Hamburg promises to host three interesting lectures on the 4th of
July. I'm sure people want to hear them. Could someone please
recommend recording devices? (Or more appropriate places where I could
ask this question?)
Specifics:
- Effectiveness, stability and cheap are my priorities, in that order.
Effectiveness means it can easily record someone who may be pacing
around a bit. Stability means it can survive accidental dropping.
- I don't care about technology; it can record on tape for all I care.
I am willing to transcribe or summarize.
- It should have minimal dependencies. Definitely no dependencies on
being hooked up to a general-purpose PC; PCs suck and don't work.
I will visit the local nerd store to check up on the specific brands
they have later.
Thanks for any help.
You want a Mini-Disc recorder. You can get used ones for less than
US$100. But, if you buy one, make sure it has the ability to record,
many are playback only.
Some MD recorders come with built-in microphones, other's you'll need
to add a mic. These can be cheap or expensive. Typically, though,
they are very small. I picked up a microphone from
http://www.minidisco.com a year ago.
MD recorders have been around for a long time now, so they can be
bought on the aftermarket. They are reliable, have _great_ sound
quality for recording, and can easily fit into your pocket. The
mini-disc media can usually be had for about $2/disc.
Many have the ability to transfer music to and from a PC, though most
of the older ones don't support MP3.
I use a Sony MX-R70 that I got on Ebay to record violin playing. I
don't use it in concert with my computer, but for convenient portable
recording and playback it cannot be beat.
Hope this helps,
Chris Perkins
···········@yahoo.com (Tayssir John Gabbour) wrote in message news:<····························@posting.google.com>...
> Hamburg promises to host three interesting lectures on the 4th of
> July. I'm sure people want to hear them. Could someone please
> recommend recording devices? (Or more appropriate places where I could
> ask this question?)
>
> Specifics:
> - Effectiveness, stability and cheap are my priorities, in that order.
> Effectiveness means it can easily record someone who may be pacing
> around a bit. Stability means it can survive accidental dropping.
>
> - I don't care about technology; it can record on tape for all I care.
> I am willing to transcribe or summarize.
>
> - It should have minimal dependencies. Definitely no dependencies on
> being hooked up to a general-purpose PC; PCs suck and don't work.
>
>
> I will visit the local nerd store to check up on the specific brands
> they have later.
>
> Thanks for any help.
········@medialab.com (Chris Perkins) wrote in message news:<····························@posting.google.com>...
> You want a Mini-Disc recorder. You can get used ones for less than
^^^^^^^^^
> US$100. But, if you buy one, make sure it has the ability to record,
> many are playback only.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
:)
········@medialab.com (Chris Perkins) wrote in message news:<····························@posting.google.com>...
> You want a Mini-Disc recorder. You can get used ones for less than
> US$100. But, if you buy one, make sure it has the ability to record,
> many are playback only.
I second this. I use mine to record guitar ideas (in fact, I use a
little solid-state 4-track `portastudio' thingy which has reverb and
EQ and a few other useful things, but then I transfer things to MD to
keep them), and it's fine. They have the advantage of having nothing
to do with computers - I refuse to use any kind of musical device
which requires general-purpose computers. Transistors were a bad
enough step, and I can't be doing with them digits, whatever they are.
--tim (Actually I do use the CD player on my machine at work...)
········@medialab.com (Chris Perkins) wrote in message news:<····························@posting.google.com>...
> You want a Mini-Disc recorder. You can get used ones for less than
> US$100. But, if you buy one, make sure it has the ability to record,
> many are playback only.
Thanks guys, that minidisco.com link was great as a startingpoint to
learn about what's out there.
So it seems the choice is between a minidisc, or running two cheap
tape recorders in parallel. (Which will still be 20% of the price of a
nice minidisc.) Getting a used minidisc from ebay is unfortunately out
of the question, since the meeting will be so soon.
I've got a strong preference for being cheap, but perhaps I'll find
other personal uses for a minidisc and be seduced into the darkside.
········@medialab.com (Chris Perkins) wrote in message news:<····························@posting.google.com>...
> You want a Mini-Disc recorder. You can get used ones for less than
> US$100. But, if you buy one, make sure it has the ability to record,
> many are playback only.
Quick note to anyone reading this thread, it's useful to look through
the lowest-rating reviews on Amazon before purchasing. Apparently
there are problems people encounter due to Sony digital-rights
management software.
Presumably this is no serious problem if you have no intention of
having it interact with your PC. And I stated I didn't want a
dependency on a PC, so this was a perfectly fine recommendation in my
case.
I'm off to Hamburg (7am, ugggg), and I'm bringing an inexpensive
normal tape recorder in the meanwhile to see how well it fares.
(Minidisc recorder prices are insane here, ~2X US price.) It held up
ok with my informal tests. If/when I buy a Thinkpad (my Sony notebook
died), I'll test it out too with a mike...