What are folks using these days to record audio? MiniDisc, DAT or
digital audio?

Any recommendations on digital audio recorders? That's what I'd go for I
think when I begin DXing again. I've no idea what products people are using.
Rich

"Richard" wrote in message
...
What are folks using these days to record audio? MiniDisc, DAT or
digital audio?

Any recommendations on digital audio recorders? That's what I'd go for I
think when I begin DXing again. I've no idea what products people are
using.
Rich

BTW, not interested in recording to my PC. Has to be standalone as it were.

Richard wrote:

"Richard" wrote in message
...
What are folks using these days to record audio? MiniDisc, DAT or
digital audio?

Any recommendations on digital audio recorders? That's what I'd go for I
think when I begin DXing again. I've no idea what products people are
using.
Rich

BTW, not interested in recording to my PC. Has to be standalone as it were.



Marantz PMD670/671

Richard wrote:

What are folks using these days to record audio? MiniDisc, DAT or
digital audio?

Any recommendations on digital audio recorders? That's what I'd go for I
think when I begin DXing again. I've no idea what products people are
using.


Insignia NS-DV4GC

http://tinyurl.com/2f9khq

The good:

It has 4Gb built in and is expandable through a miniSD slot.

It has a stereo line in record function.

When the USB is plugged in, the device shows up as drive on the computer
screen. Files may dragged and dropped in both directions.

The battery is user replaceable. A lot of portable MP3 players have a
built in battery. When it wears out, you throw the thing away. Sad.

Built in FM radio. Very good reception. It can record Stereo or Mono
signals.

Excellent resolution. 320 X 240
It plays AVI videos, Wav files and MP3s

Claimed twenty hour battery life.


The bad: It's discontinued, but can be found on sale at some
Best Buy stores. Be careful, some of the stuff they sell is junk.


This unit is supposedly similar to some Iriver models, but i couldn't
find any of those.

http://reviews.cnet.com/4566-6499_7-...00036_5260177_

Ipods were a disappointment. Overpriced for the features. They look
good, but that's about it.

Some good reviews he

http://ahttp://anythingbutipod.com/nythingbutipod.com/




mike

m II wrote:
Richard wrote:

What are folks using these days to record audio? MiniDisc, DAT or
digital audio?

Any recommendations on digital audio recorders? That's what I'd go for I
think when I begin DXing again. I've no idea what products people are
using.


Insignia NS-DV4GC

http://tinyurl.com/2f9khq

The good:

It has 4Gb built in and is expandable through a miniSD slot.

It has a stereo line in record function.

When the USB is plugged in, the device shows up as drive on the computer
screen. Files may dragged and dropped in both directions.

The battery is user replaceable. A lot of portable MP3 players have a
built in battery. When it wears out, you throw the thing away. Sad.

Built in FM radio. Very good reception. It can record Stereo or Mono
signals.

Excellent resolution. 320 X 240
It plays AVI videos, Wav files and MP3s

Claimed twenty hour battery life.


The bad: It's discontinued, but can be found on sale at some
Best Buy stores. Be careful, some of the stuff they sell is junk.


This unit is supposedly similar to some Iriver models, but i couldn't
find any of those.

http://reviews.cnet.com/4566-6499_7-...00036_5260177_

Ipods were a disappointment. Overpriced for the features. They look
good, but that's about it.

Some good reviews he

http://ahttp://anythingbutipod.com/nythingbutipod.com/


That last link should have been:

http://anythingbutipod.com

Stupid cut and paste features anyway.....





mike

On 20 Mar, 19:01, "Richard" wrote:
What are folks using these days to record audio? MiniDisc, DAT or
digital audio?

Any recommendations on digital audio recorders? That's what I'd go for I
think when I begin DXing again. I've no idea what products people are using.
Rich

iriver HDD recorders. See http://www.kongsfjord.no/bm/iRiver%2...0rev%20 1.pdf

I've had mine running 24/7 in recording or standby mode since October.
No problems.

BM

So there you have it, anything from a $50 unheard of Chinese brand to
a $2000 top of the line Marantz professional recorder.

If you Google around a bit there are literally hundreds of digital mp3
recorders new and used available, so you have to choose carefully
based on some important criteria you must develop.

In my case I chose the $400 Edirol R-09 becasue:
1.] it is about the only one I could find that had replaceable
batteries (AA's), whereas the bulk of them have rechargeables which
doesn't suit me at my Seefontein powerless DXpedition site.
2.] It is totally solid state with no moving parts at all, important
in the very dusty African environment.
3.] Excellent well lit display with lots of info in the poor light of
a DXpedition site. So many of the others have tiny unlit displays that
are difficult to read in poor light conditions.
4.] Lovely easy to use controls - many of the offerings have tiny
unuseable buttons.
5.] Outstanding PC interface - you just plug it into your PC USB port
and can drag and drop your audio files as you wish. A great advantage.
6.] Come standard with a nifty little mains power supply (110/220v
AC).

Of course the Edirol R-09 is a bit of an overkill for most as it will
do high CD quality recordings of musical concerts etc. in WAV, so it
is important that you set yourself some criteria and then google
around to see the vast number of reviews and products available.

John Plimmer, Montagu, Western Cape Province, South Africa
South 33 d 47 m 32 s, East 20 d 07 m 32 s
RX Icom IC-756 PRO III with MW mods
Drake SW8 & ERGO software
Sony 7600D, GE SRIII, Redsun RP2100
BW XCR 30, Sangean 803A.
Antenna's RF Systems DX 1 Pro Mk II, Datong AD-270
Kiwa MW Loop, PAORDT Roelof mini-whip
http://www.dxing.info/about/dxers/plimmer.dx

On Mar 21, 7:25*am, bm wrote:
On 20 Mar, 19:01, "Richard" wrote:

What are folks using these days to record audio? MiniDisc, DAT or
digital audio?

Any recommendations on digital audio recorders? That's what I'd go for I
think when I begin DXing again. I've no idea what products people are using.
Rich

iriver HDD recorders. Seehttp://www.kongsfjord.no/bm/iRiver%20HDD%20DAPs%20as%20DX%20Recorders...

I've had mine running 24/7 in recording or standby mode since October.
No problems.

BM

On Mar 22, 10:50 am, wrote:
So there you have it, anything from a $50 unheard of Chinese brand to
a $2000 top of the line Marantz professional recorder.

If you Google around a bit there are literally hundreds of digital mp3
recorders new and used available, so you have to choose carefully
based on some important criteria you must develop.

In my case I chose the $400 Edirol R-09 becasue:
1.] it is about the only one I could find that had replaceable
batteries (AA's), whereas the bulk of them have rechargeables which
doesn't suit me at my Seefontein powerless DXpedition site.
2.] It is totally solid state with no moving parts at all, important
in the very dusty African environment.
3.] Excellent well lit display with lots of info in the poor light of
a DXpedition site. So many of the others have tiny unlit displays that
are difficult to read in poor light conditions.
4.] Lovely easy to use controls - many of the offerings have tiny
unuseable buttons.
5.] Outstanding PC interface - you just plug it into your PC USB port
and can drag and drop your audio files as you wish. A great advantage.
6.] Come standard with a nifty little mains power supply (110/220v
AC).

Of course the Edirol R-09 is a bit of an overkill for most as it will
do high CD quality recordings of musical concerts etc. in WAV, so it
is important that you set yourself some criteria and then google
around to see the vast number of reviews and products available.

John Plimmer, Montagu, Western Cape Province, South Africa
South 33 d 47 m 32 s, East 20 d 07 m 32 s
RX Icom IC-756 PRO III with MW mods
Drake SW8 & ERGO software
Sony 7600D, GE SRIII, Redsun RP2100
BW XCR 30, Sangean 803A.
Antenna's RF Systems DX 1 Pro Mk II, Datong AD-270
Kiwa MW Loop, PAORDT Roelof mini-whiphttp://www.dxing.info/about/dxers/plimmer.dx

On Mar 21, 7:25 am, bm wrote:

On 20 Mar, 19:01, "Richard" wrote:

What are folks using these days to record audio? MiniDisc, DAT or
digital audio?

Any recommendations on digital audio recorders? That's what I'd go for I
think when I begin DXing again. I've no idea what products people are using.
Rich

iriver HDD recorders. Seehttp://www.kongsfjord.no/bm/iRiver%20HDD%20DAPs%20as%20DX%20Recorders...

I've had mine running 24/7 in recording or standby mode since October.
No problems.

BM

Zoom H2 does all that.

On Mar 20, 11:01 am, "Richard" wrote:
What are folks using these days to record audio? MiniDisc, DAT or
digital audio?

Any recommendations on digital audio recorders? That's what I'd go for I
think when I begin DXing again. I've no idea what products people are using.
Rich

Zoom H2 recorder
$32 8 GByte SDHC card at Frys
$175 for H2 recorder on amazon (DJ Tools)

I believe you need to be able to record in PCM. If you record in a
compressed format, you are screwed regarding post processing. That is,
if you record in mp3, then want to enhance the recording (filtering,
etc), you need to convert to PCM, but the recording will be full of
mp3 artifacts. Then if you want to put the file on the net, the audio
quality will suffer when you compress it to mp3 again. Thus you need
large capacity and the ability to record in PCM.

The unit has a line input.

Caveats:
1) No vox. It sounds like it has one, but it doesn't. You can remove
the gaps via software, but the dead air does take up space on the SDHC
card.
2) Microphone input very noise. Not a big deal, but if you plan to
record with external microphone, you will need to use an external
microphone amp. Note the amps for the 4 internal microphones are low
noise.
3) Due to limits of fat32, files are limited to 2GBytes. If you try to
record 8Gbytes in one setting, it will break the file up into 4 2Gbyte
blocks.
4) Recording in mono does not save space on the card. It is just
stereo in two mono channels.
5) Line output is noisy. Not a big deal since it is the digital data
that is of concern.

Advantages:
1) AA powered
2) PCM
3) Line input recording is very clean.
4) Mac/PC compatible. Even works on Windows X64
5) For fun, the unit acts like a USB microphone. I've done SKYPE with
it.
6) Large user base with cool hacks like make your own surround sound
files.

http://www.samsontech.com/products/p...fm?prodID=1916
http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2007...-recorder.html

I use FlexiMusic Audio Editor for recording an audio in my pc. Been very pleased with it.

"Richard" wrote in message ...
What are folks using these days to record audio? MiniDisc, DAT or
digital audio?

Any recommendations on digital audio recorders? That's what I'd go for I
think when I begin DXing again. I've no idea what products people are using.
Rich