, a completely different thought process.

So, basically what I’m trying to convey is just go and analyze what you actually want when you going to buy an audio recorder, what are your requirements exactly, like

• The type of content you want to record?
• Do you need an in-built microphone or without a microphone too you can manage?
• Will you be requiring the use of the external microphone, the inputs for the external microphone?
• You wanna record a DSLR video or normal videos?
• You require something for the camera-mountable
• Requires a built-in mic along with an external mic
• If you want something like shotgun or lavalier?

“Other Tips”~

Audio recorders have been very popular for ages and they will always be in the long run as the music industry is not gonna go anywhere else. It will be here only and I think there would be nobody who does not love to listen to music.

Music can literally change your entire mood in seconds. No matter how sad your mood is, no matter how happy you already are, it’s always incomplete without music. I mean music freshens you up, can cheer you up, can double your happiness if you already are.

Music is the best therapy and at the same time the huge love language too. When you’re sad, a good song can turn up your mood. When you’re happy you go out to party and there are no parties without music.

And, ultimately, it all depends on the one who sings, the singer, the performer. By singer, I’m not pointing those celebrities singers only but there are singers who are not that famous but their voice is literally mesmerizing.

There are people who find it actually difficult to get themselves a good audio recorder. But now you’re at the right place and I’m sure enough that this quick guide will help you get the best one as per your requirement and convenience.

With us it’s actually simple. All you need is just to answer a few questions like why you need the audio recorder, what is exactly the requirement, what is the content type that you wanna record, and many more like this only just for the requirement analysis.

As the craze of electronic music is getting high by time, more and more people are bending towards this genre of music, and many among them are hell-bent on creating new numbers.

The audio recorders were always been the big thing in the audio industry but as we all are aware the pace with which the technology is raising its standards and setting its milestone with every passing day, definitely all the sectors are also evolving simultaneously.

You know what, it was Edison who created the phonograph cylinder in the 19th century and it was the first audio recorder. And obviously, whenever there’s a creation to something new, it keeps on evolving with time and that’s what exactly happened with this phonograph too. It keeps on going through modifications and today, there are a thousand of kinds of audio recorders in the market.

5 Best Portable Audio Recorders for Musicians

This guide will surely get you some really good audio recorders to buy, which can give you the optimum performance. However, the list is not on the basis of rankings as the requirements and budget vary from person to person. The audio recorders here are the best in price and value for money.

1. Zoom H6 Six-Track Portable Recorder
2. Sound Devices MixPre-3 II Portable Multichannel Audio Recorder
3. Tascam DP-006 Digital Portastudio Multitrack Recorder
4. Zoom H4N Pro Digital Multitrack Recorder
5. Tascam DR-05X Stereo Portable Digital Recorder

1.Zoom H6 6-Track Portable Recorder

Zoom H6 6-Track Recorder is known for delivering exceptional audio quality. The build quality of the recorder is pretty good. It’s available on Amazon at a price value of $320. There are variations in the recorder-

• H6 (pre-2020 Model)
• H6 All Black (2020 Model)

The hardware interface of the audio recorder uses the USB 2.0 jack. The supported media format is MP3 Audio and WAV. It contains a 2.5mm headphone jack for connectivity. The exact dimensions of the audio recorder is 3.06 x 1.88 x 6.02 inches.

The quality of the sound it delivers is indeed remarkable. At a specific time, the audio recorder can record a recording of more than 2 hours. The best feature of Zoom H6 is its interchangeable mic capsules.

Pros-

• Mind-blowing sound quality
• Interchangeable mic capsules- for mid-side and XY
• Build quality is good

Cons-

• Can be difficult to operate for a newbie
• Low storage capacity

2.Sound Devices MixPre-3 II Portable Multichannel Audio Recorder

Sound Devices MixPre-3 II portable multichannel audio recorder is available on Amazon at a price value of $710. There’s no doubt that the brand is not well-known to many but the products they’ve launched so far in the market are remarkable like MixPre-6, it has been one of the best launches from Sound Devices.

And, now it’s Sound Devices MixPre-3, the audio recorder can operate using batteries, mains power, or even using your computer via USB. It’s a 5-track audio recorder with a high-end build.

One of the attractive features of this audio recorder is its Iso Mode that is capable to record 3 auxiliary inputs at a sample rate of 96kHz.

Pros-

• You can record using 3 different channels
• USB interface
• It comes with an ASIO driver to have compatibility with Windows OS
• User friendly; Easy to operate

Cons-

• You cannot pre-record with Sound Devices Mix Pre-3

3.Tascam DP-006 Digital Portastudio Multitrack Recorder

Tascam DP-006 is available on Amazon at a price value of $149. This audio recorder comes in multicolor and has a built-in microphone. The exact dimensions of the Tascam DP-006 is 9 x 6 x 3 inches. It has a headphone jack of 2.5mm and has wired connectivity.

The Tascam DP-006 digital portastudio multitrack recorder is quite light in weight and it actually weighs only 1.83 pounds.

With this Tascam DP-006 audio recorder, you will get 6 tracks recording i.e. 2 mono tracks, 2 mono switchable tracks, and 2 stereo switchable tracks. The recorder can record the CD-quality recording up to 16bit/44.1kHz.

Also, you can record two tracks simultaneously i.e. among the 6 recording tracks available, you can use any of the two at one time. The Tascam DP-006 operates on batteries and it’s so slim and thin that it can come into your bag so easily and you can carry it anytime, anywhere as per your convenience.

Pros-

• To give a professional like vibe, it can even be mounted on a tripod
• The high-quality omnidirectional condenser that enhances the overall audio recorder experience
• It has a built-in mic too
• It features 2 input jacks and you can connect the external instruments hassle-free

Cons-

• It doesn’t contain dynamics for mixing
• Gets slow sometimes

4.Zoom H4N Pro Digital Multitrack Recorder

If the above-mentioned Zoom H6 is something you feel is not affordable, then here comes another audio recorder from the Zoom only and this is comparatively less in price and offers high affordability.

Since it’s low in price as compared to the Zoom H6, the audio recorder indeed has not that feature set that the other one has but at last what matters? the audio quality, it’s actually commendable. There’s no compromise in the audio quality.

This audio recorder is even many used by many of the filmmakers and podcasters.

Also, the Zoom H4N has the pre-record feature too that is not available in many models even with a higher price too. The market is literally flooded with thousands of audio recorders and there’s a thing that if one product has this feature, the other one would be having that feature, so nothing is perfect actually. It’s all about one’s own features.

Pros-

• Unidirectional XY mic
• The depth and the clarity in the sound is amazing
• It has 4-track recordings
• Affordable
• XLR/TRS inputs

Cons-

• Less versatility
• Low storage

5.Tascam DR-05X Stereo Portable Digital Recorder

Tascam DR-05X portable digital recorder is available on Amazon at a price value of $100. This model is actually cheaper than the one mentioned above on the list.

So, If you can adjust up with the up-down of around $10-$20, then surely it won’t bother you buying that one rather than the this one. But to be honest, price is not the matter actually, it’s all about the audio quality and all these listed products are here in the Top 5 audio recorders just because of the quality.

I agree, ‘the more the price, the more the feature set’ but in all these audio recorders, there’s something constant and that’s the audio quality. Surely, the features will vary, some of them have a high feature set while some with low but there’s no compromise with the audio quality.

Pros-

• USB 2.0
• 16GB memory storage
• The exact dimension- 7.48 x 2.36 x 1.18 inches
• It weighs only 0.3grams
• Ensures portability

Summing Up

At last, I just like to clear the myth that if you spend more money, you will get higher quality. To be honest, this is not the case at all. It’s all about the requirement. Let’s have some situations-

If you want a high-end quality video like for a short-film, for an interview, or a song, you definitely would require a high-quality expensive audio recorder with a high feature set but on the other hand, if you want to have a normal rehearsal recording or voice memo kind of thing, then an audio recorder with a low feature set will also work.