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I currently own a Zoom H1 Portable Recorder and wondered if that it would be adequate for recording percussion sounds, or would a mid range condenser be better suited? Is there any difference between a portable recorder and microphone in terms of quality? Not been able to find much out online about this, i'm guessing they're both the same as they're both microphones at the end of the day.

Cheers in advance!

I did reply to this on my Android phone earlier but it seems like it didn't post...

Anyway, I don't think you could close mic drums with the Zoom. Might be good for room mic'ing. In the absence of data you're just going to have to try them yourself.

I've recorded lots of percussive sounds and single hits from percussion instruments (no rhythm or patterns, just lots of different hits). That usually works out fine and you can check your recordings pretty easily as I just plug the headphone out into my mixer and I can get playback on my monitors w/o transferring files.

But test recordings just gave me a thought, going to have to record things in different rooms now : )

I've also recorded synth sounds off my monitors with a field recorder and blended that with the original.

I have a Zoom, tried to mic my drums with it a few days ago. I guess if I had protected it more it could have worked but now it sounded terrible. I then recorded from à few meters away while my friend hit the drums, it worked but there were lots of reverb and echo and that.

We just didn't take it seriously enough, I guess.

Cheers for the reponses! I guess it wouldn't be great for close mic'ing a drum kit. It's always been find at recording ambient noises and field recordings however. I guess it depends on what you're recording anyhow.

Maybe as an overhead or room mic, but for close micing I would suggest a dynamic mic.

No mic is the same. A portable recorder tries to do the whole thing in a handy package which means
it won't be as good as a pair of u87 and a nice pre-amp of course

Some points of consideration before buying a mic:
-Sound source
-Budget
-Condenser/dynamic, phantom/no phantom

You basically can't go wrong with buying an sm57 as a first mic. It's cheap, it's a dynamic, it's versatile and it's just good.
But in the end if it's just for recording some samples you might as well use a handrec.