Handheld audio recorders

rolly · Post by **rolly** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 2:06 pm

Hi,
Does anyone have suggestions of affordable (e.g. below 150 UKP), good, handheld recorders that are suitable for recording high quality samples (48khz or better) e.g. live broadcast, captured sounds etc on the go for later use in a home studio environment. Is Mini high-disk up to the job (I've had a look at Sony MZ-NH900 Hi-MiniDisc Walkman with the Sony ECM-DM5 Plug in Power Microphone) or should I look at DAT portables? Alternativley, are hard disk/compact flash recorders the way forward or is latency an issue?
Thanks for any advice/pointers.

-rolly

stew · Post by **stew** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 3:39 pm

I think HI-MD should suit you. I know a lot of musicians that use MD, and the latest generation of MD finally allows PCM recordings (previously only compressed) and direct transfer to the computer.

rolly · Post by **rolly** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 4:02 pm

Thanks Stew. By PCM you mean Red book audio i.e. a sample rate of 44.1khz? The Sony MZ-NH900 Silver Hi-MiniDisc Walkman lists the following compatible formats: Compatible formats: MP3, WMA, WAV, and ATRAC3 audio and ATRAC3plus and MiniDisc compression format. I suppose the WAV format offers the best option for non compressed audio, yes?

Boulderdash · Post by **Boulderdash** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 5:13 pm

I'm looking too for a portable solution right now. The only thing which beats DAT at the moment is the edirol R1

http://www.edirol.com/products/info/r1.html

but this device is with 430€ too expensive for me, you still need a big cf-card.

I would leave my fingers off minidisk, even the HiMD ones because of DRM (you need convertertools to convert your recorded files to .wav). The others, archos and creative jukebox for example are to my mind more like ipod-replacements for people on the road, I haven't found one with manual leveling (which is existential for recording live)

It looks like I will buy a used portable DAT (ok, sony as well

, although I had an AIWA HD-S200 until someone broke it, good device) for around 200€ and go on with this until someone makes a good professional solution.

Christian

mike holiday · Post by **mike holiday** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 5:29 pm

Iv had one of these for 5 years and it works great

44.1 and will record 30 hours continuously
has a 1/8 line in

http://www.nomadworld.com/products/jukebox_20gb/

they have all different models

rolly · Post by **rolly** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 5:48 pm

The Edirol R-1 looks just the ticket--if only it were a tad cheaper

. At 329 UKP (Dolphin Music's web site) it seems to me to be very expensive for this type of device.

stew · Post by **stew** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 6:50 pm

Boulderdash wrote:I would leave my fingers off minidisk, even the HiMD ones because of DRM (you need convertertools to convert your recorded files to .wav). The others, archos and creative jukebox for example are to my mind more like ipod-replacements for people on the road, I haven't found one with manual leveling (which is existential for recording live)

FWIW, Sony is providing the tools to get your recordings in WAV format. Or you could simply use SPDIF connection to your soundcard to get the music into the computer (that would not work with the NH900, that one doesn't have a digital output AFAIK).

You may want to wait for the next generation of MD recorders that was released just last week. They now can play mp3 natively, and who knows - maybe their newest version of their software allows downloading from MD directly as WAV? One can hope.