Looking for a digital recording device with HD or flash based storage

March 31, 2004 8:07 AM

For a radio piece I have to record, I'd like to get a digital recording device that I can hook up to a nice microphone -- something with Flash memory or a hard drive, rather than DAT or minidisc. Can someone recommend one? Some guy at Radio Shack suggested the iPod itself, but it doesn't seem to have a mic jack.
posted by inksyndicate to technology (15 comments total)

The iPod has a microphone you can use to record voice memos as well as an adapter you can use to connect other mics to it. I have the voice recorder for mine, but wouldn't recommend it for radio-quality audio.
posted by alphanerd at 8:13 AM on March 31, 2004

The mike jack on an ipod is (currently) the same as the headphone jack.

Geek types have dis assembled reverse engineered IPods and found support for digital recording in 1st and 2nd gen units that was nevertheless not enabled by Apple engineering (same with the ability to playback .wma (microsoft) audio files.

I believe 3rd Gen units have the ability to record enabled, but its monaural and not very high fidelity.

The enxt gen of of IPods will be much more feature rich in this respect,a dn are likely to be out on the market within a year, tops.

Meanwhile there are other IPod wannabes that have recording available now. I think the Archos has it.
posted by BentPenguin at 8:15 AM on March 31, 2004

There are portable 4 track recorders at places like "musician's friend" that take compact flash.
posted by mecran01 at 8:58 AM on March 31, 2004

The iRiver H120 has a fairly good quality recorder, with on the fly mp3 compression, and it has a 20 gig hard drive.

I have the 40 gig version and am very happy with it. I have been using it to record interviews for my broadcasting class and it has worked very well.
posted by addyct at 9:32 AM on March 31, 2004

The Neuros HD-20 does this, as does some of the iRiver units. The iPod does have an external mic jack you can buy, but it is mono 8Khz PCM, which is going to be positively awful, far far worse than a MiniDisc.
posted by neustile at 9:34 AM on March 31, 2004

The Creative Nomad Jukebox 3 has a huge following in the concert bootlegging community. I've heard some great recordings that were captured with this device and a set of nice mics.
posted by togdon at 9:54 AM on March 31, 2004

What about a digital recorder with XLR input?
posted by inksyndicate at 10:10 AM on March 31, 2004

I'm actually holding out on buying a portable minidisk player until someone offers a sub-$200 20gb+ model that can record in stereo 16 bit 44/48 kHz AIF/WAV (i.e. CD-quality sound). And work as a hard drive via USB2. The technological capability is obviously already here; the demand is here. Why it isn't being marketed I don't know.
posted by squirrel at 10:54 AM on March 31, 2004

I'm actually holding out on buying a portable MP3 player until someone offers a sub-$200 20gb+ model that can record in stereo 16 bit 44/48 kHz AIF/WAV (i.e. CD-quality sound). And work as a hard drive via USB2. The technological capability is obviously already here; the demand is here. Why it isn't being marketed I don't know.
posted by squirrel at 10:54 AM on March 31, 2004

Doh! Please ignore the first one. I meant portable mp3 player.
posted by squirrel at 10:58 AM on March 31, 2004

I always say the same thing in these threads:

Get an Archos 20GB recorder. Mind you, it doesn't meet squirrel's compression-less requirement. It records straight to MP3 (with adjustable quality).
posted by scarabic at 11:15 AM on March 31, 2004

but it does record at 44/48, costs under $200, has 20+ GB, and works as a USB2 hard drive. The only question is whether the quality level is, ultimately, good enough for your purposes.
posted by scarabic at 11:17 AM on March 31, 2004

Hi, Scarabic,

Yeah, this Archos 20GB looks promising. I guess all I need is Minidisc quality compression or better. When you say 44/48, do you mean it records at CD quality? (I'm a digital audio newbie). Are we talking about something like a 192 kbps MP3?
posted by inksyndicate at 11:52 AM on March 31, 2004

I second the iRiver harddrive models. It can record to either WAV or MP3 and meets squirrel's other criteria AFAIK. But it's not less than $200. Sometimes you get what you pay for.
posted by turbodog at 11:54 AM on March 31, 2004

I HIGHLY recommend a product my audio engineer wife uses for recording voice. The Marantz CDR300
posted by terrapin at 1:14 PM on March 31, 2004