I am considering buying a small portable sound recorder, and would be
interested in suggestions/recommendations people may be able to make that
would suit the following requirements, etc.

The recorder will be used to record spoken word discussions, not music.
Hence it need not be of outstanding 'hi fi' quality, but I'd obviously like
good clear speech recordings to be possible. The main idea is a recorder
easy and convenient to use for making a record of conversations with a
minimum of fuss.

I'd like a digital recorder (MiniDisc or an equivalent) able to record up
to 1 or 2 hours at a time.

The unit will be used by my wife as well as by myself. She has epilepsy,
and hence it will need to be rugged (to protect it against the effects of
being dropped or mistreated if she has a fit whilst using the recorder),
portable, and reasonably cheap (so if she loses it, it will be no big
deal).

It will also need to be compact and simple to use. Inbuilt mics but with
sensitivity/noise levels good enough for conversation recordings without
having to hold the mics to the mouth like a dictaphone. One-button
recording action, with the ability to automatically adjust the gain, or
fairly clear and simple metering and obvious gain control. Light, small,
etc. Pref uses standard batteries of a size/type I can easily recharge even
if this is done out of the actual recorder.

Ideally have an S/PDIF output so I can then transfer recordings onto CDR
using an audio CDRW recorder.

My only experience up to now is with dedicated 'hi fi' recorders of various
sorts which are part of mains-powered systems, and where the quality of
recording is the prime consideration. Not had any experience of serious
speech recordings using a portable, so I currently don't know what might
suit this application best.

Ideas? :-)

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html

Jim Lesurf wrote:
I am considering buying a small portable sound recorder, and would be
interested in suggestions/recommendations people may be able to make
that would suit the following requirements, etc.

The recorder will be used to record spoken word discussions, not
music. Hence it need not be of outstanding 'hi fi' quality, but I'd
obviously like good clear speech recordings to be possible. The main
idea is a recorder easy and convenient to use for making a record of
conversations with a minimum of fuss.


You have lots of options from dedicated digital recorder to MiniDisc and
various MP3 players. For overkill something like an Archos would suffice
but may not be rugged enough. Why not look at other MP3 recorders perhaps
something that plugs directly to a USB port they would be as rugged as you
could expect. Ebuyer have some and Richer Sounds have a couple at the
moment but I wouldn't expect Richer to be competitive on PC-ish products. I
have no experience of Minidisc.

Ask in a UK MP3 group for specific advice. HTH.

Jim,

In message , Jim Lesurf
writes
I am considering buying a small portable sound recorder, and would be
interested in suggestions/recommendations people may be able to make that
would suit the following requirements, etc.

I've had decent results with a Sony minidisc recorder and a cheap
'plug-in powered' condenser microphone built into the body of a 3.5mm
jack plug. It could be improved, as the Sony has no way to control
record level while it's actually recording. I believe the Sharp units do
have this control. Mine is over a year old now, so I'm afraid I don't
have any recommendations for models that are current.

The downside is that it is not really robust (especially while writing
the table of contents data after completing a recording - a knock at
this stage will lose your entire recording).

It can be operated with one hand, but the switches are small. In the LP
modes it will record up to around 3(?) hours of mono at passable
quality, over an hour a full quality.

The microphone is a Panasonic-type miniature omni electret element
soldered into a jack plug body - cost was about 10 dollars from either
The Sound Professionals or Core Sound, I forget which. You can find
links to both on the www.minidisc.org accessories page. It's useful for
picking up speech from a couple of feet away, but you will get quite a
bit of room noise. It plugs directly into the mic input on the minidisc,
or you can use a simple extension lead to move it away, which helps
minimise pickup from the mechanical noise of the unit itself.

For a bit more robustness, you could use a 'field recording' type
housing, also detailed at minidisc.org - basically a robust, padded case
with extension leads built in, intended for journalists or concert
tapers.

Hope this helps,
--
Regards,
Glenn Booth

Thanks to people for their comments, and the info provided. :-)

I haven't found a minidisc or solid-state recorder that seems ideal for the
requirements I outlined. However I do have an old portable cassette
recorder. As an experiment I've ordered a cheap stereo mic (L99AA) from
maplin and will see how well this works with the recorder.

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html