I guess it is time to make an update to my "recommended" recorders list for people interested in recording frog calls (or other nature recording). (NB - this post is not complete yet, I want to add some discussion about several other recorders and will do so soon)
My recommendations are not based on some extensive knowledge of electrical engineering, sound editing or any other technical expertise. They are based on
- having owned too many recorders - GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) is a serious disease 😜,
- having stood out in the field all over the world, at night, in the rain trying to get recordings for the last 20 years, and
- having done a lot of reading, discussing and listening on various nature recordist groups online.
These are my opinions based on my experience. Many will disagree. My only goal is to give an updated (for 2026) list of recorders you might consider if you are setting out into the world of field recording.
Talking about recorders does require a fair bit of jargon, so I have included a "glossary of terms" at the end for those new to recording jargon.
The following recorder suggestions are not ranked, they are just "recorders you should consider" if you are starting out in this hobby. I will cover the recorders I have used first, then add a few I am familiar with from my online investigations.
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Recorders with built in microphones
Zoom M3
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| Zoom M3 Recorder/Microphone image from Zoom Website |
Price - $199 USD at the time of writing
Pros:
- very small, light and field hardy
- 32 bit recording
- shotgun microphone* plus mid-side recording*
Cons:
- not the quietest microphone/recorder on the market (particularly the side mics)
- button system takes some getting used to and isn't easy to see in the dark
- can't play back recordings in the field (except for the last recording)
- plastic case can lead to handling noise (true of any plastic recorder)
I started my list with this one because it is probably the most controversial and because I love this little recorder. The Zoom M3 is an "all-in-one" recorder than includes a short shotgun microphone and a figure eight microphone (or maybe two cardioid? I'm not sure what's inside it?). This combination allows you to capture the call of an individual singing in a noisy environment using the shotgun mic or to capture a stereo ambience of the whole scene using mid-side recording. Once you get the recording home, you can adjust the gain (loudness) of each of these channels to bring out more of the ambience or more of the 'soloist'. So you don't have to choose which type of recording you want while you are in the field. You just point the M3 towards your frog and press record.
Part of the "problem" the M3 has is not really a problem anymore. When it was first released, some of the original M3s had significant problems with picking up interference from electromagnetic sources such as cell phones, WiFi antennas and even some radio waves in very densely populated areas. This was apparently due to insufficient electrical shielding in some units. However, Zoom recalled and replaced all the units with this fault at no charge and the newer units do not have this problem, or at least are on par with any more than any plastic mic/recorder combinations on the market. So if you go online or onto YouTube, many of the reviews by "professional" reviewers were about these faulty units. But most of those reviewers failed to evaluate the fixed versions. They didn't like the faulty ones, gave a bad review and never looked back. Such is the way of the professional reviewer on YouTube, I guess.
As for the handling noise, I get around that simply by mounting it on a short "table top" tripod (I like the qubo mini tripods on Amazon) or a rubber camera grip handle with a 1/4-20 tripod screw. They are available on Amazon for less than 20 dollars. With the recorder on a grip/tripod, I can still tuck the recorder into a pocket for carrying in the field. It only takes a few seconds to pull the recorder out, turn it on, point it at my target and start recording.
It does have a headphone out if you wish to monitor your recording live or to help you point directly at a single individual.
So, my overall thoughts on this recorder? I think this is a great recorder for someone starting out with recording amphibians. Are there better recorder/shotgun microphone or mid-side combinations out there? Yes, but not at this price point and not in this small, field friendly form.
Here are some example recordings I've made using the Zoom M3:
Red-eyed Treefrog and Rosenberg's Gladiator Frog from Costa Rica
Jabiru (Fat) Toadlet from Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory, Australia
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Zoom H2essential
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| Zoom H2essential image from Zoom website |
Price = $179USD at the time of writing (+$49 for the Zoom APH-2e custom windscreen)
Pros:
- very small, light and field hardy
- 32 bit recording
- mid-side recording
- capable of multiple styles of stereo recording
Cons:
- side mics aren't as quiet as front/back microphones (true of most built in M/S systems)
- button system takes some getting used to
- plastic case can lead to handling noise (true of any plastic recorder)
I started using this recorder recently and used it a lot on my 2025 trip to Costa Rica. For an all around "ambience" recorder or to record a large chorus of calling frogs, this is one of my new favorites. It is a tiny, all-in-one recorder with good quiet mics and preamps. (NB - the predecessor, the Zoom H2 and H2n were not as quiet as the H2e nor did they offer 32 bit recording - you want the H2e aka H2essential, not the H2 or H2n).
One of the things I like about this recorder is its small size and great sound. It allows you to record with just the front microphone, the front and side microphones (Mid/Side recording) or the front, back and side microphones for double Mid/Side recording. This gives you a lot of flexibility in the type of recording you want to produce out in the field.
It does need wind protection, but there is an available custom windscreen that comes in the APH-2e accessory pack you can buy (and you should!). It has a 1/4-20 thread on the flat bottom so you can stand it up on a flat surface or attach it to a short (or tall) tripod or even hand-hold it on a 1/4-20 threaded handle.
The only thing this recorder is not optimal for is selecting out one individual in a chorus. The front microphone is cardioid so it can focus in somewhat, but it is not a shotgun mic and lacks its side rejection. But for stereo recording this is one of my new favorites. You don't need extra microphones or cables, just this small recorder (it fits in a pocket easily) and something to stand it on and you can be out recording.
It runs on 2x AAA batteries which don't last a reasonably long time, but you can also power it by USB-C using a powerbank and get days worth of recording out of it if needed.
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Recorders with no microphones (external microphones necessary)
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Left to Right: Zoom H1-XLR, Zoom F3, Tascam FR-AV2 |
Zoom H1-XLR
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| Zoom H1-XLR image from Zoom website |
Price = $169 USD at the time of writing
Pros:
- very small, light and field hardy
- 32 bit recording
- can be used with a variety of 3.5mm and XLR microphones
- can be attached directly to most shotgun microphones
Cons:
- small screen and buttons (you get used to them)
- plastic case can lead to handling noise (true of any plastic recorder)
- no built-in microphones
Honestly, I purchased this recorder because of its tiny size and interesting specs. This recorder is capable of capturing two XLR microphone inputs (or 3.5mm stereo input) at 32bit in a tiny recorder that can easily fit in a pocket.
There are several older iterations of the Zoom H1, but the Zoom H1-XLR is the only one with XLR type inputs.
I have used this recorder attached to a small tripod with two XLR microphones attached and posititoned in such a way to create a nice stereo field. However, I have also used the Zoom H1-XLR as a "stand alone" recorder attached directly to my shotgun microphone with no cables for a one-handed long shotgun field recording kit. I wouldn't try that with any other recorders because it would put too much torque on the XLR plug to mount a heavier recorder. But because this recorder only weighs 164 grams (5.7 oz) with its two AA batteries, I don't think that weight represents a threat to the XLR mount on my shotgun microphone. I use a Movo shock mount to help support the XLR connection and I had to put a short XLR female to male extension in the middle because the microphone diameter is a bit thick for the XLR receptacle on the recorder. Here's what the whole rig looks like (I have a furry windscreen over the microphone in use).
Here is a recording I made using the above setup in Panama. I was walking along the Pipeline road one night listening for frogs and I happened to capture this Crested Owl calling near the road (the ray-gun "peow" you hear is the Tungara Frogs calling nearby).
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In order to get this post up, I have decided to stop for now and post it incomplete. There are a number of other good recorders I would like to discuss, but if I go through them all, I may never get done. So for now, if you are in the market for a new recorder in 2026, you should also include the following recorders in your investigation! I will expand on them later.
Other good recorders I own and use (and recommend) include:
- Zoom F3
- Tascam FR-AV2
- Roland R07
- Sound Devices Mix-Pre 3
And some good recorders I don't own but are worth investigating
- Tascam Portacapture X6 and X8
- Zoom H4Essential
- Zoom H5 Studio and H6 Studio
I will post more on these and update this post soon.
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Glossary:
Signal and Noise in recordings - Whenever you start investigating recorders or recording, you quickly come across the term Signal to Noise Ratio. So what does that mean, and why is it important?
Generally, the signal is what you are trying to record (the frog's call or the chorus). The noise is the part you didn't intend to record. The noise can interfere with your ability to hear the signal. If you are recording next to a busy highway, the sound of the traffic (noise) might drown out your signal (frog calls). I know the pedants will raise objection to my simple definition, but it works for what we are talking about. So the goal of our recording is to maximize the ratio of the signal (wanted sounds) to the noise (unwanted sounds).
In order to maximize our signal to noise ratio (SNR), we have to think about where the noise is coming from. There are two general categories of noise in recordings - ambient noise and system noise.
Ambient Noise
Ambient noise is things in the environment that you pick up with your recorder that you didn't intend to pick up. This could be traffic noise, airplanes flying over, people talking, dogs barking, etc. It can even be other frogs. If you are trying to record species A and species B is closer and keeps calling over the other species, you can regard species A as noise over your signal, species B. Insects drive me crazy this way. You set out your gear to get a nice frogscape ambience and some stupid cricket lands right in front of your microphone and "microphone bombs" your recording.
This happened to me while I was trying to record the wonderful "doops" of Ornate Burrowing Frogs (Platyplectrum ornatum) in Western Australia. I set my stereo rig up to capture the "doop party", but I didn't see the Red Treefrog (Litoria rubella) sitting under the grass just next to the left microphone. So for my recording purposes, this was "noise" I had to remove in post.
So how do you reduce ambient noise in a recording? Mostly that is a matter of technique. Choosing a microphone with the right polar pattern (shotgun, omni, cardioid) for the situation is a great starting place. But then mic placement can make a big difference. If you have a somewhat directional microphone (cardioid or shotgun), position the microphone so the noise is off axis. This would have been the solution in my example above. If the frogs you are recording have a busy road behind them, move over to another position to put the busy road behind or perpendicular to your microphone to reduce how much of it is being picked up. Consider the noise you are contributing to the recording. Omni mics will pick up your breathing, as will shotguns if you are directly behind them. Stand further away or hold the shotgun in such a way that you aren't directly behind it. Don't move since the microphones will pick up your footsteps. Don't talk (getting the people with you to shut up is one of the perennial curses of the field recordist!). Don't handle the microphone or recorder, or at least, hold them very still. The sounds of your hands rubbing against the recorder or microphone will be picked up. Be careful of overhead electric wires and electric fences. They can sometimes cause interference sounds on your recording. Turn off your cell phone or keep it away from your recorder/mic. Some equipment can pick up noise from cell phones or wifi signals.
By using good technique, you can significantly reduce the ambient signal that is interfering with your ability to capture your target recording. But there is some noise inherent in the recording process that isn't coming from the environment, it is coming from the recording system itself.
System Noise
System Noise is noise created by the "system", i.e. by the microphones and recorders.; This is noise that was not present in the environment you were recording in. This includes sounds like the wind buffeting your microphone but also more technically generated noise like the noise that comes from amplifying the microphone signal as it comes into the recorder. Microphones produce an electrical signal in response to sound vibrations. That electrical signal is what travels up the cable and is eventually recorded in a digital format by the recorder. But the electrical signal coming out of the microphone is very weak, so it must be amplified before it can be recorded. This is called "pre-amplification" and is carried out by part of the system called the pre-amplifier, or pre-amp. Then the amplified electrical signal has to be converted from analog to digital format so that it can be written to the SD card or other device.
These two steps, preamplification and analog to digital conversion, are imperfect. Sometimes, some extra electrical noise is added to the original recording during the process. So the microphone, preamps and A-D conversion can add extra "sound" to your recording. This usually shows up as hiss or even a buzz in a recording. Higher quality microphones and recorders generally have lower noise levels (i.e. they add less system noise to your recording).
The problem this system noise presents depends on a signal to noise ratio (SNR). If you have a loud signal (loud frog) and quiet gear, your SNR will be high. That is good - more signal, less noise or more of what you were trying to record, less system noise. Most of what you record will be what was actually going on in the environment.
But if you have noisy gear and a weaker signal (like in quiet nature ambience recording), the noise becomes more obvious.
Reducing System Noise
Once the system noise is in your recording, it is hard to get out. So recording a distant frog call and then amplifying it when you play it back (increasing the volume) will make the noise louder as well. But if you increase the signal strength by getting your microphone closer to the frog, you don't simultaneously increase the system noise. Therefore your SNR will be higher - more signal for the same amount of system noise. Then when you turn up the volume while listening, the signal will be louder relative to the noise. This is why getting close to the subject is so important!
So you can maximize your SNR by having quiet gear and getting closer to your subject. But even if your gear isn't the quietest, you can still keep your SNR high by getting close to your subject, thereby increasing the signal level. This is why people recording rock concerts don't worry too much about SNR, people recording a gentle breeze blowing through grass have to worry about it a lot.
Having said all that, a lot of nature recordists obsess about system noise. But for recording frogs, you can relax a little bit. Frogs aren't quiet. And if you can get reasonably close to the frog/chorus, you can generate enough signal to overcome the system noise and keep your SNR low. And if you have a good/interesting recording and a reasonably low noise level, no one will notice (except the audio snobs 😛).
Gain vs. Volume - When you first start out recording, you come to the hobby with an understanding of what the volume of a recording means. It is the perceived loudness to your ear of the output of the recording. Gain is slightly different. Gain is the measure of the strength of the electrical signal coming in to the recorder's processing system. You increase the gain as you are recording, you can increase the volume as you are playing it back.
So if you increase the gain during recording, you will get more volume in the output (assuming you leave everything else the same). But if you have a weak signal in your recording (it is too quiet), you can't make it "better" by increasing the volume in playback. That is because you will increase both the signal AND the noise. You can reduce this problem by increasing the gain of the input into the recording. Then you are increasing the signal without amplifying the noise to the same degree. More on signal:noise ratios below.
It might be useful to think of the analogy of the exposure of a photograph vs what it looks like on screen/print. You can't recover details in the whites of an overexposed photograph in printing, you have to do it in the actual exposure (while taking the photo) itself. Adjusting the exposure while taking the photo is analogous to adjusting the gain. Adjusting the exposure while printing (or on-screen) is analogous to volume.
Decibel Scale - The loudness or intensity of a sound is measured by the decibel scale. Briefly, on the decibel scale, 0 decibels represents absolute silence and a gun firing at close range is 140 dB or higher. A soft whisper is ~30 dB while a lunar rocket launch is usually ~180 dB. Any sounds over 130dB are painful to the ears and can cause ear damage. Lower decibel levels can cause ear damage as well, depending on exposure time.
The decibel scale is logarithmic and relative. For example, if you double the sound energy of a source, the sound increases by 6dB. But to make it be perceived as twice as loud, you have to increase it by 10dB (as you would expect in a log scale). Confused? Yep, me too. This is because a decibel can be used to represent several different measurements. There is a lot of complex math involved in the quantification of sound energy and if you want that answer, feel free to search online to go down that rabbit hole. 😉 There is actually a pretty good (confusing) discussion of decibel scale and math here.
I just remember that something around 20 decibels is barely audible and 120 is REALLY loud.
32 bit recording - the bit depth of a recording is a way of describing the dynamic range of that recording. This is a measure of how much detail is captured between the quietest parts and the loudest parts of the recording.
For those familiar with photography, it is analogous to the dynamic range of a photo, i.e. how much detail there is the darkest and lightest areas. If something is brighter than the dynamic range can capture it shows up as pure white in your photo. If something is darker than the dynamic range can capture, it shows up as pure black (even if your eye could see detail there in the field).
Dynamic range in recording is similar. If something is too quiet to be picked up within the dynamic range of the gear, it will show up as silence. If it is too loud, it will be distorted or clip. Once that sound clips in your recording, it can not be recovered by turning down the volume/gain. The recorded sound is permanently clipped. Again, this is similar to how you can't make the details come out in a photo that is too far overexposed by decreasing the exposure after the picture is captured, there is no information there to recover. Clipped recordings cannot be unclipped by turning them down.
With older 16bit or 24bit recorders, it is possible to have your recording clip if what you are recording has too much dynamic range because it is too loud and too quiet. If you set the recording gain high to pick up the quiet sounds, the loud sounds will be lost to clipping. If you set the recorder gain lower to successfully capture those loud sounds, the quieter sounds will be lost as silence. A 32bit recording (or more correctly a 32bit float recording) has so much dynamic range, you can't really lose information like this, assuming your microphone is capable of capturing that sound.
For a 16 bit recording, the recording is capable of capturing 96dB of dynamic range between the quietest and loudest parts. But if any sound exceeds that range, it will be lost or clipped. Even if you reduce the gain (volume) on your computer in software, the lost signal cannot be recovered because the recorder was not able to capture it. This is not to say that 16bit recording is bad, just that it is limited to 96dB of dynamic range. That is still a big range! That is the difference between a whisper and a gunshot, so you could successfully capture both in the same recording at 16bit. But the problem is if you come across unanticipated sounds beyond that 96dB range. Those will be lost in your recording if they are too quiet or will clip if they are too loud.
With a 24 bit recording, you can capture 144dB of dynamic range. That is enough for most recording. With 144dB of dynamic range, you can pretty much capture the full range of human hearing (in regards to loudness). The problem is setting the gain perfectly in advance of pressing the record button (part of the process recordists call gain staging). So if you are trying to capture a quiet nature scene and set your gain to capture all the quiet sounds, a really loud sound close to microphone might clip. Cricket Frog clicks can do this as can any hidden frog that is too close to your microphone. If you put your microphone/recorder too close to a really loud frog, you could still get clipping.
In a 32bit float recording, you can capture a theoretical 1528dB of dynamic range. In effect this means no matter how loud the sound is, you can capture it without clipping. You may need to reduce the gain (volume) after recording, but the signal will be there. You can also bring up really quiet areas of a 32 bit recording without introducing extra noise to your recording. (There is a whole other rabbit hole about single versus dual Analog to Digital Converters that has bearing here, but you can do that reading on your own. 😁)
However, all of this depends on whether your microphone can capture a signal that loud without clipping. Some microphones are great with loud sounds, others are not. Here's an example where I had clipping take place even though I was using a 32bit recorder. In this case, the Tatayo's Glassfrog (Hyalinobatrachium tatayoi) was so loud that the microphone clipped the signal before the 32bit recorder captured it. (The microphone used was only capable of recording sounds less than 133 dB - these little frogs are LOUD!) The clipping gives the peep a "buzzy" quality that isn't present when heard in person.
The only solution here would have been to get further away from the signal source (frog). But in that case, the stream noise would have been increased in the recording? So I needed to be close to the frog to isolate it, but the frog was so loud it clipped anyway. Some microphones have "pad switches" that allow you to decrease the sensitivity of the microphone to prevent this, but I didn't use one in this case unfortunately.
Mid-Side recording - mid-side recording is a way of capturing a stereo field of sound source by using a directional (shotgun/cardioid microphone) in combination with a figure-of-8 (bidirectional) microphone. The beauty of this system is it allows the recordist to change the relative amount of directional (subject) and ambient signal in the recording after recording. By increasing the gain of the directional channel (cardioid/shotgun) microphone, you enhance the sound of the soloist/subject. By increasing the gain of the bidirectional microphone, you increase the perceived stereo width of the field. And you can do this in multiple ways to make different types of recordings after you get home from the field. I will post more on this interesting technique later.
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