[Harp-L] Re: portable mp3 player/recorder- mobiblue

[Garry Hodgson <garry@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

randy singer <randy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> --the mp3 quality of this unit may not appease the audiophile ears of  
> Garry H and others, 

it's not clear to me just how i became the poster child for audiophiles, but just
to be clear, the real audiophiles would laugh me right out of the bar if they
saw the rig that i use.  serious tapers have rigs costing many times more
than mine, with specialized mics and outboard a/d's and such.  

my personal feeling, for which i offer no evidence, is that most any
digital recording device you can buy these days will faithfully record whatever
the mics (or in your case, the mixer) are sending it.  probably with greater
accuracy than most of our ears can distinguish.  if you want great recordings,
choose great mics (which are not necessarily expensive).  other than that, go
for convenience and price.

and that's why i'd never buy another minidisc player.  don't get me wrong, 
 i love my MD.  the device itself is great, and the cost still quite low.  but to
get my files to my computer requires i use sony's proprietary software, which
only runs on windows (not mac, or my preferred linux), to convert from their
proprietary format to wav to mp3 (with corresponding loss of quality). an awkward
and tedious process.  i'd vastly prefer what randy describes, where i could just
plug it in and have it look like another drive.

----
Garry Hodgson, Senior Software Geek, AT&T CSO

Can't you hear my lambs a callin'?
Oh good shepherd won't you feed my sheep?