Achieving Portability
The terms “recording studios” and “portable” have rarely been used in the same sentence in the past. But with the miniaturization of technology, studios can be tucked under your arm and taken wherever you want. This is also great news for those with small apartments where space is at a premium.
Laptops
In the last few years the laptop has gone from a convenience to a powerhouse. The term “desktop replacement” is now used in laptop advertisements; it's become a reality. If you are computer recording, the laptop is a very attractive choice because you can take it anywhere. The speed and disk size of current machines make them more than adequate for tackling even complex recordings. Pick up any recording magazine and you'll find some article explaining how your favorite artist's record was recorded live on a laptop at a gig. With the choices in USB and Firewire audio interfaces dropping in price and upping in features, laptops are a great choice.
The laptops themselves can be much more expensive than a desktop, so that is a major drawback. Laptops are also very hard to upgrade, and the jury is out on how durable they are in the long run.
Standalone Units
Standalone recorders such as ADATs, DA-88s, and hard-disk systems by Alesis and Mackie can be thrown in a rack carrier and taken from place to place. Throw in the necessary mixer, possible additional microphone preamps, or other extras, and the weight starts to add up. But it
Field-Based Recording
If you are trying to record live sounds like the sound of the ocean, kids playing at a park, or a noisy city street for some added effects to your recordings, you can do so easily with either a compact DAT machine or a minidisk recorder and one stereo microphone. The quality will amaze you. This same setup can be great for picking up an acoustic orchestra or band that wouldn't require multitracking; most orchestral recording is done with one set of stereo microphones in front of the group. You can even record a live gig this way.
