looking for audio recorder

[Tomsoundman]

Looking for way to transfer audio to my PC. It will be lecture so low resolution, mono MP3 is my ultimate goal. Would rather not transfer from tape to PC. Ideal situation would be to plug a capture device into sound system, then transfer to PC. Any ideas or info?

Thanks in advance.:D

[MarkA]

Here's a poor man's way that works well:

Get a decent consumer sound card like the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz (or the M-Audio Audiophile 24/96 if you can afford it!). Then connect your sound mixer board's output (not sure what you have for ouputs, you need to get to a 1/8" line level stereo ultimately for the SC, and (I believe) dual RCAs for the M-Audio, but you can convert whatever you have.). Then you must caputre it using a program like CDex.

Here's the rich man's solutions:

The DigiDesign MBox (available for MacOS 9.x and Windows XP I believe), this gives you a superior solution. Check it out at www.digidesign.com

[James_F]

Zac, are you getting paid by Turtle Beach? ;)

[Tomsoundman]

Ok, thanks, something I wasn't clear on, will not have my PC with me. Anyone else have an idea?

[gcutler]

There are MP3 recording devices that will allow you to speak into them like tape recorders, and then you can uplink the recordings to a PC in MP3 format. Don't know which brands are good/best, check out Amazon.com and look for MP3 RECORDERS

My MP3 player www.digisette.com has that capability, but I never tried it in the real world.

[Neil Derryberry]

plug the headphone port of any minicassette recorder into the line in port on your pc and start playback/recording....

[MarkA]

Tom, what exactly is the application? I assume you're recording a live event. You really do need a computer to record onto. Or else a professional CD recorder, transferring it onto a computer later for final mastering. It is best to record directly onto a computer though. I'm not sure how often you're going to be doing this, but if it's going to be on a regular basis, you may want to invest in an Apple iBook laptop (with a CD recorder of course!) and a DigiDesign MBox. This would make an absolutely beautiful solution for recording events. You even use the computer to produce the first few copies of the CD while at the event, within an hour or so of it being over.

[PeterB]

Archos makes an excellent MP3 Hard drive player/record for about $300.

USB 2.0, 10 gigs oh HD and a excellent MP3 player to boot.

[Tomsoundman]

I like Neil's idea.

Thanks everyone.

[James_F]

Olympus makes some pretty cool digital voice recorders....

http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/cpg_vr_digitalrecorders.asp

[Neil Derryberry]

It will be lecture so low resolution, mono MP3 is my ultimate goal.

Simple and cheap seems best to me.

[Richard King]

I think Neil's idea is the way to go, but then you could always pick up one of these:
http://www.tascam.com/products/mx2424/index.php
I don't know what you would do with the remaining 23 tracks though. When you are done with it send it on down to me. :D

[James_F]

Its all about you isn't it... :cool:

[Tomsoundman]

Man, that does look like fun...

[MarkA]

Tomsoundman, you haven't actually stated your production environment, but I assume you do have a sound system. In which case you need a recording solution with AT LEAST a Hi-Z line-level input to connect to an auxillary output on your mixer board. Don't you have a pro cassette deck you could work with? Copy those cassettes onto the computer would be the easiest way. A direct digital solution like I mentioned (especially if you get the MBox, you can one or (if you want stereo recordings) two of your XLR Low-Z outputs into it) will sound MUCH better though. A portable cassette recorder (like Neil suggested) will only have a mic-level input, and at that, quality will be awful (far worse than your 32kbps mono MP3's potential). Additionally, another problem with analog is that analog noise makes it harder to get good results from MP3 (MPEG-1, Audio Layer 3) compression.

[Richard King]

Its all about you isn't it...
Hey!!! I didn't tell him to buy me the required mixing console to go with it!! :D
http://www.glw.com/products/s12/index.html

[Nick]

Recommend a portable Mararantz PMD 222 for on-site speech recording. See the unit and description here (http://www-fcms.syr.edu/showcase/toolkit/toolkit1.cfm?ToolIDPK=9)

http://www-fcms.syr.edu/images/toolkit/MarantzPMD222.jpg

Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best solutions.

[James_F]

Originally posted by Rking401

Hey!!! I didn't tell him to buy me the required mixing console to go with it!! :D
http://www.glw.com/products/s12/index.html


You must be loads of fun around Christmas... :)

[Bogy]

Originally posted by Nick
Recommend a portable Mararantz PMD 222 for on-site speech recording. See the unit and description here (http://www-fcms.syr.edu/showcase/toolkit/toolkit1.cfm?ToolIDPK=9)

http://www-fcms.syr.edu/images/toolkit/MarantzPMD222.jpg

Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best solutions.
I remember drooling over the (then) current version of this little beauty at least ten years ago. But don't you think he really should have the stereo version?
http://marantzpro.com/Products/images/pmd430_T.jpg

[Richard King]

Marantz has actually made quite a series of portables like that for many years. I can remember seeing my first from sometime back in about the mid '70's. They were quite expensive back then, I have no idea what they go for now, but suspect there must be a cheaper solution, somewhere. Marantz actually makes a series of small protable digital recorders now, probably also quite expensive.