RE: [Harp-L] Portable Recorders

["Steve Shaw" <moorcot@xxxxxxx>]

>  I am hoping someone can help me out with a recording question? I would 
> like to record myself everytime I play at either a jam or a gig? What kind 
> of nice little portable recorders are available. Can anyone help me on this 
> with their own experiences and trial and errors? Thanks Kevin Keith

You can get quite sophisticated these days with little four-track recorders 
that record to memory cards and so on, but a much cheaper option is a 
minidisc walkman.  The recorder is tiny and you can use it with a little 
lapel mic (get a stereo mic though).  They don't come with built-in mics.  
Standard discs are 80 mins at best quality but this can be extended, 
depending on the recorder, at the expense of sound quality.  There's a new 
format out now called Hi-MD which uses special 1GB discs that can record at 
high quality for about eight hours (N.B. "net MD" does not equal "Hi-MD").  
You need a HI-MD recorder to use these (look out for the "H" in the model 
number).  You can transfer your mic recordings to your computer and put them 
on to CDs.  This is much quicker with Hi-MDs (you have to use Sony's 
SonicStage software though) - the standard discs can only be uploaded in 
real time.  Not all minidisc recorders have a mic input socket so you need 
to check carefully before you buy.  The mic socket is usually red.   
Minidiscs have the following advantages over cassettes:
No hiss
No wow and flutter
No rewinding to find tracks (as long as you've MADE tracks ....)
It's easy to chop your recordings up into tracks which are dead easy to find 
for playing back
You can easily edit out unwanted bits and this does not leave gaps on the 
disc
You can wipe and reuse discs, in whole or part, as many times as you like 
with no quality loss
You can change the order of tracks on the disc as much as you like.

Steve

http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/trad_irish_harmonica
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