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#1
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Looking for portable audio recorder for making audio-books...
Hi... I'm looking for a compact audio recorder that I can give to an
author so they can read their book into it. I would then take the audio files, edit them and burn them to a CD as an audio book. Is there a thrifty device available that's suitable? I see the Olympus WS-100 at BestBuy for $80. It says it offers 44mz quality at the HQ level. Is that good enough? Thanks! --JP |
#2
Posted to rec.audio.tech
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Looking for portable audio recorder for making audio-books...
JeffOYB wrote ...
Hi... I'm looking for a compact audio recorder that I can give to an author so they can read their book into it. I would then take the audio files, edit them and burn them to a CD as an audio book. Is there a thrifty device available that's suitable? I see the Olympus WS-100 at BestBuy for $80. It says it offers 44mz quality at the HQ level. Is that good enough? Thanks! --JP Does your author have a computer? What kind of quality are you expecting? |
#3
Posted to rec.audio.tech
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Looking for portable audio recorder for making audio-books...
wrote in message oups.com... Hi... I'm looking for a compact audio recorder that I can give to an author so they can read their book into it. I would then take the audio files, edit them and burn them to a CD as an audio book. Is there a thrifty device available that's suitable? I see the Olympus WS-100 at BestBuy for $80. It says it offers 44mz quality at the HQ level. Is that good enough? Thanks! --JP With only 64 MB of memory, and HQ Mode giving you approximately 4 hour, 20 minutes of recording time, I can't imagine that the quality would be very good. If you go this route, I'd make sure you buy it from a place with a good return policy. Jeff -- "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety" - B. Franklin, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1919) |
#4
Posted to rec.audio.tech
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Looking for portable audio recorder for making audio-books...
On Mon, 11 Sep 2006 19:55:04 -0400, "Jeff Findley"
wrote: Hi... I'm looking for a compact audio recorder that I can give to an author so they can read their book into it. I would then take the audio files, edit them and burn them to a CD as an audio book. Is there a thrifty device available that's suitable? I see the Olympus WS-100 at BestBuy for $80. It says it offers 44mz quality at the HQ level. Is that good enough? Thanks! --JP With only 64 MB of memory, and HQ Mode giving you approximately 4 hour, 20 minutes of recording time, I can't imagine that the quality would be very good. If you go this route, I'd make sure you buy it from a place with a good return policy. Yeah. These are neat little devices that produce a perfectly intelligible result. But I think you'd want better quality. A MiniDisk recorder plus a reasonable quality external microphone would do the job, though you'd have to up your budget a bit. (BTW, people who buy devices such as the Olympus often discover that their mobile 'phone offers the same functions at much the same quality :-) |
#5
Posted to rec.audio.tech
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Looking for portable audio recorder for making audio-books...
I thought when I saw that the Olympus WS used Flash memory that it was
removable but, no, I don't think it is---very limiting. Also when I saw the 44mz quality rating I thought that was the same as any CD. But I don't really know---all this quality stuff is VERY confusing! An audio pal now tells me of another number to look at: response. It should be 20khz. I wish these devices had numbers that were easy to use to compare! I want good quality and to be able to edit on a computer. I'd prefer digital upload, but I don't mind analog. People will listen to these audio book CDs in their cars and at home, etc., in Walkmans. I want them to sound good. At the same time, this project will be done ambiently, on location, so there will be background sounds. I don't mind some amount of "verite". So far it seems like Hi-MD is the way to go. But maybe some other MD format would work, too. I've also read that (Hi?) MD digital uploads are VERY slow for high-quality files so that hardly any time is saved compared to analog uploading. Ugh! So maybe I don't need to pay extra for Hi-MD after all if it's not much better. So, what's a handy MD recorder, ideally with a built-in mic to keep things SIMPLE, that someone can read into so that the result sounds clear and like "real life"? THANKS SO MUCH!!! --JP |
#6
Posted to rec.audio.tech
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Looking for portable audio recorder for making audio-books...
PS: I've also read that uploading Stereo-HQ files from a Hi-MD to a PC
thru USB takes about as long as analog line-in transfer to the PC. Those are the kinds of files that I'll want. Right? If it's all going to take a bunch of time, I might as well skip the Hi-MD and its pricey $300 (MZ-RH100) and find another good, handy, cheap recorder and just plug it into my PC and transfer the files analog-style. ?? What about using a digital video cam with a lens-cap on? My author already has one of those. Are those audio files of decent quality for burning a CD? Also, do any of these compact recorders or MD's come with decent built in mics? It looks like you have to buy an extra mic for the MZ-RH100. My authors are going to want the SIMPLEST set-ups with the least to break. (My first author is a ski coach who's going to be recording his book on the run...I'm hoping the ambient sounds are a Good Thing.) I see the Sony-MZ-M100 comes with a mic---but is it built-in? --No clear pic at Amazon. Thanks for helping me thru the forest, you guys! : ) Whew! --JP |
#7
Posted to rec.audio.tech
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Looking for portable audio recorder for making audio-books...
On 12 Sep 2006 06:24:33 -0700, wrote:
So, what's a handy MD recorder, ideally with a built-in mic to keep things SIMPLE, that someone can read into so that the result sounds clear and like "real life"? A built-in mic probably won't be good enough. Both in quality, and in picking up mechanical noise. |
#8
Posted to rec.audio.tech
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Looking for portable audio recorder for making audio-books...
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#9
Posted to rec.audio.tech
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Looking for portable audio recorder for making audio-books...
wrote in message oups.com... PS: I've also read that uploading Stereo-HQ files from a Hi-MD to a PC thru USB takes about as long as analog line-in transfer to the PC. Those are the kinds of files that I'll want. Right? If it's all going to take a bunch of time, I might as well skip the Hi-MD and its pricey $300 (MZ-RH100) and find another good, handy, cheap recorder and just plug it into my PC and transfer the files analog-style. ?? Except that it will sound like a cheap recorder when you're done. I'd still go for HiMD due to the higher quality. You can choose your quality setting, which determines your recording time per MD or HiMD, and even if the transfer to PC takes a while, you won't lose any quality like you will with an "analog style" transfer. What about using a digital video cam with a lens-cap on? My author already has one of those. Are those audio files of decent quality for burning a CD? Likely better than a cheap cassette recorder, but surely not as good as a HiMD with a good mic. Also, do any of these compact recorders or MD's come with decent built in mics? It looks like you have to buy an extra mic for the MZ-RH100. My authors are going to want the SIMPLEST set-ups with the least to break. (My first author is a ski coach who's going to be recording his book on the run...I'm hoping the ambient sounds are a Good Thing.) I see the Sony-MZ-M100 comes with a mic---but is it built-in? --No clear pic at Amazon. None are built in. Sony does sell mics that plug into the jack and don't have a cord. These may be a bit easier to use, but you'll pick up the MD mechanism's noise on the mic. A simple 1/8" stereo extension cord can be added to one of these so you don't get the noise (likely $5 at Radio Shack for the cord). Not sure if the one that comes with the Sony-MZ-M100 has a cord or not. MD media is pretty cheap these days (about $2 each for an "80 minute" MD that you can actually record for longer times if you format in HiMD mode and use better compression). The portable units are just that, very portable. Much easier than having to sit in front of a PC and talk into its mic. You're going to have to decide on the quality/price issue yourself. If these are going to be sold as audio books to customers, what kind of quality do they expect? If they're going to be sold as Audio CD's, I'd spend the extra money on decent recording equipment. Jeff -- "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety" - B. Franklin, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1919) Thanks for helping me thru the forest, you guys! : ) Whew! --JP |
#10
Posted to rec.audio.tech
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Looking for portable audio recorder for making audio-books...
Thanks, Jeff and Laurence... I'm getting closer! Maybe! : )
I see now that a separate mic might be best. --Altho, yet again, I suppose I can edit out mechanism clunks. ? Simplicity of device really is VERY important. This whole quality thing, though, as you mention, is relative. But I don't really need a totally pro result. Yet I don't want it sounding bad, noisy, tinny, whatever. You audio guys obviously know sound like I never will. So I suppose I need a "medium" quality result. : ) By "cheap" I meant something like a $100 MD device---not an actual cheapy dimestore tape device. $300 is steep seeming for slow Stereo-HQ upload. I can perhaps find an MD device that records Stereo-HQ but can't do file-transwer. Well, fine, I'll do line-in to my computer in live time. How much does the sound degrade? Oh well, maybe I should bite the bullet and buy a schweet MZ-RH10 and $65 mic. I sure hope my author doesn't bust the thing. I would like to GIVE it to him, but that's a lot of book royalty... Again, I wonder how much worse the audio file is on a digi-vid than Stereo-HQ... --JP |
#11
Posted to rec.audio.tech
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Looking for portable audio recorder for making audio-books...
PS: My local "live in the field" radio pal says that MZ-RH10 is the
industry standard, with an $80 add-on mic. But he said if I'm going to be working remotely with a non-expert pal who may be rough with equipment that I should just send him a good ol' high-end tape recorder and mic and feed the results in live thru a line-in to my computer in real-time. The record system would be of good quality and cheap/expendable and relatively easy to use. My author should be careful with mic position and then read a bit then listen to himself thru any kind of headset, verify quality, then do a session. He also said that recording audio via a digi-vid cam (with lens-cap on) and doing live feed into computer might also work and be simple if the author already has said digi-vid. But why would it have to be digi-vid? Maybe any decent vid would work? OK, I'm getting closer...to what, I don't know! --JP |
#12
Posted to rec.audio.tech
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Looking for portable audio recorder for making audio-books...
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#13
Posted to rec.audio.tech
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Looking for portable audio recorder for making audio-books...
wrote ...
I want good quality and to be able to edit on a computer. I'd prefer digital upload, but I don't mind analog. People will listen to these audio book CDs in their cars and at home, etc., in Walkmans. I want them to sound good. At the same time, this project will be done ambiently, on location, so there will be background sounds. I don't mind some amount of "verite". Be done by whom? People recording themselves? Do these people have any experience doing this? What does "on location" mean? In a quiet hotel room, out on a park bench, or on a bicycle? Are these "motivated" customers who are eager to listen to anything their grandchildren say, or is this intended to compete with commercial products? So far it seems like Hi-MD is the way to go. But maybe some other MD format would work, too. I've also read that (Hi?) MD digital uploads are VERY slow for high-quality files so that hardly any time is saved compared to analog uploading. Ugh! So maybe I don't need to pay extra for Hi-MD after all if it's not much better. What is important here? Quality or speed of production? So, what's a handy MD recorder, ideally with a built-in mic to keep things SIMPLE, that someone can read into so that the result sounds clear and like "real life"? It is highly unlikely that you will get quality decent enough for others to want to listen with a built-in microphone on ANY kind of equipment. |
#14
Posted to rec.audio.tech
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Looking for portable audio recorder for making audio-books...
Richard Crowley wrote:
wrote ... I want good quality and to be able to edit on a computer. I'd prefer digital upload, but I don't mind analog. People will listen to these audio book CDs in their cars and at home, etc., in Walkmans. I want them to sound good. At the same time, this project will be done ambiently, on location, so there will be background sounds. I don't mind some amount of "verite". Be done by whom? People recording themselves? Do these people have any experience doing this? What does "on location" mean? In a quiet hotel room, out on a park bench, or on a bicycle? Apologies for any lack of info in previous posts! I wanted to enable an author to record himself reading his book. He would be out and about while doing so. I thought I mentioned that he is a ski coach, so he will be outside sometimes or riding in a van sometimes. Are these "motivated" customers who are eager to listen to anything their grandchildren say, or is this intended to compete with commercial products? It's the only XC ski culture book and the only audio of same. Skiers listen to CDs on roadtrips and wear Walkmans when training. It will be a tolerant market. Relatively so. Obviously I don't want to hurt anyone's ears! So far it seems like Hi-MD is the way to go. But maybe some other MD format would work, too. I've also read that (Hi?) MD digital uploads are VERY slow for high-quality files so that hardly any time is saved compared to analog uploading. Ugh! So maybe I don't need to pay extra for Hi-MD after all if it's not much better. What is important here? Quality or speed of production? Again, it's relative. I have no need to please audiophiles. But it should sound "good." Or at least "pretty good." EASE of production is important. This coach will be able to follow some basics for making a good recording. So, what's a handy MD recorder, ideally with a built-in mic to keep things SIMPLE, that someone can read into so that the result sounds clear and like "real life"? It is highly unlikely that you will get quality decent enough for others to want to listen with a built-in microphone on ANY kind of equipment. OK, so we get a separate mic. Next? Is there an affordable recorder that I can plug a mic into and get a decent result? (Maybe we could just plug a mic into a vidicam.) I need to be able to line-in or upload files or live audio to my computer so I can burn a CD. I have MPEGGER so I can make MP3's out of live audio. As regards methods for getting decent results, I was hoping I could get a $100 recorder and a $50 mic and that the set-up won't be too fragile or tangly. (I'd like to avoid a fragile $300 solution.) I'm thinking my reader could hold the mic about a foot away and just read and record. He would have a simple headset to check an initial result then start reading again. I'm hoping that the ambient sounds coming from him not being in a quiet room will not be such a terrible thing. Doable? Is recording while riding in a van just a non-starter? Well, if so I guess he can just not do that. If he can find a "pretty quiet" place, even outside, I'm hoping that would be good enough and that some ambient sound might even be a positive---verite recordings are common on the radio, right? A concern was that I read that quality uploading of Stereo-HQ files takes about as much time as recording from a live feed-in. Is this true? If so, I could just skip the file-transfer route and do live recording into my computer from any source that has a line-out. --Jeff Potter outyourbackdoor.com |
#15
Posted to rec.audio.tech
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Looking for portable audio recorder for making audio-books...
wrote in message oups.com... Thanks, Jeff and Laurence... I'm getting closer! Maybe! : ) I see now that a separate mic might be best. --Altho, yet again, I suppose I can edit out mechanism clunks. ? Simplicity of device really is VERY important. In my opinion, it's harder to remove such noises after the fact than it is to prevent them from getting into the recording in the first place. This whole quality thing, though, as you mention, is relative. But I don't really need a totally pro result. Yet I don't want it sounding bad, noisy, tinny, whatever. You audio guys obviously know sound like I never will. So I suppose I need a "medium" quality result. : ) By "cheap" I meant something like a $100 MD device---not an actual cheapy dimestore tape device. If you go this route, and have a decent PC sound card, you can do the transfer the old "analog" way. You'll have to be careful with your levels going into the PC sound card. I've done this before and it does work. Any old MD recorder with a mic input would work in this case. Since you don't need stereo, units that let you record in mono would double your recording time to 160 minutes on an "80 minute" MD. Even a NetMD with a mic input would work, but you're still stuck with an analog transfer with a NetMD (only HiMD can do USB transfer from MD to PC). $300 is steep seeming for slow Stereo-HQ upload. I can perhaps find an MD device that records Stereo-HQ but can't do file-transwer. Well, fine, I'll do line-in to my computer in live time. How much does the sound degrade? You really think you need stereo? The degradation may not be noticable, since SP or mono recording modes are very good. Again, it depends on how good your sound card is and how careful you are with the levels when you do the transfer, since it is really re-recording on the PC. The nice thing is, once you find levels that work for the transfer (both volume on the MD for playback and line level record level on the PC), you shouldn't have to mess with it after that. Since you're doing this "on the cheap", I'd recommend CD Wave and/or Audacity for recording and editing. Oh well, maybe I should bite the bullet and buy a schweet MZ-RH10 and $65 mic. I sure hope my author doesn't bust the thing. I would like to GIVE it to him, but that's a lot of book royalty... Again, I wonder how much worse the audio file is on a digi-vid than Stereo-HQ... You could have the author do a 30 minute test recording with the digi-vid and see how it goes. Jeff -- "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety" - B. Franklin, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1919) |
#16
Posted to rec.audio.tech
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Looking for portable audio recorder for making audio-books...
wrote in message ups.com... PS: My local "live in the field" radio pal says that MZ-RH10 is the industry standard, with an $80 add-on mic. There are definately reaons people prefer these for "live in the field" types of recording. But he said if I'm going to be working remotely with a non-expert pal who may be rough with equipment that I should just send him a good ol' high-end tape recorder and mic and feed the results in live thru a line-in to my computer in real-time. The record system would be of good quality and cheap/expendable and relatively easy to use. My author should be careful with mic position and then read a bit then listen to himself thru any kind of headset, verify quality, then do a session. If you go this route, don't use cheap cassette tapes. Even with a very good tape deck, I've found that cheap cassette tapes are still absolute crap. Spend the extra money for the highest quality cassette tapes you can get. He also said that recording audio via a digi-vid cam (with lens-cap on) and doing live feed into computer might also work and be simple if the author already has said digi-vid. But why would it have to be digi-vid? Maybe any decent vid would work? OK, I'm getting closer...to what, I don't know! If it doesn't have to be super portable, recording directly into a PC's mic input would work (laptop or desktop should not matter here). Jeff -- "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety" - B. Franklin, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1919) |
#17
Posted to rec.audio.tech
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Looking for portable audio recorder for making audio-books...
"jeff potter" wrote ...
Again, it's relative. I have no need to please audiophiles. But it should sound "good." Or at least "pretty good." EASE of production is important. This coach will be able to follow some basics for making a good recording. IMHO, average people (even XC skiers) have some expectation of "quality", at least relative absense of background noises, particularly music or other speech. As regards methods for getting decent results, I was hoping I could get a $100 recorder and a $50 mic and that the set-up won't be too fragile or tangly. (I'd like to avoid a fragile $300 solution.) I think your expectations and your budget still have a substantial gap. Are you giving away these recordings? If it isn't worth some decent investment in equipment, maybe its time hasn't come yet? I'm thinking my reader could hold the mic about a foot away and just read and record. He would have a simple headset to check an initial result then start reading again. Do you have any experience doing this? I would be very dubious of getting distribution-worthy recordings by this method. At the very least, I would have them use a pair of headphones with attached mic so that it could be kept at a constant distance, particularly if they are reading out in ambient conditions. I'm hoping that the ambient sounds coming from him not being in a quiet room will not be such a terrible thing. Doable? Is recording while riding in a van just a non-starter? Well, if so I guess he can just not do that. If he can find a "pretty quiet" place, even outside, I'm hoping that would be good enough and that some ambient sound might even be a positive---verite recordings are common on the radio, right? Maybe I'm just an old fuddy-duddy but this sounds significantly below people's expectations of "audio books". Unless you can market it as some sort of desirable featu "Recorded live on the slopes of Aspen" or something? A concern was that I read that quality uploading of Stereo-HQ files takes about as much time as recording from a live feed-in. Is this true? If so, I could just skip the file-transfer route and do live recording into my computer from any source that has a line-out. I think you are obsessing on transfer/produciton time at the expense of other more important production elements. Is this a one-time thing for a single book, or is this some kind of weekly skiing podcast or something? |
#18
Posted to rec.audio.tech
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Looking for portable audio recorder for making audio-books...
Richard Crowley wrote:
"jeff potter" wrote ... Again, it's relative. I have no need to please audiophiles. But it should sound "good." Or at least "pretty good." EASE of production is important. This coach will be able to follow some basics for making a good recording. IMHO, average people (even XC skiers) have some expectation of "quality", at least relative absense of background noises, particularly music or other speech. What about the common method of radio interviewing in a live setting with "real life" sounds in background? I consider those sounds to be a positive and that they don't interfere with listening. Or is there lots more to it than that? [ ] Do you have any experience doing this? I would be very dubious of getting distribution-worthy recordings by this method. At the very least, I would have them use a pair of headphones with attached mic so that it could be kept at a constant distance, particularly if they are reading out in ambient conditions. I was going to have him check with whatever headset he has on hand his initial sound during a recording session then continue recording if all sounds OK. Then also to hold the mic at a steady gap from mouth. Doesn't seem to tough. An OK method? Or maybe if the mic wanders by even an inch listeners will plug their ears at the awful wandering sound... : ) ? [ ] Maybe I'm just an old fuddy-duddy but this sounds significantly below people's expectations of "audio books". Unless you can market it as some sort of desirable featu "Recorded live on the slopes of Aspen" or something? Yeah, a bit like that! : ) It'll be a unique verite' book.. Not a studio reading. But of course if our tests sound lame we'll give up that approach. A concern was that I read that quality uploading of Stereo-HQ files takes about as much time as recording from a live feed-in. Is this true? If so, I could just skip the file-transfer route and do live recording into my computer from any source that has a line-out. I think you are obsessing on transfer/produciton time at the expense of other more important production elements. Is this a one-time thing for a single book, or is this some kind of weekly skiing podcast or something? It's basically a one-time thing, but I have other authors/books. I'd like to make it easy for an author to give me something worth listening to. Ideally I'd like to be able to just give each of them a recorder and have them send me disks, but at $300 for the set-up I'll want them to rebox it up and send it back and hopefully to not bang it up too much in use. For ongoing web media, I'd like to have more video than audio, offhand. Thanks again for your expert views! I'm getting closer to getting a feel for what to do. But it's still not an easy decision. I figure I might sell 200 of these ski CDs this winter, but ya never know! So for a, say, $2K gross project, $300 is a good bit of overhead. This is the small-time. : ) --JP |
#19
Posted to rec.audio.tech
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Looking for portable audio recorder for making audio-books...
On 14 Sep 2006 12:17:49 -0700, "jeff potter"
wrote: I was going to have him check with whatever headset he has on hand his initial sound during a recording session then continue recording if all sounds OK. Then also to hold the mic at a steady gap from mouth. Doesn't seem to tough While skiing? :-) |
#20
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Looking for portable audio recorder for making audio-books...
"jeff potter" wrote ...
What about the common method of radio interviewing in a live setting with "real life" sounds in background? I consider those sounds to be a positive and that they don't interfere with listening. Or is there lots more to it than that? Even the "long form" interviews/actualities/SFX on NPR, etc. aren't even 30 seconds long. Very different from listening to somebody read a book for hours. Background sounds can ADD to the immediacy and authenticity of a news report or even sound-byte interview. But you don't see long-form interviews in those kinds of ambients. And audio books are typically done in completely silent, neutral ambients to maximize voice inelligibility and minimize any distractions even from acoustics, much less from ambient noises. At least that is MY view of the industry. Others may have differing views? I was going to have him check with whatever headset he has on hand his initial sound during a recording session then continue recording if all sounds OK. Then also to hold the mic at a steady gap from mouth. Doesn't seem to tough. An OK method? Even radio reporters who do this every day for years aren't that good. I think you are vastly overestimating the ability of content providers to get this right. Unless they have some other technical background that we don't know about. Or maybe if the mic wanders by even an inch listeners will plug their ears at the awful wandering sound... : ) ? I think there is a big difference between a short interview and hours of audio-book. It's basically a one-time thing, but I have other authors/books. I'd like to make it easy for an author to give me something worth listening to. Ideally I'd like to be able to just give each of them a recorder and have them send me disks, but at $300 for the set-up I'll want them to rebox it up and send it back and hopefully to not bang it up too much in use. It is an interesting concept, but I have serious doubts that 1) you can get authors to do it "right", and 2) the production quality would be sufficient for commercial distribution. For ongoing web media, I'd like to have more video than audio, offhand. Thanks again for your expert views! I'm getting closer to getting a feel for what to do. But it's still not an easy decision. I figure I might sell 200 of these ski CDs this winter, but ya never know! So for a, say, $2K gross project, $300 is a good bit of overhead. This is the small-time. : ) Maybe you need an XC ski audio and or video podcast sponsored by (or at least supported by ads from) equipment makers and destination venues, etc. |
#21
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Looking for portable audio recorder for making audio-books...
Thanks for the feedback!
I don't mind exploring the frontier of small and on-the-fly, but I don't want to try something that's just not going to work. Well, I don't mind trying and testing... I think what I'll do for now is to provide my author with a basic mic and maybe a USB intermediate "puck" converter thingy (a Griffon i-mic, maybe it's called---a friend suggested this as a helpful thing) and see what he can do with plugging into his vid-cam and/or his computer. He probably even has a laptop around. Hopefully he can rig up a stand of some kind. I suppose he'll need some software to help him record and see his levels. I think some previous posts mention some basic programs. I want to make it possible for an amateur to have the best chance of getting a decent result. --JP |
#22
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Looking for portable audio recorder for making audio-books...
"jeff potter" wrote ...
Thanks for the feedback! I don't mind exploring the frontier of small and on-the-fly, but I don't want to try something that's just not going to work. Well, I don't mind trying and testing... I think what I'll do for now is to provide my author with a basic mic and maybe a USB intermediate "puck" converter thingy (a Griffon i-mic, maybe it's called---a friend suggested this as a helpful thing) and see what he can do with plugging into his vid-cam and/or his computer. He probably even has a laptop around. Hopefully he can rig up a stand of some kind. Yikes. Don't expect much. If I were you, I'd try a $15 headset mic of the kind intended to plug directly into the mic input of a computer. They will also work in typical consumer camcorders, and likely on MD recorders, etc. I suppose he'll need some software to help him record and see his levels. I think some previous posts mention some basic programs. Audacity is a popular free audio recording applicaiton. You could also look at Total Recorder which may have significantly better usability for your amateur/casual users. I want to make it possible for an amateur to have the best chance of getting a decent result. I'd go for an MD recorder. No fooling around with software. Much more portable than any kind of computer, even a laptop, etc. And with inexpensive, removable media which can be mailed back to you, etc. No fooling around with downloading, etc. Running auto-level, so your authors/readers can concentrate on performance rather than setting levels wich can sometimes be tricky even for experienced recording engineers. Whether auto- level will provide acceptable quality is something you will need to determine for yourself. And a headset mic to keep a uniform distance and maximize the direct-to-ambient sound ratio pickup. Expecting them to come up with a suitable way to support the mic is just asking for trouble. And expecting them to do this with a hand-held mic is just beyond any kind of reason for a long-form recording. At least IMHO. There are several low-budget headset-mics that would likely be suitable to try for your project on this page.... http://www.geeks.com/products.asp?cat=SPK |
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