I've used this product for mostly recording choirs, with the lav mics clipped to my music stand and the unit on top of the piano. Very clear sound without any fuss.

For those having problems with the unit freezing up, it's quite possible that MOST of the problems stem from your SD card. I've done a bit of research and find that an SDHC card will work, but it won't recognize all of the space on it and this can cause issues down the road. Also, if you use an SD card, it's best not to format it with Windows but do a search for a program called "SD Formatter". Use this instead and you won't get corrupt cards causing issues.

If your issues don't stem from using an SD card, then yes, you most likely have a defective item. But Musicians Friend RMA policy is one of the best IMHO.

Good luck to all!

I had been using the unit for about four months now for producing a weekly podcast. It first would give me a corrupt file. But I was able to play the file in real time and record it to my laptop through the line out. This happened once or twice. Then last week I had a corrupt file and it played back only the first few minutes and then other tracks would play within the same track. Now I can't record anything. Disk Properties say the disk is 98% full when connected to a Windows Vista machine, but there are no files to delete.

I had been thinking about getting some sort of portable recorder to record myself in practice and also possibly recording my band. The name brand portable digital recorders were rather expensive for me, so I started looking into cassette recorders. A google search turned up one of these recorders on scratch and dent sale, so I went for it.

I have experienced some of the problems mention in other reviews here but have found ways to at least work around them. I recorded several tracks successfully in the first folder available, transfered them to my computer and deleted them. I them had problems recording in that folder - it would seem to record fine, but on playback only would play about 5 or 6 seconds. But recording in other folders works fine. Sometimes after recording a track it won't play back. Sometimes waiting awhile will work, and sometimes I just turn it off and back on.

I recorded a gig my bluegrass band did - I just turned it on and let it run (engaging the lock switch so it wouldn't automatically turn off after a few minutes. I had problems transferring it to my computer - it would seem to transfer fine but the track wouldn't play on the computer. But I was able to transfer to a different computer I own and then copy it over to my main computer.

The 2 built in mikes work fine when I record one of my classical or acoustic guitars. I also have an electric, one of my CGs has a pickup and I have a clip-in pup on my 12. You can record a guitar directly via one of the 2 1/4" jacks. It also comes with 2 small mikes with about 3-4 foot cord on each, and plug these into the jacks for additional miking options. These mikes come with a clip allowing you to clip one on yourself or something.

I have made a brief experiment with recording on a 2 gig SD card I have and it worked fine.

The recorded sound seems to be pretty good. I am sure you won't be turning out finished recording with this, but recording a practice or gig for review and self-critiquing later on, preserving ideas you come up with and the like I think it works quite fine.

Overall, I find this a useful if not perfect device. For the price I got it, it was considerably less than other digital recorders, and being digital allows me to transfer recordings to my computer to edit, post online, or email to others, none of which could be done as easily with a cassette recorder, so I am glad I didn't go that route.

I bought this machine because, like most folks, I'm on a tight budget. I have owned two of these and I'm trading mine in for something else. I've read the other reviews and other people seemed to have good experiences with these things, but here was mine; the thing works good at first. But after a while of using this device, here's what happened: I would delete a track and the machine would lock up. I would have to pull the batteries out to turn it off. Then, when I would re-record on the empty deleted track, pieces of the new track would bleed over to the other tracks that I didn't want to delete. Sometimes it didn't even record at all. I would press the record button and the screen would say "full", after only three tracks that were a few minutes a piece. This was while I was using the on board hard drive; I never tried using a chip. Personally, I don't believe you should have to. It ought to do what the manufacturer says it will do. This piece of garbage was just a nightmare of a mess. The sound quality was good, though. I do need to say that even though this machine is no good, musician's friend's costumer service has been second to none in assisting me with solving this problem.

I ran into problems and they were all solved by reading the manual. The machine locked up, turned out my SD card wasn't formatted FAT32. I had a cheap SD card and had drop outs, with a name brand, no problem. I had problems getting it to record and found the interface difficult. Reading the instructions a couple of times has made recording and the interface easy. This machine is perfect for recording at home and in the field at a fab price. The sound quality is excellent. Musicians Gear Hand-Held Stereo Digital Recorder #582222.