I know, I know there are like a thousand posts about the iRiver, but here is what Iam trying to figure out. I have heard dozens upon dozens of models people use, but they aren't selling them anymore, so 1. What model(s) can I use (for weddings mostly) that is available to buy currently and 2. What mike should I use for this iRiver? I have heard of the Giant Squid mics, but I can't find a place to buy them.
In general I looked at the iRiver iFP-895, it looks pretty good, but I haven't heard anything on it.Any one got answers...'cause its really driving me loco.
Thanks
***insane guy typing, shakes hand and says thanks to invisable people next to him***

hi matt. giant squid mics can be found here:
http://www.giant-squid-audio-lab.com/

i use the iriver ifp 795, which is still for sale.
http://www.iriveramerica.com/prod/ultra/700/ifp_795.aspx

I have the iRiver 895; bought it on eBay from ewave-auctions. It was described as a refurb, but, except for 'refurbished' stamped on the box, everything inside was sealed and looked brand new.

The specs for the 795 & 895 seem identical. Other than the color, the only difference I can tell is that the mic/line in for the 795 is on the end (side by side with the headphone jack), and for the 895 it's on the side (with the headphone jack on the end).

Anyway, it works perfectly; I'm considering getting another.

Do a search simply for 895 on this site and quite a few discussions should show up.

I don't want to make another iRiver thread sooo at the risk of going off topic I'll ask this here.

I have an iRiver 380T that I bought a few years back for audio recording. I used it about 2 years ago to record a local band in a bar setting. At the time I was using a sony Digtal8. (TRV-140 ouch) The audio from the iRiver and the camcorder didn't match up. At the time I blamed the iRiver and from then on I just used it for MP3 playback. Reading here I haven't seen any audio mismatch complaints concerning iRivers. Was it my camcorder? I'm using a Sony HDR-HC1 now and I'm about to run an audio test to see if the two match up. Any thoughts?

When you say "didn't sync up"...do your mean like the spikes when viewing the audio didn't match up? o do you mean like from the start of the audio and the start of the video didn't match up? when I record seperatly i start my iRiver first then the camera then I clap my hands, so that way I know where to match them at, now as it has been said in other posts, there seems to be a small amount of lag time in long running shots.
On another note, I have had a small amount of expirence with digital 8, but when I matched it up (audio) with my DV, I noticed some lag in the digital 8's audio.

Make sure you convert all your audio to the project specs. eg.if your project is 48k 16bit,convert the iriver audio to same and convert any camera audio that is off spec as well.( 32k 12bit)
Makes life more better

I bought a Hi MD Minidisk to accomplish the same thing I think you guys are talking about with I River. Nice thing about Hi MD is you have unlimited recording ability with an unlimited supply of Disks. Hi MD's are the first consumer Minidisk systems that allow transfer of mic recorded material directly to the PC as a wave file. Depending on quality you are looking for, record 1 hour to 5+ on a single disk. Has mike input !


I have tried to sync audio on long clips of 1/2 hour plus, with video, and note there can be a discrepency in the long runs. Since we are usually editing and chopping things up, I don't see a big problem with synching things up.

Any programs you know about that correct the small difference ??

Chris Barcellos

I bought a Hi MD Minidisk to accomplish the same thing I think you guys are talking about with I River. Nice thing about Hi MD is you have unlimited recording ability with an unlimited supply of Disks. Hi MD's are the first consumer Minidisk systems that allow transfer of mic recorded material directly to the PC as a wave file. Depending on quality you are looking for, record 1 hour to 5+ on a single disk. Has mike input !


I have tried to sync audio on long clips of 1/2 hour plus, with video, and note there can be a discrepency in the long runs. Since we are usually editing and chopping things up, I don't see a big problem with synching things up.

Any programs you know about that correct the small difference ??

Chris Barcellos

A lot of sound editors and NLEs have a "Time Stretch" feature that allows you to change the length of a clip without changing its pitch. Sync up the video and audio at the head of the clip. Go to the tail and stretch (or compress) the audio to fit. It's easiest if you have both head and tail slates so you can indentify the exact frames of video that matches to claps on the audio.

When you say "didn't sync up"...do your mean like the spikes when viewing the audio didn't match up? o do you mean like from the start of the audio and the start of the video didn't match up? when I record seperatly i start my iRiver first then the camera then I clap my hands, so that way I know where to match them at, now as it has been said in other posts, there seems to be a small amount of lag time in long running shots.
On another note, I have had a small amount of expirence with digital 8, but when I matched it up (audio) with my DV, I noticed some lag in the digital 8's audio.


Matching up the start of the waveforms was never a problem. My iRiver would lag about a second or two over the course of about three minutes. To me that's huge. I tested it with my newer Sony miniDV cam (HDR-HC1) and the results were the same as with my Digital8. I can stretch the audio to match the video but it just seems like a pain. I've recorded some audio with a MiniDisc and didn't notice any lag at all. My last job was done with a CD recorder:

http://www.superscopetechnologies.com/products/PSD300/index.shtml

The audio matched up perfectly. A shame it's not mine.

Depending on your editing system ,some of the sync problems can be a result of the preview function.If you have matched the audio the preview will normally be ok.The preview audio may lag if you havent.Try it,I think it will solve a lot of sync issues.

A lot of sound editors and NLEs have a "Time Stretch" feature that allows you to change the length of a clip without changing its pitch. Sync up the video and audio at the head of the clip. Go to the tail and stretch (or compress) the audio to fit. It's easiest if you have both head and tail slates so you can indentify the exact frames of video that matches to claps on the audio.

Thanks Steve. I was vaguely aware of something like that. I'm using PP1.51, and Vegas 6. I will check them out to see what they offer.

Chris Barcellos