"one-time" audio digitizing

Then you'll then know as much as I do, ;-) as I never got beyond the web search stage for the more expensive units. I found that a digital voice recorder that I bought at a closeout price, just to test things out, was adequate for my purposes, (mostly time shifting and archiving radio programs).

Looking for home recording equipment at Fry's and Best Buy was one of those strange "Can't you do this any more?" moments, finding that equipment for quality audio recording has disappeared from consumer electronics big box stores. Voice grade recorders, some MP-3 players, and video cameras, but no "reel-to-reel" grade standalone gear. (Turns out that people into making music and radio media use other equipment vendors).

groups.google censors email addresses as an anti-spam harvesting measure. When viewing news on the web site, (or in follow-up messages on the rest of the web), email addresses are replaced with a partial version with an ellipsis in the middle. I gather the only way for a reader on groups to send an email to the poster is through that clickable link, and someone with only a saved text copy of a follow-up is out of luck. As my ISP's anti-spam filters are adequate, it irritates me.

Mark Zenier snipped-for-privacy@eskimo.com Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)

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Mark Zenier
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Possibly some Mini Disc recorder on eBay

  • a Mini Disc player with optical out...

Gerardus

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Gerardus

OK. It seems like all of these are "digital VOICE recorders" (suggestive of "dictaphone"). So, how do you sort out quality issues between them? (i.e., all seem to publish pretty much the same "digital" capabilities but I'm sure there are differences in the microphones, their placement, etc.)

Actually, that brings up a good point... are the microphones even worth using for "quality" recording? I would assume it would be preferable to have external mics (most of the devices seem to support this -- though some use 1/8" minijacks which suggests a different "quality point" for the anticipated microphone) as I could more carefully place them to avoid breath noise, etc.

I figure the problem is figuring out exactly what the *right* bit of kit would be... then worry about how to purchase it (though being able to test drive it might be a huge win)

D'oh! OK. I was looking at this from the opposite point of view -- preventing *google* from harvesting it! (which, in a sense, is what they are doing)

Understood. Thanks for the clarification!

Reply to
Don Y

Do mini-disc recorders have "mic in" connections? (or, just

1/8" jacks) I've only seen "desktop" devices and haven't been interested enough to explore their feature sets.

I'd imagine a solid state device would still win out, theoretically, as no motors to power, etc.

Reply to
Don Y

Let say a MZ-N1 with a ECM-717 mike... And a MDS-JB980 for sending optically to a computer...

See :

formatting link

Possibly, Sony MZ-RH1 would make it all (but I don't own one) !

Gerardus

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Gerardus

I understood this to be not something "violated" lightly. I.e., if engaged in a high speed chase and the "criminal" enters another jurisdiction, the pursuing force radios ahead "as a courtesy" to the new jurisdiction. And, "invites" them to participate.

OTOH, you don't go serving a warrant on someone who happens to be *present* in a different jurisdiction.

Re: "collect on traffic tickets"...

What might be a violation in one jurisdiction might not in another. So, the authority making the arrest must be familiar with the differences in laws between their "home" jurisdiction and those in which they are (choosing to) operating.

(Ignoring the choice of offense suggested) if a "foreign" agent issues a speeding citation (its easy to see what the speed limit is regardless of whose jurisdiction you're in!), which jurisdiction "collects on (the) traffic ticket"? Or, would the foreign agent simply perform a traffic *stop* and contact the "local authorities" to dispatch someone to make the actual arrest?

What about where jurisdictions obviously overlap (e.g., "in town", I am still "in the county" -- just not in an UNINCORPORATED part of the county!)? Does the "less specific" yield to the "more specific"?

So, the city limits (for legal reasons) have long slender tendrils extending in and through them which are treated as "state"? Much like the amusing city boundaries that magically manage to extend out to encompass OHare (and its revenue stream!) -- yet none of Rosemont, Bensonville, etc.

If "states are the smallest unit of jurisdiction", then why *wouldn't* they be legally authorized to do so?

Reply to
Don Y

Hmmmm... it looks like the recorders preprocess the signals before they commit them to "memory" (disc). If that's the case, it's not a viable option for me.

I'll have to read up on them a bit. Perhaps I'll borrow one and play with it to get a feel for what it does or doesn't do to the signals going in.

Reply to
Don Y

You end up digging down into the manual (on the web) to get the sampling rate and file formats, if you're lucky. The RCA I have uses 8 kHz, 8 bit per sample A-law compressed .wav files, discovered by experiment. So only telco quality. There are Sony units that have higher sample rates and various optional compression.

But you're stuck with a unit that's too small to have decent controls, some sort of ALC that may or may not get in the way, and a unit whose signal processing is designed to get good dictation under a variety of conditions, (selectable as modes in the menu ;-(). Oh, and a menu based interface with all sorts of modes and timeouts that guarentees it will be off somewhere that you don't want it to be when you want to do something specific. Oh well, they're the size of a large pack of gum and cheap. $50-$100 or $20-40 for last season's model.

It's probably the same mic as a cell phone. Same sort of service. My guess it that you'd need to go to one of the $150-$200 hand held units sold to the music sector to have any expectations about the quality of the internal mic. And I think the higher priced boxes don't have a mic at all.

...

Yea, my criteria for something that I would spend more money on would be a 1) spec sheet that actually specified things like the expected input levels, input impedance, and the frequency response for various recording modes, 2) a Vu meter equivalent on the front, and 3) a level control

4) a remote record switch input or internal timer, 5) output interface or media, with file formats, that I can deal with.

Mark Zenier snipped-for-privacy@eskimo.com Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)

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Mark Zenier

So, it's not like the "external (USB) sound-card" boxes that I have (a wide A/DC with a digital back-end) but, rather, a "digital tape recorder"

!! I will have to check the dimensions. I had assumed they were sizable devices (e.g., the two USB things I have are each the size of a half-height 5" disk or larger -- i.e., the size of a CD-ROM). But, thinking about it, these are probably designed to be *pocket* sized, instead?

Yikes! That's even smaller than my estimate above! No way you could plug an, e.g., XLR connector in there!

Ideally, I'm looking for the 21st century version of a portable Nagra but without the obvious "frills" that would move it into this century.

Hmmm... hadn't thought of the remote switch (which would probably be essential if the mic was built in). I'd opt for two mic inputs (2 channel) so I could position a pair of mics in the hope that a momentary turn of the head (which might affect signal at *one* mic) would still allow for a good recording at the *other*.

Reply to
Don Y

With a USB interface that makes it look like a standard flash drive.

They exist. Marantz PMD560, PMD580. Some units by Tascam.

I finally found the message threads that I remember getting some good pointers, in sci.electronics.design. (Looks like I'm in the stage where everything I remember seems to be a year older than I thought it was).

Subject: Re: Are there simple line-powered MP3 recorders? Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2008 00:28:38 GMT

And one discussing what amounts to "smart microphones".

Subject: microphone inputs to .wav file on microSD card? Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 15:43:06 -0700

I've heard on the BBC world service (in the "From Our Own Correspondent" program), that some of their field reporters use the Marantz units.

Mark Zenier snipped-for-privacy@eskimo.com Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)

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Mark Zenier

The two Marantz units were disappointing. I haven't chased down the Tascam lead, yet...

I read through the second of these threads (haven't yet located the first). I was dismayed by a post commenting that the mic inputs were "noisy". I had hoped that would give me the ability to work-around the quality of the built-in mic(s).

I guess I should drag out a pair of mics and see how things sound on various platforms (desktop PC w/internal sound card; desktop w/USB-based module; laptop/tablet w/same; etc.)

Reply to
Don Y

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