Could you get a handheld audio recording device and just leave on, on your desk? Would that be legal? It would certainly be a backup just in case.

Something like a Sony M10? Amazing battery life, looks kind of like a smartphone. Just leave it upside down and recording when in class or when speaking to a student in private? That does seem like a bit of grey area ethically I suppose, unless you told them you were recording.

Thank you!! I used this PCM recorder https://www.amazon.com/Sony-Portable-Condenser-Microphones-High-Speed/dp/B002R56C4O and fed sample tracks from it into an envelope follower module in my synth. The actual tracks were recorded using a little shitty mackie mixer, an interface and my laptop. I would usually fiddle around with the synth for a few hours and then just record one track straight from the synth mixer. After that all I'd do is compress it and play guitar over it if need be.

Okay this is going to be a long post, so here goes.

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If you really want to get into sound design, youre going to need a few essentials. A DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), an audio interface, a handheld recorder, and a microphone.




DAWs

As far as a DAW goes, there's a few alternatives you can go with. I personally use Avid Pro Tools for near everything I do, but also mess around with Reaper. I've found that most studios will use one of these two. Most DAWs will have a pretty steep learning curve, so be ready for that.

Pro Tools First is the free version of Pro Tools. It has a lot of limitations, but for starting out it should be fine. If you want less limitations it costs big money, but I'm sure you can find a crack or two as long as you don't use it commercially.

Reaper is starting to grow on me lately. You can customize it to your needs, and the full version is only $60. You can also just deal with a popup everytime you open the program for ten seconds and use it for free. I mainly prefer Pro Tools over this because the video engine in Pro Tools is much better. But for batch editing multiple sound files, Reaper is muuuuuch better.

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Audio Interface

This basically takes over as an intermediary between high quality audio and your computer. You can plug a microphone right into it to record sound straight to your computer. You can do this with a USB microphone as well, but the quality is a million times better with one of these.
I would recommend either the Behringer UMC22 or the more advanced Focusrite Scarlett Solo. Both will do the trick, I just prefer the mic pres on the Focusrite a bit more.


Handheld Recorder
Handheld recorders allow you to record anything you want to without having to deal with any cables. They should be compact but durable.

The Tascam DR-40 is a great intro recorder. It was the first recorder I got 5 years ago, and it still holds up. I've dropped this thing so many times and it still powers through.
Another favorite is the Zoom H4N. This was a favorite among most of my classmates as it was the one my school supplied, but I didn't feel like going through the checkout process all the time so I saved up and got the Tascam. It has a newer version, the Zoom H6, which is pretty slick, but comes at a higher price point. It also comes with some interchangeable microphone capsules so you can get different types of recordings. I'll cover more of this later.
I'll leave off with the recorder I have now, the Sony PCM-M10. This thing is a godsend. It's discontinued due to a newer version coming out, but you can find this guy on eBay for around $300-400. It's smaller than a phone, and the sound quality is amazing. If you have the money to shell out for this guy, definitely go for it. Every sound designer inn the industry I know swears by it.


Microphone

So the first thing you need to know is that there's a load of different microphone types. Its a lot to cover, so I'm just going to link you to this article that will cover the basics of what you need to know. Basically I would recommend different microphones for different things, all depending on what you're trying to capture.
A good all-around microphone is the Shure SM57/Shure SM58. They're essentially both the same microphone. But these things will LAST. Like,people have run over them with trucks and they sound fine. Definitely a good starting point

For vocal recordings, I would recommend the Rode NT1A. This mic is a great starting point for capturing voice, and is durable to boot.

For capturing foley/field recording, I would go with the Rode NTG2. Its a shotgun mic with great quality for the price, and never let me down in all the years Ive been using it. I won its successor, the NTG3, in the Riot Creative Contest a few years back, but still use the NTG2 from time to time when I need to.


Some Extra Stuff


Theres a lot of cool, free plugins out there. I've used both Blue Cat's and Melda's plugins, and they all get the job done with a bit of tweaking.

As far as building up a sound library goes, I would recommend recording literally everything you can around you and playing with those sounds with plugins as a good starting point for building up a library. There's a few resources out there that give out free SFX every once in a while, GDC has had a bundle go up for 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. You can also check out the BBC Sound Effects Library. Be careful about getting libraries and bundles though, as they add up quick. I have to go through my sound library soon, and I probably have around 500,00+ files but only really need a few thousand.

For all your sounds, you're going to want a file manager. A great and free one is Mutant. You just add the directory where you downloaded your sounds to, let it load them in, and voila. You can search easily for what you need.


Hopefully, all this was somewhat helpful to you, or to anyone else reading this who's interested in sound design!

Very cool. I know Zoom makes really nice stuff. I've looked at their cameras in the past. I used this a Sony PCM-M10 (https://smile.amazon.com/Sony-Portable-Condenser-Microphones-High-Speed/dp/B002R56C4O?sa-no-redirect=1) that I had laying around. I'm very happy with the quality, it records in stereo. I like having my phone on hand during the show to take pictures and video and pick up some occasional sound around me that I may potentially mix in the future or just have for personal nostalgia.

We use:

Behringer Xenyx X2222USB Mixer with USB and Effects

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/X2222USB--behringer-xenyx-x2222usb-mixer-with-usb-and-effects

Sony PCM-M10 Portable Linear PCM Voice Recorder

https://www.amazon.com/Sony-Portable-Condenser-Microphones-High-Speed/dp/B002R56C4O/ref=sr_1_4?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1526320712&sr=1-4&keywords=sony+pcm&dpID=51D6E3huTOL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

Audacity for processing

You can use a laptop(you'll probably need an external interface as well) or a portable digital recorder like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Portable-Condenser-Microphones-High-Speed/dp/B002R56C4O/

Some of these aren't cellphone recordings. Most of the recordings on the TDP are done with equipment like these:

Schoeps MK4 with
Sony PCM-M10

A cellphone recording sounds like absolute dogshit unless you are way in the back or have an external mic plugged in (can you even do that?). Even then they sound like shit. As in un-listenable shit. A lot of the better quality versions on youtube were taken from TDP