A simple digital recorder for children?

[bungeejumper]

Can anybody recommend a handheld digital recorder that will be OK for a couple of nine year olds? They enjoy making up plots for their puppet theatre and recording silly/spooky noises, which they intersperse with bits of their own music (from piano, guitar, violin.) And so far they've done brilliantly with my old Sony cassette recorder. But it's dying now, sadly. Sic transit gloria mundi.

I have two digital recorders of my own, a Sharp and a Sony, and although they're both okay for recording memos, they're not very user-friendly because there just aren't enough control options. It can actually be quite hard to figure out exactly which recording you're listening to, and you don't get the option of fast-forwarding or patching in and overdubbing, Visual information on screen is pretty rubbish as well. Can anyone think of a better way?

FWIW, if there's a recording/editing suite that would fit onto a cheap tablet, that might also fit the bill. Thoughts?

TIA

BJ

[servodude]

I doubt you'll find a dedicated hand-held device that will allow easy overdubbing or editing
- most stream the audio direct to the storage media without the necessary resources to do any manipulation
- if you do find one, I'll add it to my pile of shame

My 11 year old has been using a low end Philips dictation thing (like https://www.dictation.philips.com/gb/pr ... r-dvt1150/) for quick recording for a couple of years and garage band on her school iPad for anything more involved
This leads me to suspect your tablet idea is probably the best option (especially if you have one lying about)
- I have not got a recommendation as to which app would work, but your post spurred me to have a look and I have installed "Audio Evolution Mobile Studio" on a cheap tablet (a Lenovo P8) as I'm a sucker for things that let me "record on the fly"
- I'll try and have a play later

Other alternatives:
- If you were looking to splurge (or encourage) the tascam DP-008 is a bit bigger than handheld and is a real multitrack recorder with decent inbuilt mics. it is one of the few things my daughter does like to use over garage band
- if you had an old laptop; audio software is pretty lightweight and they'd have the benefit of being able to plug in decent mics

Have fun
- sd

[servodude]

I remembered I had a first gen nexus 7 hacked to run Android Nougat sitting on my desk
- so I fired up Audio Evolution Mobile

First impressions are that it will be a lot of fun
- seems to have a nice clean interface
- works well enough from the built in mic on the tablet



you can get a refund within a couple of hours from the play store if it does not suit

I reckon it is worth a try
have fun
- sd