voice recorders

[freeindeed]

I read over at homerecording.com that digital voice recorders were an easy way to get fairly good recordings done. I'm not looking for studio quality, I just want to record some guitar and singing. The Sony ICDSX25 and Olympus DS-2 are both in consideration. They both have built in stereo mics with a mic jack for external stereo/condensor mics. Anyone have any experience with these?

Chris

[Serenity]

I get a surprisingly good quality of recording on my iRiver media player, even through the internal mic. I use it for recording lectures in some classes I take and at my guitar lessons to record samples from my teacher to work on the next week.

I have an external mic which I use when recording music because the internal mic picks up the sound of the hard drive spinning every now and then, but for lectures this isn't a problem.

I'd suggest you look into something, like what I have, that can do double duty for you as a media player and a recorder, based on what you are saying you want to do.

[Choirboy]

Originally Posted by Abdiel

I get a surprisingly good quality of recording on my iRiver media player, even through the internal mic. I use it for recording lectures in some classes I take and at my guitar lessons to record samples from my teacher to work on the next week.

I have an external mic which I use when recording music because the internal mic picks up the sound of the hard drive spinning every now and then, but for lectures this isn't a problem.

I'd suggest you look into something, like what I have, that can do double duty for you as a media player and a recorder, based on what you are saying you want to do.

Another vote for iRiver products. I have a H320 and it's really versatile. Like Abdiel mentioned...the quality of recording is surprisingly good with the internal mic and you'd be getting mp3 playability as well.

[freeindeed]

Thanks for the reply guys.

Abdiel..what model do you have? The H320 is a little more than I want to spend. The 1 GB model is what I'm looking at.


Chris

[Choirboy]

Chris,

You might want to check out the iRiver forum...it might give you ideas on where to get something you need at a good price. I know some of the guys there were mentioning that the H320 was had for very very cheap at some Best Buy stores since that model is going out of production. Didn't make me feel too great knowing that I paid full price...but perhaps you can do better than I did.
As a footnote...if you can swing it...a larger capacity is great...you'd be surprised how quickly those things fill up.
Here's the site: http://www.misticriver.net/

- Paul

[Serenity]

I have the H120 which is no longer in production. I have had mine for a few months now and at the time I paid about $250 for it which was about $50 less than an iPod.

I like Choirboy's suggestion. I may head over there myself and/or check out my local Best Buy. If I find a good price on a 320 or 40 I may put my 120 up for sale for a good price.

[Midnight Shadow]

I have the iRiver IHP140 with the 40GB hard drive. I have taken it to IGS and recording my classes, student performances and after a weeek of recording I have used only a small amount of the memory.

As to how it records I would say great. I use the external mic that came with it and the mic is about 6-10 feet from the instructor. The results have been great. When I recording the student performances the mic was about 20 feet from the performer and still picked up fine.

As to quality I think it sounds fine and I have been very please. As to learning how to use it I would say the manual could use some work. It took a few of us that bought them to figure out the manual.
Midnight Shadow

[Serenity]

I'm not finding any really good prices on the 320 or 340 iRiver and frankly, it's not as good of a deal as it was.

When iRiver dropped the 1xx series they also stopped including the inline remote and external microphone. Something else I've noticed is that apparently, in order to keep price down and compeat with iPod they dumbed down the firmware on the new ones. It seems that what the hardcore people on the iRiver forum do is download foreign versions of the firmware.

The good news is that I found several threads about replacing the battery so its good to know that I can do that if I need to.

[Choirboy]

Essntially...the H32/H340 is basically the H120/H140 with a color screen to display pictures.
If the deal on the H320/H340 has dried up...you can probalby find something on the Classifieds of the Misticriver site. The guys there have a tendency to get the newest/latest. Lately...it's the N series...and older stuff may be had for cheap when they try to unload the "older" gear.
Don't think I qualify as being "hardcore" but I did flash my player with the foreign firmware. By doing so...I got the ability to play videos and the player gained some upgraded sound capabilities. The only caveat is that you lose the ability to download songs from "paying" song-downloading sites (not something that I really intend to use). The possibility of making my music dvd's "portable" really appealed to me.
I bought the H320 knowing full well that I was going to upgrade with a foreign firmware and essentially get a European/Asian player with added functions and capabilities. In my estimation...it's only worthwhile to get the H320/H340 if you intend to access its "sleeper" functions by flashing with a foreign firmware. I've had absolutely no problems with the foreign firmware and the combination of the H320 and Grado headphones is utterly amazing.
Man...we've really hijacked this thread...I thought we were supposed to help Chris find a digital voice recorder?? LOL

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by freeindeed

I read over at homerecording.com that digital voice recorders were an easy way to get fairly good recordings done. I'm not looking for studio quality, I just want to record some guitar and singing. The Sony ICDSX25 and Olympus DS-2 are both in consideration. They both have built in stereo mics with a mic jack for external stereo/condensor mics. Anyone have any experience with these?

Hi freeindeed...
I own a full studio, a portable recording rig, several small digital voice recorders, and recently snagged a small Pandora PXR4 which is a 4 track recorder with a small mixer built in as a scratch and dent from Musician's Friend.

It uses cheap SmartMedia and records to mp2 format which I plug into my laptop with a USB cable and drag files directly into iTunes which I use to convert them to mp3. A 128MB card will hold an hour of highest quality stereo sound, and dumps files directly to computer via USB. This is one fun little rig with high quality.

It records two channels at once, and allows zero latency overdubbing...nice little unit.

It is half the size of a paperback book, and records in 192kbps, 128kbps, or 96kbps. It produces the best audio of any of the little things I've tried (better than iRiver) but is not an mp3 player. It is a small digital studio.

While it won't replace my larger studio rigs, it serves as a great idea grabber, as the internal mic works quite well, and it permits adjustable volume even with the built in mic. It also permits stereo line in, and mic in, and guitar cable in. You can then use the 4 channel plus master volume mixer for mixdown.

New it costs about the same as the iRiver.

I gave it a real workout last week using it for about 8 hours a day for five days in active mode (recording ready at the touch of a button), and then about 2 hours editing a night, and it ate a set of 2 AA batteries about every 12 hours. That is really efficient.

[freeindeed]

Thanks for all the input. I ended up getting an iRiver IFP-899. Man I can't believe what this thing can do. My mind is numb from trying to learn how to use it. I have, however, been able to figure out the voice recorder function which is really the main reason I bought it. Let me reiterate I wasn't looking for studio quality here, I just wanted to be able to sit down with my guitar and record songs,ideas, etc. The sound quality is way better than I expected with the iRiver, even without an ext. mic.


Chris