Re: [microsound] 160 kbps or minidisc

[Joshua Maremont <thermal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 07:23 PM 6/8/01 +0200, Álvaro Castro wrote:
> Now that you are talking about minidisc, I've visited
> the address that somebody recommended (www.archos.com)
> and I found a product very interesting. It offers 6 gB
> of live recorgind at 160 kbps. The noise rate is 90db.
> I think that it's better than a minidisc recorder. It
> has an USB port.

It sounds like a nice one, but do note that ATRAC compression is much 
further along at this point than MP3 (I assume that is the format used by 
Archos) for sonic transparency, as well as that even the most basic of 
consumer MD walkman recorders allow the editing of one's recordings, 
including the moving of track IDs.  And it is this editing ability which 
makes the MD ideal for location recording:  one can trim unwanted segments, 
delete mis-takes, put track marks into a recording as it is made or 
afterwards, entitle each track, and rearrange tracks, all with a few 
buttons.  And I drooled over the HHB portable of an earlier post:  it even 
includes a lost time retrieval feature, allowing one to start a recording 
several seconds after the sound has begun.  Two other advantages I have 
found with MD:  when I record my own pieces to MD and play them back in DJ 
sets, the MD tracks punch through the rest of the mix, seemingly helped by 
some artifact of the compression; in addition, my MD walkmen have been very 
forgiving of mic input overloading and even with some harsh transients have 
never left the crunch of digital clipping on a recording.  A harddisk 
recorder with a USB port is a great thing (and even better if it allows for 
uncompressed WAV and AIFF files - why compress on a 6GB drive?), but the MD 
walkman is a uniquely flexible, cheap, and robust device for the 
unpredictabilities of the field.

np - Wah! "Nah Poo = The Art of Bluff"

Joshua Maremont / Thermal - mailto:thermal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Boxman Studies Label - http://www.boxmanstudies.com/