cassette recorder

September 28, 2005 12:24 PM

I'm a journalist who still uses an old school stereo Sony TCS-580v for recording conversations. It's been discontinued, and the one I have is worse for wear. I was thinking about switching to a digital voice recorder -- by Sony -- and wondered if anyone had any experience with them. Sound quality and dependability are of prime concern, more than weight or portability ... and can you transfer files on those things to a Mac?

recorder

posted by jgballard to technology (8 comments total)

As far as Mac support goes, Sony doesn't provide any. You're better off looking at the Olympus VRs, e.g., DS-2300, which do the best job of Mac support among all the DVR vendors.
posted by Rothko at 12:52 PM on September 28, 2005

If you have an iPod, you could get an iTalk . . or is it iRecord? No, it's iTalk. My husband has one, and it's pretty nifty. That, and compatibility with a Mac is a little obvious.
posted by Medieval Maven at 1:20 PM on September 28, 2005

I use a Sony ICD-ST25, it works great.
posted by By The Grace of God at 1:40 PM on September 28, 2005

Oh, and you can use Sony Digital Voice Editor on a PC only :( to convert the files to .wav format, which can be used on your Mac or converted again to an mp3 or whatever.
posted by By The Grace of God at 1:41 PM on September 28, 2005

(i tried to use an iTalk for similar purposes, and, honestly? i just found it untrustworthy. it worked fairly well, but i just felt like between the memory capacity (especially if you're packed up with mp3s) and the ease at which i could delete or stop recording, iTalk just freaked me out. i'd only use it with a microcasette backup. (of course, i only go to interviews now with a backup anyway, because i'm just that paranoid.))
posted by RJ Reynolds at 2:04 PM on September 28, 2005

I use a Sony ICD-MS1 and it is extraordinary. Not Mac compatible, though. It's a discontinued unit but you can often get them on eBay. Very reliable, sounds great (assuming you're using with it on a table between you and your subject), very portable, good features, unlimited (I think) folders. Sony makes a comparable one today but I can't speak for its quality.
posted by dobbs at 3:40 PM on September 28, 2005

I use a MiniDisc myself for interviews - great quality, although it's a minor hassle to keep track of the discs. The newer models let you upload your interviews to your computer, but not all of them, so watch out (check this site for more info).

I looked into the iPod with either iTalk and TuneTalk, but the word is that they're not very reliable and the quality is low (something to do with the format, which is considerably lower than a MD).

For big budgets, there's always Marantz. They're clunky and ugly, but the quality is supposed to be outstanding. Uses USB but also flash cards, so if you have a newish computer, you can probably just plug the flash card in the computer (not sure if Mac supports this).
posted by NekulturnY at 2:16 AM on September 29, 2005

I used to use a little Olympus jobby, and was quite happy with it until it broke. I'm not that easy on gear, but the fall that rendered it useless was onto an industrial carpeted motel room floor, from waist level. Since then, it tends to randomly turn off. I've opened it up to tweak the metal that holds the batteries, but to no avail.

It was a 75$ about 16 months ago, I'm sure there are better models available. Despite my experience, I would probably choose it over an MD, if only for the reason that I could buy a backup, and not have to carry a mic. I was pleasantly surprised at the sound quality from the internal mic. It had a couple features that aren't available on other devices, including two "folders" of recordings. I could record interviews to folder A, and memos to folder B.
posted by Jack Karaoke at 7:45 PM on October 1, 2005