Despite living and breathing sound recordings (collector in my spare time, audiovisual materials archivist and cataloger for pay) I know next to nothing about recording techniques and certainly am not in the same league as my friend Howard S., but I can say that I agree totally about flash memory (and other storage media that don't spin) as a means of superior recording potential.
I have purchased 2 Marantz PMD (Models 660 and 670)units over the last couple of years and am quite happy with their ease of use and quality of recording. My wife uses the 660 and its pair of internal mikes to record her students at lessons. You can play back through its built in speaker and it is pretty user friendly once you have set the parameters on what input you are using, of what format you are recording in (mono, stereo, single channel) and what type of file (mp3, wav) you want to create and a few other tweaks. You can store three sets of defaults so that you don't have to be constantly changing these parameters when you go from recording a practice session to dubbing something from a source like a turntable. If you want to see for yourself, look at: http://www.d-mpro.com/users/folder.asp?FolderID=3629&CatID=18&SubCatID=169 http://www.d-mpro.com/users/folder.asp?FolderID=1582&CatID=18&SubCatID=169 Peter Hirsch >message: 12 >date: Wed, 19 Jul 2006 20:18:23 -0400 >from: Howard Sanner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >subject: [Hornlist] RE: Recording > >Joni Rice wonders: >> > >> Where did you happen to buy this recorder, and what model # is it. I am looking for something similar to record >myself and my trio for a college project. >> Thanks! >> > > I have gotten all my minidisc equipment and supplies from > >http://www.minidisco.com > >I have no affiliation with them beyond that of satisfied customer. > > However, if you have nothing and are starting from scratch, I'd >recommend getting a flash memory recorder instead. One example is >the M-Audio 24/96, which costs around $400 (i.e., not too much >more than a minidisc). minidisco has flash memory recorders, too >(as do other vendors). Even minidisco lists flash recorders first >among portable recorders. The 24/96 is about the size of a deck >of cards or pack of cigarettes. > > It is clear to me that the world is moving away from storage >devices with moving parts. (I suspect the hard disk drive will be >history in less than five years.) I wonder how much longer >minidiscs will be supported. In addition, though I think >minidiscs, even in LP2 mode, sound good, they do use a lossy >compression scheme. Flash memory recorders do not compress the audio. > > Another reason is that most, maybe all, flash memory recorders use >balanced I/O. This will reduce noise pickup with even moderate >cable runs, a major factor in our world of light dimmers, >wireless Internet, satellite TV, and so on. Someeone emailed me >privately about noise pickup with unbalanded I/O a few days ago. >I'll let him speak for himself. Balanced I/O also makes it easier >to use high-quality, phantom-powered microphones if you want. > > We've discussed the M-Audio 24/96 on the Ampex Mailing List >(http://recordist.com/ampex). Several people have reported that >it does not put out a full 48VDC for phantom power. Whether >M-Audio has or plans to fix this I do not know. I do know that >many if not most phantom-powered microphones use the 48VDC to >polarize the capsule and will be noisier than they should be with >lower voltage. > > The bottom line, though, is to find a reasonable storage medium >and spend the majority of your money on a pair of high-quality >condenser microphones. > > HTH. > > Howard Sanner > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
