|
|||||||||
|
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
May 23rd, 2011, 09:53 AM | #1 |
Trustee
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Santa Clara, CA
Posts: 1,104
|
Looking for a very small recorder - with the right specs.
I am looking for a recorder about the size of the Olympus WS-700 http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/723516-REG/Olympus_140152_WS_700M_Digital_Voice_Recorder.html but with manual level control. The AGC only function on the WS-700 seriously limits its usefulness. It gains up during silence causing audible noise and it also does a pump surge when sound begins again. A friend of mine has a perfect description for this; he says "it makes his teeth itch." Does anyone make a good small recorder with manual level control?
|
May 23rd, 2011, 10:14 AM | #2 |
Inner Circle
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Elk Grove CA
Posts: 6,838
|
Re: Looking for a very small recorder - with the right specs.
Zoom H1
Tascam DRO7
__________________
Chris J. Barcellos |
May 23rd, 2011, 10:25 AM | #3 |
Trustee
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Santa Clara, CA
Posts: 1,104
|
Re: Looking for a very small recorder - with the right specs.
Those are both great recorders but they are about the size of a bus compared to the Olympus WS-700. The nice thing about the WS-700 is that it is easy to place on someone because it is so small.
|
May 23rd, 2011, 10:29 AM | #4 |
Trustee
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Burlington
Posts: 1,976
|
Re: Looking for a very small recorder - with the right specs.
Maybe Tascam PR-10? It's a similar form factor to the Olympus and fairly new.
Or the TEAC VR-10? |
May 23rd, 2011, 01:05 PM | #5 |
Trustee
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Santa Clara, CA
Posts: 1,104
|
Re: Looking for a very small recorder - with the right specs.
Thanks Jay, The PR-10 looks like it meets 'spec'. I will check it out.
|
May 23rd, 2011, 02:07 PM | #6 |
Trustee
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Pennsylvania
Posts: 1,791
|
Re: Looking for a very small recorder - with the right specs.
Tascam DR-03
Sony ICD-SX700 |
May 23rd, 2011, 02:11 PM | #7 |
Regular Crew
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Honolulu, HI
Posts: 38
|
Re: Looking for a very small recorder - with the right specs.
Olympus ls-11
|
May 24th, 2011, 10:34 AM | #8 |
New Boot
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Hertfordshire, UK
Posts: 5
|
Re: Looking for a very small recorder - with the right specs.
Hi,
If avalible, I would suggest a minidisc recorder with high quality shotgun (or whatever you need) mic or optical in as although MD is old it is reliable and produces very high quality sound and with a 1GB disc it records for hours! Also, yes it does have manual control. :) Last edited by Eric Sawyer; May 24th, 2011 at 10:36 AM. Reason: Added manual comment |
May 24th, 2011, 12:34 PM | #9 |
Inner Circle
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 5,742
|
Re: Looking for a very small recorder - with the right specs.
Zaxcom ZFR200
Nagra SD Sonosax MiniR82 just a thought or three
__________________
Good news, Cousins! This week's chocolate ration is 15 grams! |
May 24th, 2011, 01:24 PM | #10 |
Major Player
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Detroit, MI
Posts: 408
|
Re: Looking for a very small recorder - with the right specs.
Another vote for the Tascam DR-03. Small and inexpensive.
|
May 24th, 2011, 05:03 PM | #11 | |
Trustee
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Pennsylvania
Posts: 1,791
|
Re: Looking for a very small recorder - with the right specs.
Jim,
And Eric, with all due respect, I'm going to offer a dissenting opinion here. Quote:
Many of the Sony machines did not allow you to change recording gain once you were actually recording. So if you saw that you were starting to clip, there was absolutely nothing you could do about it. (I seem to recall that Sony may have corrected this terrible design, toward the end of the minidisc craze. But I know many Sony machines had this issue, which caused many people not to buy Sony.) Also, AFAIK, all minidisc uses data compression... pretty good for its time, but compression nevertheless. Many RAM-based recorders allow recording in uncompressed WAV format, some of them with sampling rates up to 96kbps and bit depths of 24 bits per channel. That is audio quality better than the CD standard, and certainly better than any lossy compressed format (such as minidisc uses). Finally, if size matters, any minidisc will, of course, be much bigger than the WS-700 and much bigger than any of the RAM-based recorders that many of us have suggested. Just my opinion... but nevertheless an opinion based on facts. |
|
May 25th, 2011, 08:46 AM | #12 |
Major Player
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Oxfordshire, UK
Posts: 976
|
Re: Looking for a very small recorder - with the right specs.
I agree about the second two (will probably get a Nagra SD myself), but I'm not so sure about the first.
__________________
John Willett - Sound-Link ProAudio and Circle Sound Services President: Fédération Internationale des Chasseurs de Sons |
May 25th, 2011, 10:08 AM | #13 |
Regular Crew
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Mammoth Lakes CA
Posts: 125
|
Re: Looking for a very small recorder - with the right specs.
|
May 25th, 2011, 04:16 PM | #14 | |
Trustee
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Pennsylvania
Posts: 1,791
|
Re: Looking for a very small recorder - with the right specs.
Quote:
Sony's website clearly states tha the MZ-M200 can record PCM at 44.1 kHz, 16 bits/channel, equivalent to audio CDs Frankly, I quit following the minidisc format after losing a few irreplaceable master recordings. Apparently Sony, while behind the curve, did eventually upgrade the recording capabilities by adding several new audio formats. At any rate, my original conclusion still stands. Both of these machines are bigger than a small flash-based recorder, and both of them are limited to 44.1kHz/16bit data rate. For that matter, both of them are discontinued; in fact I honestly don't know whether there are any minidisc machines currently in production. There was a time when I really wanted to use MD... it was relatively portable for its time, and it seemed like such an elegant solution. But time marches on and I fear MD is no longer SOTA. |
|
May 26th, 2011, 01:38 AM | #15 |
Trustee
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Chislehurst, London
Posts: 1,724
|
Re: Looking for a very small recorder - with the right specs.
I use the Sony PCM D50, a great recorder but with a couple of faults. No XLR input and the built in microphones are so sensitive that makes it almost unusable in most recording situations, unless it is on a stand in a wind free zone.
I have an adaptor cable that converts my XLR cable to mini plug so I can use the Rode NTG2 mike without any problem, however, I guess any mike that requires 48 Phantom power would be no go unless it had its own power supply.
__________________
Eyes are a deaf man’s ears. Ears are a blind man’s eyes |
| ||||||
|
|