Location recording will likely mean one thing to a recording engineer and another to a performer. The type of location recording I'm talking about here is accomplished using a small portable device to record your performance, sort of an "on the fly" recording procedure.

Recording your performance can be useful for a musician in several ways. A recording can help you better judge how you are truly sounding to an audience. Listening to a recording of your performance can help you determine how you might improve your performance skills. A recording can also serve as a record of the pieces you played at a particular venue. Although usually the controlled environment of a recording studio is better suited for making demonstration recordings, under the right circumstances, a live recording may also be used to create a demo.

Listen to virtually any CD recorded "live" at a performance and you will hear that the technical quality of the recording is not likely to match that of a studio recording. However, a live recording can sometimes capture a certain spontaneity that's more difficult to achieve in the controlled environment of a recording studio.

When I first started recording on location, the device of choice was a portable tape cassette machine. Musicians started using Sony MiniDisc recorders in the 1990s, but I was holding out for something that would record in an uncompressed wave format, be really easy to use, run on common batteries and of course, sound great. Finally, in the fall of 2007, a recording device came along that fit that description, the Zoom H2.

For it's size and price, this recorder produces an excellent recording. It's easy to use, with a big red "Record" button and it takes two double-A batteries. The recorder includes a handy stand, cables, an AC adapter and a windscreen. Although it also comes with a 512meg memory card, when I purchased mine, I also purchased a 4gig memory card. This provides over 6 hours of uncompressed stereo recording in wave format. Currently, the Zoom H2 really has very few competitors.

This recorder will not produce the same level of quality recording as can be achieved using a professional recording microphone. As a comparison, I've recorded 2 short clips of my voice, one using the Zoom H2 built in mics and the other using a Neumann TLM-103 microphone, plugged into a Delta-66/Omni I/O PC recording interface. The difference in quality is clear. However, this is certainly like comparing apples and oranges, or even Corgis and German Shepherds.

When I use the H2 to record a performance, I usually place the recorder on the end of my trumpet case, somewhere out of the way. People rarely notice it. No one has ever asked me about it. By the way, if you're a music teacher, band director or private lesson instructor, this recorder is an excellent, easy way to record your students.

These are come MP3 sound clips from recordings I've made at performances using the Zoom H2. All of these sample recordings come from special church services at which I was performing on the trumpet and flute.