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Re: MiniDisc for field recording



At 10:00 AM -0700 9/22/02, Mark Sottilaro wrote:
>I couldn't find that model anywhere, but I am starting to think that 
>some of these "Palm 4 Tracks" like Korg's or Zoom's might be better. 
>Zoom makes a 3 track device that's not much bigger or costly than a 
>MD and everything is nicely put on a solid state compact media card. 
>Sure, recording time is more limited, but that's not terribly 
>important to what she wants to do.
>
>Anyone had any experience with the Zoom PS-2?
>

I got one as a gift and it's cute. I thought it would be perfect for 
capturing spur of the moment ideas in the studio without having to 
boot up the whole darn room. It is pretty good for that, but even so 
it is not an instant-on device and the battery life is kinda short.

Perhaps the most fun I've had with it was late at night at my 
mother-in-law's apartment during a holiday-- tapping on the built-in 
mic with all the effects processing cranked up, overdubbing against 
the built-in rhythm box, then automating a mix without the beat and 
with crazy panning. I felt like a kid up past bedtime with a crystal 
radio headset under the covers, tuned in to the little green men 
instead of the BBC. Must have been something in the meat loaf.

I can't say I've tried the PS-2 for any serious field recording. I'm 
quality-obsessed after some tests which convinced me 24-bit is worth 
it for nature sounds. I used to carry a DAT Walkman on the road like 
a camera, but after wearing two of them into the ground I gave up.

The Archos Jukebox doesn't record in real-time with less than about 
10:1 compression, according to this site: 
http://www.archos.com/us/products/product_jbrecorders.html

The Nomad Jukebox, if I remember correctly from a thread here a year 
or two ago, will record 16/44 uncompressed WAV files but it goes to 
sleep or something every 20 minutes and drops out of record. If 
anyone has worked around this with a recent model, I'd like to hear 
about it.

-Alex S.