Subject: [Harp-L] MobiBlu Recording

[randy singer <randy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I am glad u like it.

I was the first to bring this to harpl attention for these reasons.

it is the easiest/cheapest way to hear ourselves and store files on  
the computer.

also

a few quick questions.

why not record at 128 ? I do, the quality is really good.

also,

I wish there was a way to pause it and install track marks at the  
same time. This way, when I get home, I can hear 15 songs instead of  
one 70 minute segment., I know I could turn the unit on and off in  
the recording mode, but that is too many buttons to hit between songs.

the only partial way around that is this.

I hit the pause button between songs.
at home, i drag the file to the desk top and throw it on my mp3  
splitter. my mac mp3 splitter tries to "repair" the file and upon  
repairing actually separates the songs into the pauses I installed.  
This works most, not all the time.

have fun with it

ps, need to try it with a small mike for recording acoustic jam  
sessions.....

pps, I never got the a/c charger...........


Message: 4
Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2006 18:30:05 -0000
From: "Tim Moyer" <wmharps@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] MobiBlu Recording
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Message-ID: <ea33jd+d12d@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"

Well, folks, last week my MobiBlu B153 arrived and I've been having
some fun with it.  It took me a while to get used to how to control
it, since it has only a few buttons, most of which do different
things in different modes, and sometimes depending on whether you
push them or push-and-hold them.  For the most part it's pretty easy
to operate, and particularly when it comes to getting MP3 files onto
it, since it appears on a Windows computer as a removable Flash
storage device.  It's a pretty nice little MP3 player, and
particularly with the Philips noise cancelling earbuds I bought to
go with it.

But mostly I was interested in how it functions as a recorder.  I
took it with me to our gig on Saturday night and recorded two hour-
long sets of live material.  Unfortunately, the volume level where I
placed the device was too high, and it clipped badly, particularly
on the first set.  I moved it for the second set, and the quality is
better, though it still has a lot of really nasty fingernails-on-the-
blackboard digital clipping.  And although you can vary the
recording bitrate, you can't adjust the recording level using the
internal microphone, so you'll have to rely on placement to control
levels.

My recordings (one of each set) were made at 96kbits per second.
The first was almost 58 minutes long, approximately 41.5 megabytes,
and the second was just over 48 minutes, and consumes about 34
megabytes.  Since this is a 2 gigabyte device, you can see you could
get a lot of recording on it.  I'm going to take it to SPAH and
record, and maybe I can figure it out better there.  Or maybe I'll
buy a line level microphone setup so I can record using the line-in
instead.

I had much better luck plugging it into my mixer at home and
recording stuff out of the board using the line-in.  At least there
I could adjust the level of the signal I was feeding it to avoid
clips.  Here's a short sample I recorded at the 128kbit per second
rate:

http://www.workingmansharps.com/Sounds/other/Pork%20Pie.mp3

Not bad for an investment of less than $200, including the
player/recorder, A/C charger, and noise cancelling earbuds (from
walmart.com).

-tim

Tim Moyer
Working Man's Harps
http://www.workingmansharps.com/