Audio: Hardware

Hardware for recording, transferring, or playing back sound

Zoom’s latest recorder the Zoom H1 Handy costs $99; it’s now shipping!

Samson said they were going to ship the Zoom Handy H1 July 30, but they’re shipping the product as of today. the Zoom H1 Handy is available at Amazon (affiliate link). Based on the product specs (I have not yet seen it), my answer to the question, “What recorder should I buy?” will change. I’ll be saying, Get the Zoom Handy H1, people. Why? CD-stereo quality (and higher) recorder, recording in WAV format, will be available for 99 bucks. And it has one-button recording. Sweet. Very, very sweet.

I got off the fone a little while ago with a spokesperson for Samson’s Zoom line of products, confirming very important items about this recorder. The news is good, people. True one touch recording (press the button and the recording begins). And a zippier start-up time to power the unit on.

Why is this good news? A little background…..

That was then, this is now

Last month, when people would ask me, “What recorder should I buy?” I’d tell them about the Samson Zoom H2 Handy—Samson’s previous lowest-cost portable digital audio recorder.

But I’d also tell them about two of the most significant downsides to the Zoom H2—it takes 30 seconds for the unit to power on, and it has press-twice-to-start-recording. 30 seconds is an eternity, if you’re trying to quickly grab a recording of a conversation in progress. What’s so bad about press twice to start the recording? You press... Read More

Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in • Audio • Audio: Hardware
(0) Comments • Permalink

Not your father’s iPod… well, actually it is (a Walkman)

For Sony Walkman’s 30th anniversary, 13-year old Scott Campbell tries it for a week. Hilarious for us oldsters to see our old fave equipment through a young-person’s eyes.

My dad had told me it was the iPod of its day.
He had told me it was big, but I hadn’t realised he meant THAT big. It was the size of a small book.

Size? cumbersome. Handy belt-clip, but with that weight? (you hafta read the article to find out its effect for current 13 year olds).

When I wore it walking down the street or going into shops, I got strange looks, a mixture of surprise and curiosity, that made me a little embarrassed.

Though one teacher got nostalgic. Two tantalizing questions:

How long did it take for Campbell to figure out that there was a side B to this tape?

And how did he create his own impromptu “Shuffle” effect?

You hafta read the article to find out the answers.

A couple of pluses: two output jacks for sharing music with friends, and a power port to plug... Read More

Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in • Audio • Audio: Hardware • Digitality • Longevity • Memorabilia
(0) Comments • Permalink

Countown to my Digital Audio Workshop

Am currently working hard to prepare for Friday’s “Birthing Digital” workshop at USC for the Southwest Oral History Association conference. What equipment am I bringing? Here’s a list.

YES, you can still sign up! (late fee waived!)

• Two Mac Laptops to demo and test all the direct-to-computer tools
• USB mic
• 2 USB Audio Interfaces: Edirol’s and M-Audio’s
• No wait, make that three. Creative Lab’s EEMU USB Audio Interface
• iPod Nano and Belkin TuneTalk, plus Belkin GoStudio. Or, everything you wanted to know about turning your iPod into an audio studio (or quick, stealthy recorder)
• M-Audio Microtrack II Portable Digital Recorder
• Samson’s Zoom Handy H2 Portable Digital Recorder*
• Marantz PMD 620 Portable Digital Recorder*
• LiveScribe Pulse Pen
• Possibly a Tascam portable recorder
 
• My own portable recording kit, as written about here

*A couple of these will be for sale, (very) gently used, in about 3 weeks’ time, once I’m finished with all my equipment tests

I expect to post lots of good info on audio recorders to this site in the weeks following this presentation.

Kevin Roderick at LA Observed mentioned the conference in this morning’s link roundup.

Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in • Audio • Audio: Hardware • Audio: Software
(0) Comments • Permalink

Workshop in March on Portable Audio Recorders

In L.A. Friday, March 27, I’ll be presenting a workshop called for “Birthing Digital: Portable Digital Audio Recorders” for the Southwest Oral History Association’s Conference that afternoon. Location: USC. Register: Cost: SOHA members $35, Non-Members $50, Students $20. (+online registration fees). Short description: When an audio recording is initially stored as bits, bytes, ones and zeroes, it’s called “born digital.” The birthing begins with two people having a conversation. It ends with a digital audio file. This 3-hour workshop focuses on what happens in between. It’s part theory, part show and tell, and part practice using a glorious array of portable audio recorders.

Long Description:

The Theory:

An overview of the most common routes to go from spoken word to audio file. It will provide a framework to understand the myriad portable audio recorders available on the market. There will also be an introduction to some basics of audio, digital sampling, file formats, and concepts that underlie best recording practices.

The Show and Tell:

A look at many of the common portable audio recorders. Recorder types will include portable flash memory, portable internal micro-drives, direct-to-CD, recording pens, components that connect microphone directly to computer, and add-on components that extend functionality of common audio devices such as certain iPods. Attendees will be able to handle the recorders and compare them by size, weight, and inspect their controls.

Attendees who have worked with a given recorder will be encouraged to describe their experience using that recorder, including their learning curve, workflow, and any technical “gotchas.”

The... Read More

Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in • Audio • Audio: Hardware
(0) Comments • Permalink

Restored Reel-to-Reel Tape Decks as Art.

A Gallery of Custom Tape Decks, wherein Jeff Jacobs restores old audio technology as art, via BoingBoing Gadgets. I love the meta-line here. Jacobs restores tape decks, which I think of as tools for restoring (and digitizing) audio. If tape decks are art, then there’s a ton of art at Richard Hess’s audio tape restoration studio! In decades to come, when those machines grow ever scarcer, the BoingBoing post points to another source to find those long-obsolete tape decks of the world: the personal collections of geeks.

Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in • Audio • Audio: Hardware • Longevity • Memorabilia • Restoration
(0) Comments • Permalink

Who invented the electret (condenser) microphone?

Dr West, I presume. How do I know it? Kareem told me. That Kareem. The Basketball Kareem. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. In his blog. No kidding. Quoth Kareem: “In 1962, Dr. [James] West and his partner Gerhard Sessler invented the electret microphone used in almost 90% of all microphones built today — over 1 billion a year.”

Electret (also called “condenser”) microphones are the type generally used in lavalier (or lapel) microphones. (Hello every TV anchor and guest in recent history. How do we hear you? It’s electret!) Electret mics are used in all mini-sized microphones.

I love how I came to learn of Dr. West, electret mic’s co-inventor. Though I have passing awareness (heh. pun unintended) of Pro Basketball, and have heard the name of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and I read a local (L.A.)  blog by Tony Pierce, who became the blog editor at the L.A. Times, and though I saw an announcement that he got Kareem to start blogging, I had no idea. I yawned, oh, it’s a sports blog. Whatever. Didn’t even click through. I had no idea that Mr. Abdul-Jabbar loves history, and has written history books. His blog bio states that he has authored “four bestselling history books intended to popularize the contributions of... Read More

Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in • Audio • Audio: Hardware
(6) Comments • Permalink

Marantz PMD620 Review

Oryoki’s First Impressions of the Marantz PMD620 (plus responses). It seems as though the preamps are better than expected.

The preamp specifications Marantz publishes for the PMD620 are similar to the specs of the PMD660 recorder.  This is not a good sign, because the PMD660 is (correctly) criticized as having relatively high self-noise and poor performance when recording loud material.

However, in my brief tests the PMD620 sounded better than the specs might suggest.

The built-in mics are adequate.  They have a somewhat better sound when you point the top of the mic at the subject, holding the recorder as if it were a TV remote control.  The sound is thinner and brighter when you point the front or back of the recorder at the subject (this points the top of the recorder and the mics at the ceiling).

[...] Compared to my Oade-modified PMD660, the PMD620 was a bit noisier, but sounded very good as long as the preamp gain was held a little below maximum.  Overall, I’d say... Read More

Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in • Audio • Audio: Hardware
(1) Comments • Permalink

Marantz introduces new portable digital recorder: PMD620

Ontario, CA — Marantz unveiled its PMD620, a new handheld solid state SD-Flash memory recorder, due to ship in November for a street price of $399. [Click image to enlarge] UPDATE: It’s Shipping!!!

The Marantz PMD620 will record in WAV or MP3 file formats (16 or 24 bit resolution) from its two built-in omnidirectional mics or a plug-in external microphone. It can record in mono or stereo. It stores recordings on SD memory.

It is powered by two AA batteries (recorders that take standard batteries make better field recorders, since you can buy fresh batteries anywhere; custom batteries present more of a problem). The Marantz representative plugged something into its side which I assumed to be AC power, but I didn’t ask.

I did plug in my own headphones and external microphone to try it out. Alas for the noisy trade show room; I couldn’t really hear the sound quality (this was true for other “let me try it out” show floor tests).

One thing the PMD620 offers that none of the competing hand-held recorders do is built-in speakers.

At first glance, the PMD620... Read More

Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in • Audio • Audio: Hardware
(6) Comments • Permalink

A PodCamp SoCal report

Audio gadgets, workflows, meeting people, and stories. PodcampSoCal was a good day yesterday. I was expecting to have different breakout regions in the room, but we all followed a single track together as one room. I saw several Zoom Handy H2s set up on small tripods, recording the proceedings. And one or two Zoom H4, too. Looks like I’ll be turning from The War and what’s your story to an audio geek gadget maven for the next day or so. The agenda was full and continuous I didn’t get a chance to ask people what their experience was like using their various recorders. But I’ll be at the show Friday and Saturday, so I hope to do that then.

Oh, and family stories did come up; I managed to get myself on the agenda at day’s end and spoke of the Veterans History Project. One guy, Dan Bach (he produces a math show and wore a tee shirt filled with lovely graphic symbolic goodness related to prime numbers), mentioned his dad during the Q & A: A WWII vet, a prisoner of war who received his purple heart 60-some years later. Perhaps I heard about him in the news? Just looked it up, and here’s the story of Leo Bach. He was at Pearl Harbor the day it was bombed, and he was shot down over Germany. I told him, you gotta interview your dad; this field kit has your name on it (I only had a handful of Veteran History Project field kits).

Some other good questions that came in… do you stop the recording if the interviewee gets... Read More

Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in • Audio • Audio: Hardware • Interviewing • Veterans History Project
(0) Comments • Permalink

The Samson Zoom Handy 2 is shipping

The Samson Zoom Handy H2, the new portable digital recorder, is finally shipping. Street price just under $200. This is a combination of low-cost and high-quality (recording uncompressed audio in WAV files). I just heard from someone who ordered it —the person sounded very happy thus far. I’ll see if I can get more of a report.

You can use the Zoom Handy H2 as a standalone recorder, or else use it as a USB microphone and plug it straight into your computer to record onto your hard disk drive. The portable method will allow you to record for a good while; The Zoom H2 Handy will take the newer type of 4GB SD flash memory cards (its older sibling, the H4, takes only 2 GB)

Check out the equipment store for with other equipment and supplies for recording and preserving spoken word stories.

Related: Earlier post about Zoom Handy H2 with description

Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in • Audio • Audio: Hardware
(0) Comments • Permalink

Compact Disc celebrates 25th birthday

First discs rolled off presses August 17, 1982. So, if digital lasts forever.. or 5 years, whichever comes first, CDs may (may!) last forever.

The news story follows the way that CDs changed the music industry.. the rise.. and, with other digital formats, the fall. But the part that interests me the most are the techno-geeky deets about how the CD came to be, well, the CD:

Yet it had been a risky technical endeavor to attempt to bring digital audio to the masses, said Pieter Kramer, the head of the optical research group at Philips’ labs in the Netherlands in the 1970s.

“When we started there was nothing in place,” he told The Associated Press at Philips’ corporate museum in Eindhoven.

The proposed semiconductor chips needed for CD players were to be the most advanced ever used in a consumer product. And the lasers were still on the drawing board when the companies teamed up in 1979.

In 1980, researchers published what became known as the “Red Book” containing the original CD standards, as... Read More

Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in • Audio • Audio: Hardware • Digitality
(0) Comments • Permalink

New Digital Audio Recorder: Samson’s Handy H2

Now shipping! Coming out Real Soon Now, The Samson Handy H2 audio recorder looks oh so sweet. Smaller, less expensive version of Zoom Handy H4, the Handy H2 looks to be an improvement on the H4. Details from manufacturer. Street Price, when it goes on sale is $198.

Built in microphones designed to pick up a good stereo image (designed for musicians, but hey, interviews will do just fine that way). The combinations of mics allow for different pick-up patterns. Or plug in your own mic to the mini-jack microphone port.

Record Audio CD-quality stereo WAV files. Either to flash memory card, ro use the recorder like a USB mic and record directly to your computer.

If I were in the market for a recorder and I didn’t have any interviews to conduct over the summer, I’d seriously consider waiting to get this. Lots of bang for the buck for just under $200. (SoundProfessioanls says “August” others say “coming soon”)

UPDATE, September 2007: It’s in stock and shipping!

Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in • Audio • Audio: Hardware
(0) Comments • Permalink

Hard at work on Equipment Guide

I’m working night and day to create an audio equipment guide for this site. Don’t take this site-silence for lack of activity or thought.

Invitation for the comments: What burning questions do you have about audio equipment? (I’ll save the video questions for later….one thing at a time, one thing at a time)

Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in • Audio • Audio: Hardware • Housekeeping
(2) Comments • Permalink

A MiniDisc early adopter reflects on portable digital music trends

[Updated] David Ing at Coevolving writes a post about where portable audio media is going. His perspective is primarily as a listener to music, but he also uses MiniDisc to record.

I’ve been researching audio hardware lately (equipment guide coming soon!) and the footnote of David Ing’s post has a jaw-dropper that needs further research: SonicStage (the software to transfer recordings from Minidisc to computer) has been updated for Windows Vista, but not all capabilities will be provided under the version that works on the new Operating System—the WAV Conversion Tool:

It is also important to note that MD Simple Burner along with CONNECT Player, WAV Conversion Tool and MP3 File Manager will not be supported under Windows Vista [emphasis mine, sorta]

I don’t use SonicStage (have a too-early version of SonicStage for my generation of MiniDisc player), so I’m not familiar with what WAV Conversion tool does. A little reading here and there tells me that there’s a digital rights management [DRM] software enclosure—called OpenMG—that’s created when you transfer the audio file to the computer (don’t know yet under what circumstances... Read More

Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in • Audio • Audio: Hardware
(3) Comments • Permalink

End of the Reel for Cassette Tapes

Telegraph, UK: Curry’s, biggest retailer, announces that it’ll stop selling cassette tapes. News story is a sad lovesong to the format used by many a man to woo his woman. [via Practical Archivist] Having just digitized a 1980s-era cassette tape myself, I’ve a fondness for the format.

The High Street chain also predicts that this Christmas will be the last time it sells any hi-fi system with a tape deck included.

[...]The portability of the format moved out of the living room and on to the street. In 1989, helped by falling prices of hi-fi systems, 83 million music cassettes were sold in the UK. This fell to 53 million in 2000, and just half a million in 2005, according to Understanding & Solutions, a market research firm.

Last year only about 100,000 of the items were sold. However, this figure excludes audio books and blank tapes, which still attract a small, loyal fan base, with four million blank tapes sold last year and 1.5 million audio books.

I’ll have to go and do another round of in-store audio-product browsing. Time was that the blank cassette was the most ubiquitous media around. Last I checked, it was hard... Read More

Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in • Audio • Audio: Hardware • Longevity
(0) Comments • Permalink