Dean M. Estabrook wrote:
Before I spend hours "googling" this topic, I thought I'd ask for your
opinions on the matter. My wife, a music educator, has a need for a
digital recorder (and maybe playback machine) for use in her job. I
think she's thinking in the $1k range (since CA got some special one
time funding for such things). Any favorites, pitfalls, etc.? Her main
need is to record rehearsals onto a disc and either play it back then
and there, or bring it home for study and prep.
Thanks in advance for the ubiquitous wisdom found on this list.
To "play it back then and there" it doesn't have to be recorded onto a
disc (by that I assume you mean onto a CD which can be removed from the
recorder) -- all that's needed is some sort of amplification to play the
recorded material back through.
Bringing it home for study and prep can be done without a removable CD,
also.
You might consider the ZOOM handheld recorder with built in stereo mics.
It costs around $300 and doesn't use removable CDs for its recording
medium. When you bring it home, you can simply attach it to your
computer with a USB cable and transfer the files to your computer and
then either listen to them there or burn them to CD.
One limitation of digital recorders which record to CD is the time
limitation. CDs are like tape cassettes (only longer) -- if your
rehearsal is longer than an hour, you need to replace the disc and
resume recording.
Using a recorder such as the Zoom, you can record the entire rehearsal
in a single file, so there won't be any possibility of it stopping in
the middle of a piece.
I use my iRiver mp3 player, the H40, which has a 40GB hard disk inside.
It can record as either MP3 (recording time limited by the hard disk
space only) or as WAV (recording time limited to 75 minutes - same as a
CD). The bitrate for the MP3 can be set at 320kbps which is essentially
the same as CD quality so the quality of the resulting file is superb.
Unfortunately iRiver doesn't market this model anymore and I have no
clue about the quality of their current models.
I do have a friend who has a Zoom which is a couple of years old and
it's terrific.
Spending $1k when the same (or better) results could be gotten for $300
seems silly to me.
--
David H. Bailey
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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