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Re: THE BEST CHEAP RECORDING SOLUTION
Title: Re: THE BEST CHEAP RECORDING
SOLUTION
At 4:51 PM -0800 2/7/05, loop.pool wrote:
I was heartbroken to have my Sony
recording MD player break down, irrevocably, on me
recently.
I did almost my entire live looping CD
with that machine.
WHAT IS THE BEST LIVE RECORDING MEDIUM
THAT IS INEXPENSIVE (please don't say a laptop). I mean,
is there any elegant solution under $200?
"Best" is a pretty subjective judgement when coupled
with "under $200." Back in 1977 most of my crowd considered
the "best" low-cost recorder to be a Sony TCD158 It ran on
eight D-cells, had a built-in speaker, and had a shoulder strap so you
could schlep it around. As I recall it cost around $300. These days
you'd consider it a "luggable" recorder, but back then we
thought it was really liberating.
The Sony TC-D5 Pro was considered really deluxe, but at a cost of
around $700 in late-'70s dollars. Then came portable DAT and its
successors.
Minidisc is one of those media that fall into the "good
enough" category for many people. It's popular in theater sound
for effects and it's popular for field recording (soundscape art) and
radio location recording. Most of these groups of users place a high
premium on "cheap" and "portable" and they are
less fussy about sound quality. We've all heard the expression GIGO
(garbage-in/garbage-out), though that's a bit disparaging. Perhaps
GEIGEO (good enough in/good enough out) is more to the point. After
all, if you're recording a bunch of cheesy sound toys and
environmental sounds then the artifacts of mp3 compression are likely
to be inaudible.
I've flirted with buying one for a couple of years, but just
couldn't get past the data compression issues and the lack of input
volume control on most models. I'm intriged by the new Hi-MD
format, which allows 1GB disc capacity as well as linear PCM
recording. There's even an entry-level model in your price range, the
MZ-NH600D at $200.
I'm more attracted to the new Edirol R-1 ($439) and R-4 ($1595)
portables.
http://www.edirol.com/products/info/r1.html
http://www.edirol.com/products/info/r4.html
--
______________________________________________________________
Richard Zvonar, PhD
(818) 788-2202
http://www.zvonar.com
http://salamandersongs.com
http://ill-wind.com
