Gadget tip: Sound recorders

Hi folks.

Today I went by the local gadget shop and found some sound recorders:

http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodID=1901
http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.aspx?objectid=757

These things are small (about 12 cm x 8 cm x 2 cm)  and basically
contain a couple of microphones, a sound card and a memory card
for storage. They record data either directly to .wav format or to mp3
format. With a 8 GB memory card you can record about 4 hrs at
96 kHz and 24 bit resolution. Download the data to your PC with USB.

Very nifty tools if you do data recording with your PC's built-in
stereo
sound card but find it a drag to haul that laptop around. The gadgets
might not be dust and weather resistant, but with these one all of a
sudden has a lot more mobility when recording data, compared to
using the PC or a pro sound recorder.

I'm sure others also will find these things useful.

Rune

On Jan 28, 10:30&#4294967295;am, Rune Allnor <all...@tele.ntnu.no> wrote:
> Hi folks.
>
> Today I went by the local gadget shop and found some sound recorders:
>
> http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodID=1901http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.aspx?objectid=757
>
> These things are small (about 12 cm x 8 cm x 2 cm) &#4294967295;and basically
> contain a couple of microphones, a sound card and a memory card
> for storage. They record data either directly to .wav format or to mp3
> format. With a 8 GB memory card you can record about 4 hrs at
> 96 kHz and 24 bit resolution. Download the data to your PC with USB.
>
> Very nifty tools if you do data recording with your PC's built-in
> stereo
> sound card but find it a drag to haul that laptop around. The gadgets
> might not be dust and weather resistant, but with these one all of a
> sudden has a lot more mobility when recording data, compared to
> using the PC or a pro sound recorder.
>
> I'm sure others also will find these things useful.
>
> Rune

Rune


Yes, I have used the Zoom device for a few months now and gotten great
results. Before that I tried using one of those Olympus voice-
recorders, but you can't turn off the compression or the ALC, which
makes them relatively useless for people like us!


Bob Adams

On Jan 29, 4:30&#4294967295;am, Rune Allnor <all...@tele.ntnu.no> wrote:
> Hi folks.
>
> Today I went by the local gadget shop and found some sound recorders:
>
> http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodID=1901http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.aspx?objectid=757
>
> These things are small (about 12 cm x 8 cm x 2 cm) &#4294967295;and basically
> contain a couple of microphones, a sound card and a memory card
> for storage. They record data either directly to .wav format or to mp3
> format. With a 8 GB memory card you can record about 4 hrs at
> 96 kHz and 24 bit resolution. Download the data to your PC with USB.
>
> Very nifty tools if you do data recording with your PC's built-in
> stereo
> sound card but find it a drag to haul that laptop around. The gadgets
> might not be dust and weather resistant, but with these one all of a
> sudden has a lot more mobility when recording data, compared to
> using the PC or a pro sound recorder.
>
> I'm sure others also will find these things useful.
>
> Rune

What's the lowest freq it records?

Rune Allnor <allnor@tele.ntnu.no> wrote:
 
> Today I went by the local gadget shop and found some sound recorders:
 
> http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodID=1901
> http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.aspx?objectid=757
 
> These things are small (about 12 cm x 8 cm x 2 cm)  and basically
> contain a couple of microphones, a sound card and a memory card
> for storage. They record data either directly to .wav format or to mp3
> format. With a 8 GB memory card you can record about 4 hrs at
> 96 kHz and 24 bit resolution. Download the data to your PC with USB.

I have used the Roland R-1 (and written about it here).

The R-1 records at 44.1kHz which is fine for me as I want to
generate CDs from the result.  I record at 24 bit WAV, then convert
to 16 bit WAV using a program I wrote myself which does a right
shift and dither (or the other way around).  I can then record at
a slightly lower record level to avoid clipping.  (One recording
I did I wasn't quite low enough and clipped at five samples.)

-- glen

On 28 Jan, 20:52, HardySpicer <gyansor...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Jan 29, 4:30&#4294967295;am, Rune Allnor <all...@tele.ntnu.no> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > Hi folks.
>
> > Today I went by the local gadget shop and found some sound recorders:
>
> >http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodID=1901http://...
>
> > These things are small (about 12 cm x 8 cm x 2 cm) &#4294967295;and basically
> > contain a couple of microphones, a sound card and a memory card
> > for storage. They record data either directly to .wav format or to mp3
> > format. With a 8 GB memory card you can record about 4 hrs at
> > 96 kHz and 24 bit resolution. Download the data to your PC with USB.
>
> > Very nifty tools if you do data recording with your PC's built-in
> > stereo
> > sound card but find it a drag to haul that laptop around. The gadgets
> > might not be dust and weather resistant, but with these one all of a
> > sudden has a lot more mobility when recording data, compared to
> > using the PC or a pro sound recorder.
>
> > I'm sure others also will find these things useful.
>
> > Rune
>
> What's the lowest freq it records?

The Roland R9, which I ended up buying, has a lower cut-off
filter which can be switched off or set to 100 Hz or 200 Hz.
I don't have a test facility, but having recorded some simple
impulse sources, I can not see any obvious drop in the frequency
response towards DC with the filter switched off.

There *might* be hints of a DC-blocking filter in the 0-5Hz
range, but one would need a full-scale lab test to investigate.

Rune

HardySpicer wrote:

> On Jan 29, 4:30&#4294967295;am, Rune Allnor <all...@tele.ntnu.no> wrote:
>> Hi folks.
>>
>> Today I went by the local gadget shop and found some sound recorders:
>>
>> http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodID=1901
>> http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.aspx?objectid=757 
>>
>> [..]
> 
> What's the lowest freq it records?

I have the Edirol R09 (not the new HR version, so it cannot sample at more
than 48 kHz) and the specs say 20 Hz?22 kHz. Even when using the
built in microphones the low frequencies are very well recorded.

bye
Andreas
-- 
Andreas H&#4294967295;nnebeck | email: acmh@gmx.de
----- privat ---- | www  : http://www.huennebeck-online.de
Fax/Anrufbeantworter: 0721/151-284301
GPG-Key: http://www.huennebeck-online.de/public_keys/andreas.asc
PGP-Key: http://www.huennebeck-online.de/public_keys/pgp_andreas.asc

Rune Allnor wrote:

> Hi folks.
> 
> Today I went by the local gadget shop and found some sound recorders:
> 
> http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodID=1901
> http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.aspx?objectid=757
> 
> These things are small (about 12 cm x 8 cm x 2 cm)  and basically
> contain a couple of microphones, a sound card and a memory card
> for storage. They record data either directly to .wav format or to mp3
> format. With a 8 GB memory card you can record about 4 hrs at
> 96 kHz and 24 bit resolution. Download the data to your PC with USB.
> 
> Very nifty tools if you do data recording with your PC's built-in stereo
> sound card but find it a drag to haul that laptop around. The gadgets
> might not be dust and weather resistant, but with these one all of a
> sudden has a lot more mobility when recording data, compared to
> using the PC or a pro sound recorder.
> 
> I'm sure others also will find these things useful.

So it is. I have the Edirol R-09 and I'm quite happy with it. I use it for
live recording of our company rock band rehearsels, and use it as
a MP3 player when on the road, and as well at home where it can
feed the excellent external DA-converter of my big stereo (the R-09
has an optical SPDIF output, which Edirol unfortunately decided to
remove on the successor model, the R-09HR). The newest firmware
supports up to 32 GB SDHC cards.

A warning against the Zoom Models: After reading about some strange
features of the Zoom H2 I contacted both the importer in Germany and
the producer in Taiwan (and both replied!) and got confirmed, that

- the H2 has no analog input volume control (besides the Hi/Med/Lo switch)
  and the input volume control you use for recording is on the digital side.
  This means that you should always set it to 100%, and reducing the
  level on a clipped input does not prevent clipping.

- the same is true for the limiter, it's also on the digital side.

- the boot time increases with the number of files on the flash card
  and peaks at 3 minutes and 5 seconds for 1000 files (probably the
  maximum number). This makes the H2 unusable as a typical MP3
  player where you usually have many songs on the flash card.

Otherwise the H2 seems to be quite good and has a lot of features
for a very good price, so if the shortcomings mentioned above do
not apply to your application it can be a cheap solution.

bye
Andreas
-- 
Andreas H�nnebeck | email: acmh@gmx.de
----- privat ---- | www  : http://www.huennebeck-online.de
Fax/Anrufbeantworter: 0721/151-284301
GPG-Key: http://www.huennebeck-online.de/public_keys/andreas.asc
PGP-Key: http://www.huennebeck-online.de/public_keys/pgp_andreas.asc