I was curious to know what you all use to record practice sessions.

What do you all think about this device?
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/MicroTrack2496-main.html

hey Jarrod,

i go straight to the laptop. then burn the disk to hand out...

the drag-n-drop file transfer looks nice tho... essential really.

g

I've found these oldschool tapedecks that can be had at any thriftshop for 50 cents actually make decent recordings just for "scratchpad" work. You just hit record and the mic usually provides a pretty good balance. Not "good" recordings by any strech of the imagination but good enough to record jams and listen back to what you did. Cheap and easy... the way i like it.

I use a similar tape deck, or even a cheaper one. You can get those lecture ones for 10 bucks: they're the size of a walkman and you can even attach mics to them if you want. It's not good enough to release or anything, but it helps you to hear whole songs and be able to step back from them, see any problems or missing stuff. The mics are better than you might think on those things. It's all about where you put it in the room. I keep the recorder and a notebook with me at all times.

At home, sometimes I get more fancy by running this little six channel mixer into my computer with a few mics and a few line-ins. Run it into Vegas or whatever. It cost practically nothing. Not a hell of a lot better than the tape deck, but it helps with drums and vocals.

If I were going to buy something as expensive as that micro track thing (which does look cool; 1/4 inputs and shit) I might instead just book some cheap recording time or buy a four track or something else used. I'd wait and see if those things come down in price. You can get a TON of used stuff for the price of that one piece. It wouldn't look as cool...

pzm's and an old tape deck with 1/4" ins works amazingly well.

imho, everybody should have a pair of pzm's 'cause dammit, they're cool.

radio shack used to seller some killer crown pzm's re-packaged with the 'realistic' label.

the crown pzms totally rock--every practice space should have them!!! I once recorded all the drums for a record using only pzms--mounted on pieces of plywood.....