Re: [microsound] recording hardware

[Aaron Ximm <ghede@xxxxxxxx>]

> I'm shopping for a nice, portable, relatively inexpensive (<= $150) device
> for doing field recording. So far, I'm leaning towards getting an mp3 player
> capable of recording: I dislike the idea of having my recordings mangled by

Bear in mind that an MP3 deck will probably not have a 'plug in power'
port with electret mic powering, or preamps for mics.

FWIW you can get an MD deck on eBay for < $100 with dilligence, I've
gotten MZ-R50s and MZ-R37s between $55 and $75 with patience.

The digital transfer to PC problem is indeed the most unappealing aspect
of recording on MD at the moment. There is no low-cost solution; the
cheapest thing to do is pick up a used deck with TOSlink out and a
soundcard with TOSlink in, but that'd be at least another $100 I would
think.  It'd also limit you to realtime transfer. :(  However the quality
will be much better than 128KB MP3, even if analog transfered.

The Creative Labs Nomad 3 is the first MP3 device that appealed to me as
an alternative to MD, since it does uncompressed WAV recording ~ but it
has no mic input, so you need an outboard preamp to go in the line level
inputs.  (It also had a spate of problems on first release, but to their
credit CL seem to be actually trying to patch these).  My roommate reports
that Mac support for the Nomad is quite subpar; he's been using my wife's
PC to get data on and off it.

Good luck!

 aaron

  ghede@xxxxxxxx
  http://www.quietamerican.org

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