PORTABLE HAND-HELD MULTITRACK RECORDERS
DIGITAL ONLY REVIEW > ReCoRdeR Roundup
BY JAMES ROTONDI
While much of the buzz in the mobile recording market of late has revolved around iPhones and iPads [see our cover story,
“iPhone Recording App Roundup,” April 2012], portable stand-alone
multitrack devices have quietly gotten better and better, while offering
a more stable and arguably higher-performance platform than their
smart-phone counterparts. What’s more, the field is awesomely varied:
Some devices, like the Korg SOS, combine multitracking with onboard
effects and jamming tools, while others, like the Olympus LS- 100, add
multitrack options to their solid footing as pro field recorders.
In this roundup, we’ll look at the Korg and Olympus units, as
well as the latest incarnations of two of the most popular devices
in this category—Zoom’s feature-rich H4N and Boss’ smartly
designed Micro BR, both of which boast amp and pedal mod-
els, as well as worthy master effects. Finally, we’ll catch up with
home-recording pioneers Tascam, and their simple, classic-looking
DP-004. In every case, you’ll encounter advantages that these dedi-
cated units have over iPhone or iPad setups, including vastly longer
battery life, quality built-in microphones, better output levels, inde-
pendent level controls, slick ergonomics, USB ports for connection
to a computer, up to 24-bit/96kHz audio, and expandable storage
capacities by way of SD or Micro SD cards.
KoRg
SOS
Audio Quality
Function/Design
Build
Value
• Light, truly “palm-sized” recorder with
stripped-down menu set.
• “Sound On Sound” overdubbing
makes for unlimited track count.
• Massive range of drum patterns and
amp/effect models.
RATINGS
Korg, SOS, Street: $149, korg.com
Not much bigger than a smartphone,
the Korg SR- 1 SOS ($145, street) combines a light, streamlined physical design
with an inspired concept: Instead of the
typical multitrack system, it “thinks” in
terms of infinite overdubbing—the way
one might approach capturing sound in
a looping environment. With its ramped
profile, the jet-black SOS sits on your
desktop with its front panel at a slight
angle toward you, like a proper mixing desk. And that front panel not only
contains a 1" LED display, but also the
SOS’ built-in stereo microphone and
speakers, along with the main function,
menu, and transport controls. Small pads
on the back panel—which stores the two-AA battery compartment—keep the SOS
from slipping around, while stereo mini
input jacks for mic and line in, a stereo
mini headphone/line out, and a ¼” jack
for guitar can be found on the right
side. A MicroSD card slot and 4.5V
AC jack are on the left.
Much as you might use a tiny
Dictaphone to capture the very first
impulse of a song idea, you can use
the SOS’s built-in mic to capture
that vocal idea in stereo with a qual-
ity reverb, and then throw down
some quick harmony ideas. No
worries if you screw up—the easy
undo function will wipe out as
many past clunkers as you choose
from the arrangement. Using
one of the 200 drum tracks as a
tempo guide, you can also record
guitar with one of the SOS’s 100
amp/effect models. (While overdub-
bing, you can loop subsections of your
song to record over, or simply overdub
to the entire song.) That looping-type
approach adds a certain casual feel to the
SOS, so you may surprise yourself with
adventurous, off-the-cuff stuff that you’d
be unlikely to try in a stiffer recording
environment—and that’s good. For such
a simple device, the SOS does have some-
thing of a learning curve (lots of menus
to master), but once you get the hang of
it, the SOS genuinely cuts the lag time
between inspiration and execution.
