Stereo handheld flash portable recorder?
 

My Sony walkman stereo cassette recorder finally bit the dust.

I'm now looking for a stereo flash-based recorder along the lines of the M-Audio MicroTrack.

The mission is to record ambient audio to supplement the photos I take on vacation. This could be anything from birdsong in a jungle to Trafalger traffic to jets at an airshow.

I've Googled about and it seems like the going rate is $400 to $1000 which seems a bit pricy.

Does anyone have personal experience with a stereo flash recorder you are willing to share?

Thanks!

What kind of quality are you looking to get? Are you using external mics or do you need something that has its own mics?

I've heard good things about the new Roland:

http://www.rolandus.com/products/pro...7&ParentId=109

But to be honest, the guy need is my fellow moderator here, Kanebear; he is the go-to guy when it comes to audio...

Thank you Scott. The Edirol is a sweet device. I could wish it were CF based rather than SD since I have oodles of CF but no SD. On the other hand, for audio, 1Gb would last me forever (and I can dump it to my portable HD)

Internal mics are fine. 24 bit is probably more than I need, but hey, why not? :)

I'm not an audiophile, but I want something that can capture some depth in a recording of a dawn chorus, for example.

Wow! This is a sweet looking machine. I am currently using an Olympus digital, but the process of converting from wav to mp3 is getting tiresome.

One question for the tech savvy: I see that the this unit has both mic and line in. One problem requiring constant fiddling with the Olympus is that it has only mic. When I want to take a feed from a line out on an sound board, I need to pass it through a device that I assume "steps down the signal."

Does the audio "line" input mean that I would no longer have to do that?

The R-09 is going to be a great device (and I would assume superior to the M-Audio which has had mediocre reviews and still has some issues, M-Audio does good value/money but their products aren't the best.) but given your CF media, you might be better served by the R-09's "older" brother, the R-1. It's pretty much bulletproof and has been proven in the market. Sound quality is very good from the internal mics and it can record directly to MP3.

If you're more of a casual user, this Olympus at $129 might work. Here is a page where you can see a review and download a sample recording. It records to WMA, not MP3 but it's easily transcoded from one to the other. Downsides are that it only has 128MB and isn't expandable. The Olympus DS20 has more features and isn't as subject to handling noise but costs more.

For me, the unit *I* want is this one. *droool*

There're a few direct-to-USB interfaces out there but none are very high quality. IMO the R-1 is going to be the best balance between quality and portability/ease of use followed by the Olympus if you want to be cost conscious.

Thanks kanebear. I agree about the Sony. That is one very cool recorder. I can't quite justify the $2K pricetag, especially since I'm going to spring for a Canon 5D next month :eek:

The R-1 seems to be selling for about the same price as the R-09 so the tradeoff would be CF/SD vs. portability.

On the other hand, the R1 is available now and the R-09 is available April, May, June depending on what you read. I've never been fond of delayed gratification :D

I think the R-09 will have to be it and I will take it as a lesson in patience.

Cheers!

I've dabbled a bit with field recordings myself. I use a Sanyo ICR-B175NZ stereo recorder (encodes directly to mp3; can 64kbps which is fine for voice, but also 128kbps). This model is apparently discontinued now, but I picked mine up at a Radio Shack in Canada about a year ago for about CDN$70 or so.

I also use a pair of binaural microphones from The Sound Professionals (http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cg...item/SP-TFB-2). They are amazing and give true surround sound staging.

If you want, just pick up a cheap minidisc recorder and use that for field recordings. This is what I used to use to get the best sound quality, but there is some loss unless you can transfer into a high-spec audio card on your computer.

Actually, maybe that Sanya isn't discontinued. Seems to be still on the books in Canada: http://www.sanyo.ca/en-CA/business/e...?productID=576

File transfer from the unit to your computer is via USB.

I agree on all parts of your post that I understand. ;)

I am quite happy with my Olympus DM-1 except for two issues:


- For me the conversions to wav then to mp3 have been getting tedious since in months when I am teaching, I will have 80 to 100 tracks to convert. If I had many less, then it would not be a problem

- Kanebear do you know the answer to the question I posted above - which is the other problem: since the R-09 has two audio inputs: one "mic" and one "line" would I be able to do away with the box that "steps down" the signal from a "line out" on a sound board?

I believe the R-09 may work from a sound-board line out without padding. The input is unbalanced but is rated at 0 dBu which means it's inbetween the -10dBv consumer and +4dBu balanced pro spec. You'll just have to try and see if it overloads the input. It's a minijack input so unless you can do a 1/4" stereo phono plug to 1/8" stereo plug out of the soundboard you'll still need a box to convert the XLRs. It definitely has a much better chance than the DM-1 which only has a microphone input and absolutely needs the padding.

Thanks! I'll check it out. It's great to have a new "necessity" to lust after. :D

I've gotten e-mails from two companies this week stating that they are now taking orders for the Edirol R-09.

I'e placed my order with B&H Photo. I'll post again when it ships.

I spoke to B&H and they told me that they still have no real idea when the R-09 will arrive. Since I am moving about all summer long, I reinstated myself on the "notify me when available" rather than pre-order list. That way I will not have it sent home while I am in Chicago for a month.

I note that the first guess at available date was late May, now is sometime in June.

It seems that B&H followed a couple of other suppliers who put up their "pre-order" options weeks and weeks ago. It could just be that they were worried about losing sales rather than actually being any closer to knowing when they can fulfill orders.

I am looking forward to getting it, though, whenever it comes!

Are you a Mac user? If so, you can use Automator to convert the wavs to mp3. Just build as a folder action. Any files you drop into the designated folder will be automatically converted to mp3 and moved to their permanent home.

I'm sure there's a way to do something similar on Windows and Linux, I just don't know it.

J&R claims to actually have it in stock (jr.com). I called them this morning. I still have a preference for B&H, so I'll wait for them. If JR is giving me accurate information, then BH cannot be far behind.