Portable Digital Recorder Help!

CarlV

Lunatic Member
Any of you use portable digital recorders for taping events? I need to buy one like really soon. :yes:
I know nothing about what's out there and what all you need to have and know. Any help appreciated. :)

Carl
 
I tried asking this question on a taper's forum (I think it was the Traders Den) and I got blasted. Blah blah blah - it's compressed, blah blah blah. I know that (although it doesn't have to be any more - some lossless formats are creeping in). I was interested in making a lipstick sized stealth rig - pencil (eraser) sized stereo mike. Maybe using one of the Samsung's. So far I haven't heard anything like this. They probably won't sound fantastic.

Along with a friend of mine, we've made recordings with a Sharp Mini-disc using a mono mic that came off an old video camera (not even a cam-corder, just a camera - vintage crap). The sound has been amazingly good. The rig is a little bunlky for recording surreptitiously. We've done our favorite local bands and most recently the James Gang.
 
I looked at the Sony Hi-MD and it certainly looks promising as it will record in .wav. I too tried a taper forum. The "pro" tapers think nothing of a couple grand on a setup and aren't interested in weekend warriors. :worried:
Thanks!

Carl
 
I use MD myself. I don't have the HI-MD, but use the std. MDLP format to record AM radio overnight. Sounds great. It is indistinguishable from the original.
 
CarlV said:
Are the mini disks re-writeable Carl
Yes they are...but don't rule out using a recorder that uses flash media. You can easily buy any size you need. Re-use them, or store them and transfer the recordings you make to any other medium.
 
Yes, they're rewriteable. Flash devices can give you nowhere near the quality of recording, as that of Sony's ATRAC codec. WMA and MP3 are simple algorhythms in comparison, and will color the recordings, as well as add distortion and noise. I can attest to the fact that minidisc, as well as Sony's other digital walkman products - sound more lifelike and 'musical' than their flash...relatives. There is a reason that MD survived and thrives outside the US marketplace. Pro musicians have been using them for years and years - and still are. Check 'em out! Minidisc.org is a great place to start.
 
That Edirol R-1 Portable 24-Bit Wave Recorder & Player would be sweet but out of my range at 500. and add'l 4GB memory to do 6 hrs 16bit. I'm starting to feel like this may be the way to go.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5764687092
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5764687092
This would give me more than enough storage. Both these sellers have amazing feedback too. Then it leaves my mic situation but the md place has a neat trick posted.

Cheap Stereo Microphones
Mike Harman
May 2000
Radio Shack sells condenser mic capsules for $1.99 that work perfectly with my Sony portable MD recorder. All you have to do is solder the leads to a stereo cable/miniplug and you're in business, for a total cost of under $10. The sound is really amazing, very wide response and fidelity.

Carl
 
FYI there are hacks out in iPod land that enables a hidden record feature on newer units. Don't know too much else about it but I believe it records uncompressed mono - not sure of the bitrate.
 
I pulled the trigger on a Hi-MD player on ebay today. The show I wanted to do is going decided to make sure nobody tapes though so I may not do this one but I will be able to get my act down with mics and techniques for next time. There sure is a lot more than meets the eye and finding any real info is near impossible.

Carl
 
I used to do a lot of taping of live events (once a week at least for several years), and I started out with a minidisc unit. It didn't take me long to become frustrated with the lossy compression scheme, even though I do think that the ATRAC is far superior to MP3. After a few comparisons between my minidisc recordings and the master DAT recordings from the deck that I had patched out of (meaning the identical signal was recorded on both devices) it became obvious that the minidisc recordings were clearly inferior to the uncompressed versions. They still sounded good if you didn't have the DAT master to compare against, but when actually put to the test it was very easy to pick the compressed minidisc version.

So, at that time I ditched the minidisc and picked up a DAT deck. Much better recording quality, even my wife could tell the difference. However, DAT has to be one of the fussiest, problem-prone recording formats I have ever used. So now that all these hard-drive recorders are hitting the market I sold my DAT gear and am waiting to pick up my first hard-drive recorder.

The Hi-MD seems like a winner, that wasn't available when I was running minidiscs. However, the 90-minute limit per disc is a bit short for me, I had grown accustomed to the 3-hour DAT tapes! Many people I know have switched to the Nomad Jukebox 3, which has a line-in (but the A-D is very poor) and an optical input as well, allowing the use of an external A-D converter. It can record uncompressed .wavs and can hold a lot of music. I think they have discontinued the model though. Now I am seeing a few new hard drive recorders hitting the market, and I suspect they will become reasonably priced before too long. The Edirol unit looks promising, but I think Sound Devices has a couple of really nice units either out now or coming out soon. I hear one of them referred to as the SD722 but I have yet to see one in person.

I will be interested to hear how you like the Hi-MD unit. If you need any tips/advice I am happy to share my experience, I have certainly taped my share of shows, both openly and stealth-recording!
 
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