Best standalone recorders for podcasts

I wonder why you need stereo?

>I'd like something that makes a stereo recording (give interviewer
>and interviewee a channel?) and that records good sound. I'd also
>like it to fit in my pocket (and cost $10 but that's not going to
>happen...).

I use an iTalk with a 3G iPod, but that is mono, 8-bit recording.

The new 5G iPods (with video) have much greater recording
capabilities (up to "44.1 KHz, stereo"), but the devices that enable
to function are not yet shipping.

Belkin has announced the "TuneTalk Stereo." It was supposed to ship
in January (but hasn't yet) and be $50.
<http://www.belkin.com/pressroom/releases/uploads/01_24_06iLoungeBestofShow.html>

Xtrememac has announced their "micromemo." List price $79, and they
told me last week that it would ship in mid to late April.
<http://www.xtrememac.com/audio/earphones_recorders/micromemo.php>

$300 for 30GB iPod (with video, which you KNOW you want. Black is
so-ooooo sexy).

Less than $100 for the accessory.

I presume that there's a $5 radioshack dohicky that can break out the
line-in or mic jack take two mono lines and combine them to one
stereo plug.

--
=alex hoffman

>Belkin has announced the "TuneTalk Stereo." It was supposed to ship
>in January (but hasn't yet) and be $50.
><http://www.belkin.com/pressroom/releases/uploads/01_24_06iLoungeBestofShow.html>

I just asked them about shipping and they say "early may."


--
=alex hoffman

I use an iRiver iFO 790 with a Griffin Lapel Mic which gives me
stereo in. I bought it after hearing many podcasters raving about it
for mobile podcasting. The stereo-in part is gratuitous. I never used
to produce stereo podcasts (mono = smaller files) but lately I'm
getting into better sound quality with larger file size.

The iRiver is pretty cheap these days (I think it's around $70-$80
for this particular model) and it works fine. You can record direct
to mp3 on it or direct to a higher, proprietary format (which it will
automatically convert to mp3 on export). I generally go for the
highest possible quality and downsample when it lands on my system.

I'll be talking in detail about the iRiver and about mobile
podcasting in general in the next installment of Take Control of
Podcasting on the Mac: The Podcast (http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/
mac-podcasting/) which is due out mid-week this week. (Knock on wood!)

-A

I don't even know if you can buy them anymore (try Amazon), but I've been using an iRiver iFP-790 to record mobile podcasts for about a year. They're cheap and have a horrible user interface, but they run forever on a single AA battery and the sound quality is amazingly good.

Steve Sande

Howard asks "why stereo?". Record an interview; interviewer and interviewee have a channel each. Makes for more interesting listening. Also I messed with binaural recordings 20 years ago when last doing this sort of thing and I'd hate to not be able to pick up on that again.

http://www.binaural.com/binfaq.html

Roland

On Apr 3, 2006, at 12:51 AM, Alexander Hoffman wrote:

>> I'd like something that makes a stereo recording (give interviewer
>> and interviewee a channel?) and that records good sound. I'd also
>> like it to fit in my pocket (and cost $10 but that's not going to
>> happen...).
>
> I use an iTalk with a 3G iPod, but that is mono, 8-bit recording.

While I'd love an M-Audio Microtrack or Roland R-O9, we have had very
good success using a 3G iPod (30GB) and running Podzilla (Linux on
the iPod) which has stereo recording using a $10 lapel mic from
Griffin. I have not experimented with our wireless mics, yet, but it
should work. Reason for Podzilla: variable khz recording up to 96khz.
I usually use 44.1 with excellent results. With a new battery, we can
record for several hours between charges, or there are pretty nice,
compact battery extenders on the market as well. The sound quality is
very good for recording interviews. Griffin, or someone, has cables
to connect a 'real mic' with xlr outputs to an iPod.

Also, someone mentioned the new 5G ipods will have 16bit audio
recording.

Jeffrey McPheeters