Re: portable hand field recorders

[Bill Fox <billyfox@soundscapes.us>]

Krispen Hartung wrote:
> Travis has offered a decent analysis here, so I'll only add my two 
> cents and recommend the M-Audio MicroTrack 24/96.
> http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/MicroTrack2496-main.html
>
> I've been using it for over a year now with astounding results. In 
> fact, I've used it for many of my recent CD tracks.  The cool thing is 
> that it records to MP3 and wav, and at different sample and bit rates. 
> Plus the 1/4 inch inputs are balanced...and it has phantom power. You 
> can get a balanced XLR to 1/4 inch adpator to go directly out of a 
> mixer board's XLR outputs. I bought a 2GB flashcard for mine, so I can 
> load it up with 4 hours of wav recordings. I really can't say anything 
> bad about this unit, given the price and features, and size.
I must parrot Kris' assessment of the unit, even though I've only had 
mine for about two months.  Finally, I am able to record my radio shows 
and quickly archive them.  No more playing a DAT tape in real time into 
a computer.  Takes far too long.  Now, all I do is USB the file to my 
computer, top and tail the file in an audio editor, and save the result 
as an ogg vorbis file (very compressed in size and very good sounding).  
I recently saved the mind3Spiral experience for potential release on 
CD.  With the exception of the battery issue, it has been exactly what I 
want at unbeatable quality... which is saying something considering the 
notoriously bad quality control M-Audio's record exhibits.  The design, 
however, is pretty good.

Now, if only the RIAA, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), et al would 
allow me to put these files on my website without sending lawyers after 
me demanding more money than G-d has.

Oh, did I mention that the MicroTrack will loop on playback?  Yes, it does!

Bill