Advice to record rehearsals

darius

I'd like a cheap and easy way to record our band's weekly 2hr practice sessions.
I don't need high quality, but I do need to hear all of the drum/bass/guitar/guitar/vocal elements.
We practice in a sound proofed rehearsal space, at full gig volume.
Ideally I want to stick a mic in the middle of the room and plug it into a magic box, press record and 2hrs later press stop.
I would store everything and go work on any of the good bits (ideas, improvements etc.) in the days and weeks.

What do people use for similar?

guitarfishbay

Zoom do good handheld recorders.

The H1 is fine for this application and can handle a loud rock band in a small room.

kjdowd

Loads of good handheld records with good mics on them. Zoom is good, Tascam even better. I use Tascam DR-44WL for rehearsal recording and it's fantastic.

PolarityMan

i have a little zoom...its great

darius

Excellent, thanks - just what I was looking for.

meltedbuzzbox

I have had great results with the tascam and the zoom units. 

Its all about where you position the unit. 

EdGrip

I've got a Zoom H4n, they're always available used. Loads of good little recorders like that available now. Lots of them have XLR inputs so you can plumb the vocals in separately if you need to.

english_bob

We've got some perfectly useable recordings from our bass player's iPhone, which normally sits on a chair a little away from everyone's amps. They're not broadcast quality but everything's clear enough for "homework" purposes.

I'd try that before you fork out a ton for a handheld recorder.