Hi, My organization is considering making recordings of
conferences/lectures that we do and one our people attend (Our main
thing is disseminating information relating to aquaculture). I am
trying to get them into it but since they barely have a concept of it
they aren't willing to put much money into it yet.

So. I am trying to track down an easy (I am the "techy-est" here,
kidna sad), cheap recording solution which I thought would be something
like a Mic and mp3 player/recorder (like some of iRiver's). But i
wanted to get some input from people that knew what they were talking
about (unlike me). The settings are usually such that putting a mic
right by the speaker isn't an option (I've tried, its always something,
either they don't want it by them, they walk around when they talk,
etc) so any suggestions of Mics that can pick up voice from a slight
distance (say i am sitting in the front row) and an MP3 player that can
store anywhere from 1-5 hours of reasonable quality sound. These
recordings don't have to be professional (those wanting to listen to
seminars about Shrimp in South East Asia etc is pretty small) but they
do need to be discernable.

Any help would be *greatly* appreciated!

Cheers

-Gaiko

In alt.music.mp3.hardware wrote:
Hi, My organization is considering making recordings of
conferences/lectures that we do and one our people attend (Our main
thing is disseminating information relating to aquaculture). I am
trying to get them into it but since they barely have a concept of it
they aren't willing to put much money into it yet.

So. I am trying to track down an easy (I am the "techy-est" here,
kidna sad), cheap recording solution which I thought would be something
like a Mic and mp3 player/recorder (like some of iRiver's). But i

Iriver flash players, or indeed any other player with MP3 recording (PCM
recording may be less suitable) and line-in, combined with an external
microphone will give you a professional quality sound recording.
Expecting the internal mic to work well is perhaps a bit optimistic,
though it may be adequate to your needs.

wrote:

Hi, My organization is considering making recordings of
conferences/lectures that we do and one our people attend (Our main
thing is disseminating information relating to aquaculture). I am
trying to get them into it but since they barely have a concept of it
they aren't willing to put much money into it yet.

So. I am trying to track down an easy (I am the "techy-est" here,
kidna sad), cheap recording solution which I thought would be something
like a Mic and mp3 player/recorder (like some of iRiver's). But i
wanted to get some input from people that knew what they were talking
about (unlike me). The settings are usually such that putting a mic
right by the speaker isn't an option (I've tried, its always something,
either they don't want it by them, they walk around when they talk,
etc) so any suggestions of Mics that can pick up voice from a slight
distance (say i am sitting in the front row) and an MP3 player that can
store anywhere from 1-5 hours of reasonable quality sound. These
recordings don't have to be professional (those wanting to listen to
seminars about Shrimp in South East Asia etc is pretty small) but they
do need to be discernable.

Any help would be *greatly* appreciated!

A PDA or dedicated MP3 recorder in the guy's pocket is the obvious solution
to me.

As for putting a microphone by the speaker, consider a wireless lavalier
mike. Not cheap for a decent one though. If you know what one looks like
and watch closely you'll see that almost every talk show uses that solution
these days. Check the battery life, make sure that it's long enough or
that there will be someone there with a stopwatch to change batteries
before they die.

A couple of other options are conference microphones (google that--again
good ones aren't cheap) or a shotgun mike and a technician holding it.

Cheers

-Gaiko

--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

In article .com writes:

So. I am trying to track down an easy (I am the "techy-est" here,
kidna sad), cheap recording solution which I thought would be something
like a Mic and mp3 player/recorder (like some of iRiver's).

That's probably a good approach.

The settings are usually such that putting a mic
right by the speaker isn't an option (I've tried, its always something,
either they don't want it by them, they walk around when they talk,
etc) so any suggestions of Mics that can pick up voice from a slight
distance (say i am sitting in the front row)

Is there a sound system? If so, then you'll want to record an ouptut
from the sound system rather than try to follow the lecturer around.
I'd recommend coming equipped with a box full of adapters and cables
so you can hook up to anything you find at the venue, but a modestly
priced omnidirectional tie tack mic taped to one of the loudspeakers
will do for your purposes - easy and unobtrusive, but not very
practical if the venue is something like a hotel meeting room with
built-in speakers overhead.

So, your answer is still "it depends."


--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi, My organization is considering making recordings of
conferences/lectures that we do and one our people attend (Our main
thing is disseminating information relating to aquaculture). I am
trying to get them into it but since they barely have a concept of it
they aren't willing to put much money into it yet.

So. I am trying to track down an easy (I am the "techy-est" here,
kidna sad), cheap recording solution which I thought would be something
like a Mic and mp3 player/recorder (like some of iRiver's). But i
wanted to get some input from people that knew what they were talking
about (unlike me). The settings are usually such that putting a mic
right by the speaker isn't an option (I've tried, its always something,
either they don't want it by them, they walk around when they talk,
etc) so any suggestions of Mics that can pick up voice from a slight
distance (say i am sitting in the front row) and an MP3 player that can
store anywhere from 1-5 hours of reasonable quality sound. These
recordings don't have to be professional (those wanting to listen to
seminars about Shrimp in South East Asia etc is pretty small) but they
do need to be discernable.

Any help would be *greatly* appreciated!

You might want to try the newsgroup alt.audio.minidisc. The portable units
that record are pretty easy to use and many models have Mic in jack. If you
want an easy way to transfer to the PC, the new HiMD units will allow USB
transfers of tracks recorded using the Mic in jack.

These units fall between the flash based MP3 players and the HD based
players in terms of price and features. For the "low tech" user, MD is kind
of nice because it's easy to pop in a blank MD and start recording. Keep a
stack of blanks handy and the person doing the recording doesn't have to
mess with a PC at all. Once MD's are transferred to a PC, you can erase
them (takes about 10 seconds) and use them again.

Jeff
--
Remove icky phrase from email address to get a valid address.

Jeff

Ian Stirling wrote:
In alt.music.mp3.hardware wrote:

Hi, My organization is considering making recordings of
conferences/lectures that we do and one our people attend (Our main
thing is disseminating information relating to aquaculture). I am
trying to get them into it but since they barely have a concept of it
they aren't willing to put much money into it yet.

So. I am trying to track down an easy (I am the "techy-est" here,
kidna sad), cheap recording solution which I thought would be something
like a Mic and mp3 player/recorder (like some of iRiver's). But i


Iriver flash players, or indeed any other player with MP3 recording (PCM
recording may be less suitable) and line-in, combined with an external
microphone will give you a professional quality sound recording.
Expecting the internal mic to work well is perhaps a bit optimistic,
though it may be adequate to your needs.

Be warned that *very* few MP3 players do MP3 recording. Most only record
in a rather low quality ADPCM format. An external mic makes them sound a
bit better than the internal mic, but not a great deal better.

Regards,
Steve

Best all in one solution: The new Marantz PMD 660 for $500
Best all-around solution: Nomad Jukebox 3 OR iRiver iHP-120 OR Sony Hi-MD
Recorder + Edirol UA-5 (w/ or without OADE digimod depending on
portability/battery operation needs) and a decent stereo mic

For strictly transcription purposes it sounds like the Marantz will be a
little more expensive but suit your purposes better.

--

Jonny Durango

"Patrick was a saint. I ain't."

http://www.jdurango.com



wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi, My organization is considering making recordings of
conferences/lectures that we do and one our people attend (Our main
thing is disseminating information relating to aquaculture). I am
trying to get them into it but since they barely have a concept of it
they aren't willing to put much money into it yet.

So. I am trying to track down an easy (I am the "techy-est" here,
kidna sad), cheap recording solution which I thought would be something
like a Mic and mp3 player/recorder (like some of iRiver's). But i
wanted to get some input from people that knew what they were talking
about (unlike me). The settings are usually such that putting a mic
right by the speaker isn't an option (I've tried, its always something,
either they don't want it by them, they walk around when they talk,
etc) so any suggestions of Mics that can pick up voice from a slight
distance (say i am sitting in the front row) and an MP3 player that can
store anywhere from 1-5 hours of reasonable quality sound. These
recordings don't have to be professional (those wanting to listen to
seminars about Shrimp in South East Asia etc is pretty small) but they
do need to be discernable.

Any help would be *greatly* appreciated!

Cheers

-Gaiko

In alt.music.mp3.hardware Steve Underwood wrote:
Ian Stirling wrote:
In alt.music.mp3.hardware wrote:

Hi, My organization is considering making recordings of
conferences/lectures that we do and one our people attend (Our main
thing is disseminating information relating to aquaculture). I am
trying to get them into it but since they barely have a concept of it
they aren't willing to put much money into it yet.

So. I am trying to track down an easy (I am the "techy-est" here,
kidna sad), cheap recording solution which I thought would be something
like a Mic and mp3 player/recorder (like some of iRiver's). But i


Iriver flash players, or indeed any other player with MP3 recording (PCM
recording may be less suitable) and line-in, combined with an external
microphone will give you a professional quality sound recording.
Expecting the internal mic to work well is perhaps a bit optimistic,
though it may be adequate to your needs.

Be warned that *very* few MP3 players do MP3 recording. Most only record
in a rather low quality ADPCM format. An external mic makes them sound a
bit better than the internal mic, but not a great deal better.

True, which is why I stated MP3 recording. The iriver will do MP3 recording
at up to 320K (IIRC) (though not with the "disk drive" firmware)

"Steve Underwood" wrote in message
...
Be warned that *very* few MP3 players do MP3 recording. Most only record
in a rather low quality ADPCM format. An external mic makes them sound a
bit better than the internal mic, but not a great deal better.

The Sony HiMD (high capacity minidisc) recorders have a linear PCM recording
mode, that's essentially the same as what you get on a CD. The HiMD blanks
are about $7, but you can find the lower capacity (original "80 minute")
MD's for less than $2 each. I recently bought a 10 pack of Memorex MD's for
$15 at MicroCenter. In Linear PCM mode, an "80 minute" MD can hold 28
minutes of audio. A HiMD can hold 1 hour 34 minutes of linear PCM. If CD
quality is overkill (for recording lectures), the next best mode, Hi-SP can
fit 2 hours 20 minutes on an "80 minute" MD and 7 hours 55 minutes on a
HiMD. Hi-SP is Sony's ATRAC3plus at 256kbps, which is a pretty high bitrate
for a compressed format.

For field recording, HiMD isn't a bad way to go. The discs are cheap
compared to flash memory, and the HiMD unit itself is cheaper than a (high
capacity) HD based unit with a decent recording capability. On top of that,
your field recordings can be transferred back to your PC through USB.

http://www.minidisc.org/

Jeff
--
Remove icky phrase from email address to get a valid address.

For field recording, HiMD isn't a bad way to go. The discs are cheap
compared to flash memory, and the HiMD unit itself is cheaper than a (high
capacity) HD based unit with a decent recording capability. On top of that,
your field recordings can be transferred back to your PC through USB.

Are you sure of that? I'd heard there was no way to transfer back the
recordings except through the analog port. What is the transfer speed?
Note also that if you transfer in ATRAC form, you're left with the
proprietary ATRAC format. Is there a fast way to convert ATRAC to MP3?

I recently gnashed over this question for a while and ended up buying
a Marantz mp3 recorder that's nice for music recording, but is way more
cumbersome and expensive than a minidisc recorder, just to get around
the stupid ATRAC stuff.

"J. Clarke" wrote in message
...
wrote:
As for putting a microphone by the speaker, consider a wireless lavalier
mike. Not cheap for a decent one though. If you know what one looks like
and watch closely you'll see that almost every talk show uses that
solution
these days. Check the battery life, make sure that it's long enough or
that there will be someone there with a stopwatch to change batteries
before they die.

At work we use Shure lavalier mics and they are great. The tiniest little
microphones you have ever seen. The have a little pack that the speaker
wears clipped to clothing, that transmits the audio to our recording gear.
The batteries last quite a while, we can get several days use out of them
(actually a 9V battery IIRC).

--Dan

In article ,
"Jonny Durango" wrote:

Best all in one solution: The new Marantz PMD 660 for $500
....

wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi, My organization is considering making recordings of
conferences/lectures that we do and one our people attend (Our main
thing is disseminating information relating to aquaculture). I am
trying to get them into it but since they barely have a concept of it
they aren't willing to put much money into it yet.
....

The PMD 660 will work well, as I have tested that with the PMD 670 in
big lecture halls, both with an external condensor mic and the internal
one with good results.

Another option is an iPod from Apple with a Griffin iTalk adapter.
Cheaper, probably lower performance, smaller.

HTH

Marc

--
Switzerland/Europe
http://www.heusser.com
remove CHEERS and from MERCIAL to get valid e-mail

Marc Heusser alid writes:
The PMD 660 will work well, as I have tested that with the PMD 670 in
big lecture halls, both with an external condensor mic and the internal
one with good results.

The 660 is quite sensitive to electrical noise and its internal mic is
not so great. I haven't decided whether to keep mine.

wrote:

Hi, My organization is considering making recordings of
conferences/lectures that we do and one our people attend (Our main
thing is disseminating information relating to aquaculture). I am
trying to get them into it but since they barely have a concept of it
they aren't willing to put much money into it yet.

We have tested and provide to solutions. The best one uses a notebook
or desktop computer as the recording device. The SoniClear software has
the ability to follow an agenda prepared before an interview or
conference. This makes it easy to either create conference notes or
find specific areas of the recording. In addition, the conference or
interview can be put on a standard CD that can be played in a car or
personal CD player. See this at:
http://www.emicrophones.com/micropho...asp?prodID=087

Of course, you can always use a good digital handheld recorder like the
Olympus D3000 or similar. With any of the recording solutions we have
three possible microphone recommendations for picking up speakers from
anywhere around a conference table. The first is called the Solo by
Phoenix technologies. This is a USB microphone that can be connected to
a notebook or desktop computer being used as the recorder. The Solo USB
microphone is good for distances to 15-18 feet around a table. See this
at:
http://www.emicrophones.com/micropho...asp?prodID=097

The other solution is the Acoustic Magic VoiceTracker in either the
Line In version or the USB version. The line in version 2 voice
tractors to be ganged together with a splitter to cover a huge area.
However, a single VoiceTracker by itself is good up to 25-30 feet. See
these at:
http://www.emicrophones.com/micropho...asp?prodID=046
http://www.emicrophones.com/micropho...asp?prodID=054

The trick when using a conference microphone is to inform the members
of the conference that only one person should speak at a time in order
for the recording to be easier to understand.

--
Martin Markoe, eMicrophones, Inc.
The best microphones for Speech Recognition
See us at: http://www.eMicrophones.com/index.asp
Read, "Key Steps to High Speech Recognition Accuracy" at:
http://www.emicrophones.com/docDetai...?DocumentID=38

In article writes:

The Sony HiMD (high capacity minidisc) recorders have a linear PCM recording
mode, that's essentially the same as what you get on a CD. The HiMD blanks
are about $7, but you can find the lower capacity (original "80 minute")
MD's for less than $2 each.

In Linear PCM mode, an "80 minute" MD can hold 28
minutes of audio. A HiMD can hold 1 hour 34 minutes of linear PCM.

That's good info. I wasn't aware that a HiMD recorder could use
standard MD blanks in the PCM mode. That's under $5/hour for media as
long as your subject matter can stand to be interrupted every 28
minutes. The way we solved that problem with Nagras (or Revoxen or
Ampi) was to use two, starting the second one before the tape ran out
on the first one, splicing if necessary.

But what can you do with the recording to get it to a more practical
medium? A shelf full of HiMD disks is likely to be useless in another
ten years, and I don't mean because of deterioration, but because
it'll be too hard to find something to play them on. CDs are a little
better in that respect because it's strong in the consumer market.
There were "issues" with making file transfers from original
recordings on the standard Minidisk. Are these really non-issues with
the HiMD, or is it necessary to make a real time transfer to another
medium?


--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi, My organization is considering making recordings of
conferences/lectures that we do and one our people attend (Our main
thing is disseminating information relating to aquaculture). I am
trying to get them into it but since they barely have a concept of it
they aren't willing to put much money into it yet.

So. I am trying to track down an easy (I am the "techy-est" here,
kidna sad), cheap recording solution which I thought would be something
like a Mic and mp3 player/recorder (like some of iRiver's). But i
wanted to get some input from people that knew what they were talking
about (unlike me). The settings are usually such that putting a mic
right by the speaker isn't an option (I've tried, its always something,
either they don't want it by them, they walk around when they talk,
etc) so any suggestions of Mics that can pick up voice from a slight
distance (say i am sitting in the front row) and an MP3 player that can
store anywhere from 1-5 hours of reasonable quality sound. These
recordings don't have to be professional (those wanting to listen to
seminars about Shrimp in South East Asia etc is pretty small) but they
do need to be discernable.

I've done this. The best hands-off solution I've come up with is a PZM and
a Minidisc recorder using the LP4 speed. Tape the microphone to the front
wall about 8 inches from the floor. Yes, the mike will be behind the
speaker and not far from the floor. This will "shelve" the response down at
about 100Hz, just right for speech.

It's possible to get better results, but not without a lot of effort and
experimentation. The recommended method will work the 1st time--every time.

Norm Strong

Ian Stirling wrote:
In alt.music.mp3.hardware Steve Underwood wrote:

Ian Stirling wrote:

In alt.music.mp3.hardware wrote:


Hi, My organization is considering making recordings of
conferences/lectures that we do and one our people attend (Our main
thing is disseminating information relating to aquaculture). I am
trying to get them into it but since they barely have a concept of it
they aren't willing to put much money into it yet.

So. I am trying to track down an easy (I am the "techy-est" here,
kidna sad), cheap recording solution which I thought would be something
like a Mic and mp3 player/recorder (like some of iRiver's). But i


Iriver flash players, or indeed any other player with MP3 recording (PCM
recording may be less suitable) and line-in, combined with an external
microphone will give you a professional quality sound recording.
Expecting the internal mic to work well is perhaps a bit optimistic,
though it may be adequate to your needs.

Be warned that *very* few MP3 players do MP3 recording. Most only record
in a rather low quality ADPCM format. An external mic makes them sound a
bit better than the internal mic, but not a great deal better.


True, which is why I stated MP3 recording. The iriver will do MP3 recording
at up to 320K (IIRC) (though not with the "disk drive" firmware)

iriver make a number of models, both disk based and flash based. The
ones I have seen only do ADPCM recording. Can you specify the models
which record MP3? A friend was looking for a player which will record
stereo MP3s and we couldn't find one. None of the iriver models
available here (Hong Kong) seem to offer anything more than ADPCM.

Regards,
Steve

In alt.music.mp3.hardware Steve Underwood wrote:
Ian Stirling wrote:
In alt.music.mp3.hardware Steve Underwood wrote:

Ian Stirling wrote:

In alt.music.mp3.hardware wrote:


Hi, My organization is considering making recordings of
conferences/lectures that we do and one our people attend (Our main
thing is disseminating information relating to aquaculture). I am
trying to get them into it but since they barely have a concept of it
they aren't willing to put much money into it yet.

So. I am trying to track down an easy (I am the "techy-est" here,
kidna sad), cheap recording solution which I thought would be something
like a Mic and mp3 player/recorder (like some of iRiver's). But i


Iriver flash players, or indeed any other player with MP3 recording (PCM
recording may be less suitable) and line-in, combined with an external
microphone will give you a professional quality sound recording.
Expecting the internal mic to work well is perhaps a bit optimistic,
though it may be adequate to your needs.

Be warned that *very* few MP3 players do MP3 recording. Most only record
in a rather low quality ADPCM format. An external mic makes them sound a
bit better than the internal mic, but not a great deal better.


True, which is why I stated MP3 recording. The iriver will do MP3 recording
at up to 320K (IIRC) (though not with the "disk drive" firmware)

iriver make a number of models, both disk based and flash based. The
ones I have seen only do ADPCM recording. Can you specify the models
which record MP3? A friend was looking for a player which will record
stereo MP3s and we couldn't find one. None of the iriver models
available here (Hong Kong) seem to offer anything more than ADPCM.

IFP-395t is the one I have, and I believe the IFP-8 and IFP-7 series too.
Generatlly the models with "line in" support MP3 recording.

(Mike Rivers) wrote:

There were "issues" with making file transfers from original
recordings on the standard Minidisk. Are these really non-issues with
the HiMD, or is it necessary to make a real time transfer to another
medium?

My understanding is that one can make a digital copy through USB from
the recorder to the computer using the Sony SonicStage software, but
after the second copy the file is automatically *deleted* from the MD.

So the best way to do it is make a digital copy, and if there is any
problem (eg: power goes out), make a realtime audio copy *before*
attempting a digital copy.

Problem with that method is that there is no Hi-MD recorder/player
with digital outputs. So this safety copy has to be made analogue out
of an 1/8" socket, less than ideal obviously.

All transfers must go through SonicStage.

-- robin

On Sun, 20 Mar 2005 12:37:52 -0500, robin wrote
(in article ):

(Mike Rivers) wrote:

There were "issues" with making file transfers from original
recordings on the standard Minidisk. Are these really non-issues with
the HiMD, or is it necessary to make a real time transfer to another
medium?

My understanding is that one can make a digital copy through USB from
the recorder to the computer using the Sony SonicStage software, but
after the second copy the file is automatically *deleted* from the MD.

So the best way to do it is make a digital copy, and if there is any
problem (eg: power goes out), make a realtime audio copy *before*
attempting a digital copy.

Problem with that method is that there is no Hi-MD recorder/player
with digital outputs. So this safety copy has to be made analogue out
of an 1/8" socket, less than ideal obviously.

All transfers must go through SonicStage.

-- robin

check out the digital recorders from Olympus. Several have USB sockets for
file transfer.

Ty Ford



-- Ty Ford's equipment reviews, audio samples, rates and other audiocentric
stuff are at www.tyford.com

im with John on this, PDAs are excellent... i was pleasantly suprised
at the quality of the onboard mic when the recording type is increased
to 16bit.

something like resco recorder http://www.resco-net.com/audiorec.asp
works well - as you can adjust the gain. you can save direct to SD
cards also which can be easily transported to a PC for any editing
work.

cheers

Luke

Steve Underwood wrote:
Ian Stirling wrote:

In alt.music.mp3.hardware Steve Underwood wrote:

Ian Stirling wrote:

In alt.music.mp3.hardware wrote:


Hi, My organization is considering making recordings of
conferences/lectures that we do and one our people attend (Our main
thing is disseminating information relating to aquaculture). I am
trying to get them into it but since they barely have a concept of it
they aren't willing to put much money into it yet.

So. I am trying to track down an easy (I am the "techy-est" here,
kidna sad), cheap recording solution which I thought would be
something
like a Mic and mp3 player/recorder (like some of iRiver's). But i



Iriver flash players, or indeed any other player with MP3 recording
(PCM
recording may be less suitable) and line-in, combined with an external
microphone will give you a professional quality sound recording.
Expecting the internal mic to work well is perhaps a bit optimistic,
though it may be adequate to your needs.


Be warned that *very* few MP3 players do MP3 recording. Most only
record in a rather low quality ADPCM format. An external mic makes
them sound a bit better than the internal mic, but not a great deal
better.



True, which is why I stated MP3 recording. The iriver will do MP3
recording
at up to 320K (IIRC) (though not with the "disk drive" firmware)


iriver make a number of models, both disk based and flash based. The
ones I have seen only do ADPCM recording. Can you specify the models
which record MP3? A friend was looking for a player which will record
stereo MP3s and we couldn't find one. None of the iriver models
available here (Hong Kong) seem to offer anything more than ADPCM.

Regards,
Steve
I have the Iriver IFP790. It will record a very high fidelity mono
signal via it's built in mic, or stereo if you use line in. Again, the
quality is very high, more than enough to catch a lecture, and its even
good enough to record a live concert. You can adjust the quality of the
voice recording from it's best of 160 kbps at 44khz, down to 8 kbps at
11.025 khz. You can also turn on or off auto-gain control as well as
other features. When the IFP records, it does so in it's native IRM
(Iriver rights management) format. When you download the recordings to
your PC, the Iriver music manager software then offers to convert the
IRM file to MP3 upon export.

Hope this helps.

CD