New Field Recorder day!
I've been getting good results with my little Sony PCM-M10 but really wanted the extra flexibility of being able to use external mics so I sold it and bought this:
It's got two pairs of built in mics (wide omni and XY cardioid), 4 external inputs (2 XLR/TRS combo inputs and 1 stereo minijack) and can record up to 6 tracks at a time using any combination of inputs. The interface is fairly easy to use and most features are accessed via the touchscreen display (!) but it also has great big knobs for controlling input levels.
First impressions are relatively favourable- the stereo image of the XY mics seems to be pretty good and the preamps seem pretty quiet but the true test will be recording quiet ambiences. I'll be using it for recording band practices/gigs as well as sound effects and ambiences for the TV shows and films that I work on as part of my day job. The one major down side is that it's huge. The Sony I had was only a bit bigger than a small smart phone so the loss of convenience is a bit of a bummer. I'm sure I'll get over that when I plug in my stereo ribbon mic rig though!
I'll be adding a proper windsheild next (see afro below) and will eventually get a shotgun mic in a blimp for recording spot effects (or an M/S rig if I can stretch that far).
