What do you use to capture the moment??

[musicliner]

Zoom H2 does the job for me.

[charlie2]

I write, (notate) the music on a piece of paper. I draw a music staff and notate it down whenever I write away from my computer.

If I'm at the computer, I notate it in finale.

[allends]

I like the cell phone and answering machine method, but sometimes I carry my iPod with the Blue Mikey plugged in: http://www.bluemic.com/mikey/ When I do it that way I can import my humming out of iTunes into my DAW and start working. It sounds great, btw!

[t4mh]

A pencil.

+1 to this!
Keith

[mojobone]

A pencil.

+1 to this!
Keith

Kickin' it old skool, yo.

[eliotpister1]

Hi Torch,

I'm a bit of a gear junkie, so I have one of those Zoom H4 units, which is probably overkill for scratch audio notes. It isn't much bigger than a cell phone (one of those early 90's cell phones, not the new ones that are so small I worry that I might swallow mine one day. The cool thing about having one of those units is that it captures audio that would actually be USABLE in a final mix. The H4 has XLR mic inputs so if you need to go to a singer's house, or guitar player or whatever, you can do that. Then when you get home, import the files into your recording software and voila!

Of course, I also use my cellphone like everybody else.

[mojobone]

Yeh, this is why the H4N is on my wishlist, it'll do sound on sound, you can adjust the spread of the onboard XY condensers, and it even provides (albeit somewhat limited) phantom power for the external XLR mic inputs. (beats heck outta yer Droids 'n' iPhones, heh)

[ernstinen]

Yup, paper and pencil, or a little Sony digital recorder.

But at the last Taxi Rally, I was ASTONISHED by Apogee's "One" recorder. During the presentation, they showed how they recorded a whole BAND with this invention. Truly amazing! Sure, it's $249, but with a One and a Mac you can record anything from ideas, to a full blown multi-track recording. Michael L. told me to check it out, and he was correct. Incredible little device.

Ern

[t4mh]

A pencil.

+1 to this!
Keith

Kickin' it old skool, yo.

Well, most of my spur of the moment ideas involve multiple parts that need to be scored, at the spur of a moment. I guess that I could carry around a small multitrack recorder and sing the parts on different tracks but to tell you the truth, writing it down is easier, quicker and cheaper. Oh, and did I mention I can't sing. Its not like I'm just writing down the words to a song or something simple like that.

Keith

[mojobone]

Since you mentioned it, I use the pencil for standard notation, tablature, chord diagrams or Nashville Numbers, along with lyrics, when appropriate. Mostly, I'll use standard notation to jot down a rhythm or whatnot, cuz I don't carry staff paper around. If I can't remember a melody, it's probably not worth jotting down.