Lani Spahr wrote:Hello everyone -
A friend of mine recently asked me for advice on portable sound recording devices. He's a fellow piper (I know some of you cannot resist the temptation for making jokes, so now's your chance :-)) who wants to record his lessons. He said he tried a $100 device that was probably a voice recorder with less than great results. So what would you all recommend? - short of not playing the pipes :-)
Cheers, Lani
Nothing in that price range will be satisfying. You need a recorder with separate mike input and with defeatable AGC (automatic gain control). The pipes have a wide dynamic range, so AGC will be fatal to decent sound. Built-in mikes have too limited frequency range; it's okay to have one, but be sure that a better one can be plugged in, defeating any internal.
I'd like to suggest an MD recorder, but suspect that that would be out of his price range, especially with the above. On the other hand, he should be able to locate a portable cassette player at a thrift shop which will do what's needed, then pick up a better mike when the budget permits.
The voice recorders built into MP3 players are cute, convenient and will be unsatisfactory for sound.
Mike
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