Portable Samplers?

[pHz]

cheap little sharp minidisc recorder and a cheap-ass PC mic for me too - done me good enough for the last 2 years ...

... IMHO its the mic rather than the medium or the recording hardware thats going to make the most difference with the least outlay

slainte rob

[shamann]

So I broke down and got the iRver model yesterday. I think it'll do exactly what I need it for with a few extras.

Pros

• 20Gb hard drive, can store any file type for transportation. For that alone I think it's a pretty good deal. Cost me close to $100 just for 128MB USB jumpdrive, so for $500, 20GB is pretty good.
  
  Records to cd quality audio (44.1kHz, 16-bit), but con: not a penny more. Records to mp3 up to 320 kbps, good for memos and the like, but I doubt I'll use it.
  
  Signal to noise ratio is -90db, not bad really.
  
  Can be set up to allow you to do real-time headphone monitoring of the mic input when recording.
  
  Lightweight. Weighs less than 200 grams. Nice looking little model too, black with chrome ends. Feels sturdier than an iPod.
  
  USB connection, 2.0 backwards compatible to 1.1. File system mounts as a detachable drive. File transfer isn't super-quick, but I was able to transfer 500MB in less than 7 minutes.

Cons

• It's intended primarily as a portable mp3 player, so initial menus are all aimed at that. Easy enough to customize some of it and navigate about, but you always know it's been made for mp3 playback first.
  
  The menu/button system is slightly less than intuitive, the 4-point button on the front especially could have been a lot easier to use. The little remote attachment makes it a lot easier too.
  
  Records quiet, even with record gain turned up to max. Not a big problem, since it doesn't add a lot of noise when volume turned later on PC. Might also be my mic's fault. Records at expected volume when speaking directly into mic, but field recording at distance seemed kind of low. Perhaps a necessary evil/common occurence.
  
  Has an FM radio tuner. What the hell do I need with a radio? Might be a pro for some, but I doubt it will be for me. Didn't look like you could record radio straight to disc, which might be useful, but I haven't looked at the radio feature too closely, so maybe you can.

So all in all, I think it's a good mini disc replacement. Records uncompressed audio, transfers files directly to PC, no re-recording.

I'm not sure it would be ideal for studio/pro field recording work, since it doesn't feel like a robust, scaleable solution, whether or not it is.

Will suit me quite fine, though.

Cheers,
Steve

[DevonB]

Oh not nice. Just read this on a mailing list I'm on.

I tested the iRiver disk recorder iHP-120(?) at length, and found that it
clicks every minute and
twenty seconds when recording uncompressed 16/44.1 wav files. Which is a
big drag, because
otherwise I really wanted that unit to be my next tiny field recorder. You
don't always hear the
click, depending on what's playing at that instant, but there are a lot of
dropped samples,
wether you hear them or not...

[shamann]

Oh not nice. Just read this on a mailing list I'm on.

Not nice indeed. I read through some support forums on the issue, has been known for some months (sadly not by me ). Still, it will work for my needs, the mic noise will be greater than the occasional click from dropped samples, and I can clean it up pretty quickly. Kills it for pro use though. Only hope is that it will be fixed in a firmware upgrade, but the company seems to be slow at fixing the problem. More interested in adding features for 12 year old girls, it seems.

Another limitation that kills it for pro use, there seems to be a recording time limit of 76 minutes. What's strange about that, on the forums some folk have said they've gotten 2 hours out of it. Two missing features I think are essential ar real-time record gain adjustment and recording level meters.

Still for me it will work fine, but anyone looking for pro-level portable recording facilities should look elsewhere.

Cheers,
Steve