iRivers for Dummies (like myself)

[Mark A. Foley]

This is a general guide for setting up the iRiver

***SETTINGS***

Timer (manual section 5-17)

- Sleep power off - OFF / Beep OFF
- Stop Power off - 60 min

Control - (manual section 5-22)

- Line in recording mode:
Mono
44.1KHz
160 Kbps

Stereo
44.1 KHz
320 Kbps

- Line In Rec Volume: 45 (Giant Squid Mic) 50 (MT830 mic) 50-55 (Azden 503)

- Line In Auto Sync: OFF

- Line In / Ext Mic: EXT MIC

***SETUP***

1. Connect mic to line-in jack
2. Set line in rec mode as above (SETTINGS)
3. Press and HOLD "Mode/Rec" button
4. Select Line-In mode
5. Press "Nav/Menu" button to go to PAUSED record mode
6. Press REC
7. Engage the LOCK!

***STOPPING***

1. Unlock
2. Press "Mode/Rec" button
3. Press and HOLD the STOP button

Expected record times based on 512 Mb model (256 will be half...1Gb will be double the record time below)
In mono:
44hz 32kbps = 23 hours: 27 minutes
" " 40kbps = 18 Hours: 54 minutes
" "" 48kbps = 15 hours: 45 minutes
" " 56kbps = 13 hours: 30 minutes
" " 64kbps = 11 hours: 48 minutes
" " 80kbps = 9 hours: 27 minutes
" " 96kbps = 7 hours: 52 minutes
" " 112kbps = 6 hours: 45 minutes
" " 128kbps = 5 hours: 54 minutes
" " 160kbps = 4 hours: 43 minutes

In Stereo:
44hz 64kbps = 11 hours: 53 minutes
" " 80kbps = 9 Hours: 31 minutes
" "" 96kbps = 7 hours: 55 minutes
" " 112kbps = 6 hours: 47 minutes
" " 128kbps = 5 hours: 56 minutes
" " 160kbps = 4 hours: 45 minutes
" " 192kbps = 3 hours: 92 minutes
" " 224kbps = 3 hours: 23 minutes
" " 256kbps = 2 hours: 58 minutes
" " 320kbps = 2 hours: 22 minutes

[Danny Santos]

I have an 895 in transit and should be here in a couple of days.

Question: Does it require an external mike to record? If so, what external mike does this Forum recommends? I plan to use this on weddings.

Thank you.

[Seth Palmer]

Danny- Giant Squid mic. do a search for it on here and you will find out all the info...very cheap...very effective!

I used my 799 yesterday for the first time along with my giant squid...I had the volume set at 45 and the mic was at the top of the officiants robe. It came out a bit loud but very clear. I think that next time I will adjust the input recording volume to 40 or high 30's depending on where I place the mic.

Coolest little backup gadget ever! Now I am going to run with it and listen to some music!

[David Chandler-Gick]

Thanx for the primer, it's valuable info!

One thing to point out, unless you are recording a stereo source via Line In, (off the DJ's sound board, etc.) don't bother recording in stereo. It does nothing for you except use up more space. If you are using this to record via a single lapel mic, most people only have one mouth, so stereo is redundant.

I do suggest at least 128k mono.

Some people say that stereo sounds "better" - This is misleading. Taking the 128k mono signal and adding it to your timeline in post, duplicating it, panning one left and the other right will achieve the same "better" and allow you longer record times in the field.

Just FYI.

[Mark A. Foley]

DJ,
Because of the way the iRiver comes from the factory, you are forced to use the "stereo" mode regardless (set it mono you will record nothing)...except if you have a mic that is specifically wired for the iRiver input...such as the Giant Squid mic

[Michael J. Long]

I followed directions, still cant' record anything to a Sony lavalier mic or a mic from a Sony Walkman . Imcan record onto voice then playback OK ,but nothing comes out when I try to record anything from mics.
Help
Mike

[Mark A. Foley]

are you sure you have ext mic selected and stereo selected in the reocrd parameters?

[Michael J. Long]

thanks to all who have helped me. It always works better when you plug the mic into the in-line jack rather than the earphone jack. thanks again
Mike

[Craig Terott]

Use a stereo lapel mic with I-River - HERE'S WHY:

That whole concept about wasting space recording stereo is mute because the 790 at 256K stereo can record well over 2 hours. Why would you even care about that?

And you need to be careful about pluging in a 1/8" mono plug into the i-river stereo jack. Since it is designed to accept a stereo plug, if you jack a mono plug into it and push it all the way in, sometimes the mic will cut out entirely. Matter of fact, before the first wedding I did with an I-River I tested this and just by pushing on the plug a bit I could get the mic to cut in and out! Eeek! So I bought a stereo mic (link below) and it jacks securely into I-River and I can push on it a pull (a bit) and it won't cut out at all. STEREO PLUG FOR STEREO JACK!

Last, the stereo mic has just a bit of directional capability, often one side is pointing towards the officant and that is a good thing.

The stereo lapel mic I use is small, no bigger than a typical mono mic. It even looks like just one small capsule.

Here's the link...

http://www.dsmiller.com/html/Electro...s-ECM-CS10.htm

[Danny Santos]

Good infor Craig.

So, how difficult is it to sync the recorded voice from iRiver to your video? What's anybody's method? I am using Vegas 6 and never tried this before. Any help is surely appreciated. Thanks.

[David McKnight]

Danny said,

"So, how difficult is it to sync the recorded voice from iRiver to your video? What's anybody's method? I am using Vegas 6 and never tried this before."

Pretty darn easy in Vegas. Drag the iRiver file to the Vegas timeline as a new audio track. You'll need to get the two tracks close by hand, which is easy to do by comparing the waveforms. Look for a loud noise that occurs and move the iRiver audio to be close. It won't be perfect yet, but don't worry.

1. Pan one audio track hard left and one hard right. This way you will clearly hear the delay between the two sources and can determine if your new iRiver audio needs to move forward or backward in time to line up with the cam audio.

2. Loop a portion of the program where the left-right delay thing is happening. In a wedding, I like to use a portion of the vows - about 5 seconds or so.

3. Select just the iRiver audio track and while the program loops, use the 1 and 3 keypad keys to adjust the iRiver track forward or backward. This will take a while and can be a tedious process, hearing the same phrase over and over.

4. When you hear NO delay between the left and right speakers, you are in sync. Double check the work by viewing the speaker, hopefully in close up. If the cam was very far away from the subject, you may actually want to be a little off-sync so that the audio is more in sync with the video - check the mouth of the speaker when in closeup.

5. As always, Practice makes perfect!

Hope this helps,

David

[Danny Santos]

Thanks David. You sure made it looks and sound so easy. I will give it a try!

[Dan Shallenberger]

I have a quick question... you suggested to record at 44kHz, but video is 48, right? Won't the audio be off from the video in this circumstance? Or will it automatically convert to 48khz when imported into FCP?

Thanks,
Dan

[Mark A. Foley]

I just realized when I posted the original message, I had some left-over audio files on the iriver made my run time chart in error. Here is an updated thread:
(Updated 2 Sep) This is a general guide for setting up the iRiver:

***SETTINGS***

Timer (manual section 5-17)

- Sleep power off - OFF / Beep OFF
- Stop Power off - 60 min

Control - (manual section 5-22)

- Line in recording mode:
Mono
44.1KHz
160 Kbps

Stereo
44.1 KHz
320 Kbps

- Line In Rec Volume: 45 (Giant Squid Mic) 50 (MT830 mic) 50-55 (Azden 503)

- Line In Auto Sync: OFF

- Line In / Ext Mic: EXT MIC

***SETUP***

1. Connect mic to line-in jack
2. Set line in rec mode as above (SETTINGS)
3. Press and HOLD "Mode/Rec" button
4. Select Line-In mode
5. Press "Nav/Menu" button to go to PAUSED record mode
6. Press REC
7. Engage the LOCK!

***STOPPING***

1. Unlock
2. Press "Mode/Rec" button
3. Press and HOLD the STOP button

Expected record times based on 512 Mb model (256 will be half...1Gb will be double the record time below)
In mono:
44hz 32kbps = 35 hours: 31 minutes
" " 40kbps = 28 Hours: 25 minutes
" "" 48kbps = 23 hours: 21 minutes
" " 56kbps = 20 hours: 18 minutes
" " 64kbps = 17 hours: 45 minutes
" " 80kbps = 14 hours: 12 minutes
" " 96kbps = 11 hours: 50 minutes
" " 112kbps = 10 hours: 09 minutes
" " 128kbps = 8 hours: 52 minutes
" " 160kbps = 7 hours: 06 minutes

In Stereo:
44hz 64kbps = 17 hours: 45 minutes
" " 80kbps = 14 Hours: 12 minutes
" "" 96kbps = 11 hours: 50 minutes
" " 112kbps = 10 hours: 09 minutes
" " 128kbps = 8 hours: 52 minutes
" " 160kbps = 7 hours: 06 minutes
" " 192kbps = 5 hours: 55 minutes
" " 224kbps = 5 hours: 05 minutes
" " 256kbps = 4 hours: 26 minutes
" " 320kbps = 3 hours: 33 minutes

[Judy Handley]

Mark, thank you so much for this primer. We printed it off and set up our iRivers (3) with Giant Squid mics and have used them at three weddings so far. The vows come out perfectly - the audio is so clean and clear. I'm not sure if it's the settings, the iRivers or the mics....maybe the combination of all three. I don't want to ever use our wireless system again. I'm so pleased my husband talked me into buying these.

Judy