September 29, 2004

• Quality is important, because the recordings of these meetings are to be put on CD and given to those persons who couldn't attend. In the past (read: before I was in charge of this event), we've used ancient tape players of dubious provenance and sketchy quality, then paid buttclenchingly high prices to have the cassettes converted to mp3. My boss says: you're in charge, Fes, so fix it already. And don't hit the budget too hard, right? Riiiiiight, I says. So: thoughts?
• Hmm- how badly do you need plug in recording Fes? Because I was going to suggest you pick up a couple of the George series of players, which can be Ebayed for not a whole lot. (wow, I just got to verb a noun, go me)
• If the quality of the on board mike is sufficient, I'd be pleased as punch to skip the outside mikes. But it would have to be able to pick up pretty clearly people speaking around a conference table that could be up to 15 feet away.
• The nice thing about these (he pitches) is that they already have USB right there, and should be PnP compatible with a reasonably up to date OS. And hey, you could just give one to your speakers and have them talk into it. Actually, seriously, COULD you just tuck one of these into their pocket, or leave lying around nonchalantly on a lectern?
• For the big speeches, we've got full audio recording through a mixer; these are for the "breakout" sessions, where you'd have 10-20 people sitting around in a meeting room talking about stuff. There'll be 2-3 going all the time, so I can't use the mixer setup (it records through house sound anyway). What I'm looking for is a dependable digital recorder that will pick up voice well for up to two hours that I can subsequently download the recordings to my laptop (and thence to network) so that the pressers can press their CDs. They have to be good, but unobtrusive - I can't hand them to my speakers, because (a) my speakers are likely to make off with them, and (b) these sessions are brainstorming kinds of things - they have moderators, but there's always a lot of different people talking. Passive recording only, preferably something I can set up, click "record" and walk away.
• Mmmmm - yeah, in that case, it's probably not going to be good enough to burn to CD. Dumb question time: does your laptop have a microphone in socket? Because maybe a laptop microphone could be the solution.
• If you have an iPod, then the Griffin iTalk is great and in your price range. It'll record for as long as you have space free, and unlike the Belkin Voice Recorder, has circuitry to adjust for differing volume. Also, it has a mic-in. If you don't have an iPod, then it'll be well out of your price range.
• Another option, though maybe I'm out of budget here, is to buy a multiple input sound card. Something like this, more options here. This only works if you have a spare PC to stick in the corner somewhere. Am I helping at all or completely off base?
• does your laptop have a microphone in socket? It does, but I've only got two laptops; one's going to be for the Powerpoint, so it's out of play, and my primary 'top Abulafia has all my stuff on it, so I'm reluctant to leave it anywhere where people can go noodling around in it. Plus I'll need Abu at odd times for emergency IR transfers, periodic network logins, two-minutes-before-I-gotta-speak CD burnination, and assorted tomfoolery. No iPod. 2-3 different rooms, a multi-hole sound card won't work.
• Um, Fes, what about something like this?
• You mention the Olympus M-10, how about the VN-240PC? It has twice the memory as the M10 for the same price, probably because it doesn't have a camera on it too.
• This would be overkill for recording a meeting but it would be great for recording a concert: Edirol R-1 Digital Recorder (drool!) This certainly doesn't meet the under $80 category, either but this topic is close enough to share it.
• Abulafia I hope you aren't using Eco's dumb password with that machine.
• Monkeyfilter: I've only got two laptops
• the 1318 might be a little much, Mickey, but that 240PC might be just the friggin ticket - thanks cabingirl! I hope you aren't using Eco's dumb password with that machine Not a chance :) Even Eco can't refrain from the bad joke once in a while. I use my kid's name, of course, like every other moron in America.
• define "quality"... i'm sure you can hear fine at less than the greatest "quality" if that means "sample rate and bit depth". telephones are like 8khz 8 bit (with severe filtering to boot) compared to cds at 44100khz 16 bit (so at phone quality you could record 3-4 x more and people have meetings over the phone all the time). the real problem is mic. i do a lot of audio engineering work, and if you can find a mic that sits inside the box and picks up people talking for 15 feet away at high "quality" (totally different thing here) and costs less than $80, i would be blown away. condenser mics are not cheap.
• mixers, multi-soundcard setups, etc are all way out of your price range. i have a decent mic that does this quite well actually - i've used it to record class discussions. but it alone costs $100. and that's a cheap mic. (you could just get a mic like that and plug it into a spare computer...)
• milord Abbott: I'm no audiologist (and not much of an audiophile, to be honest, when it comes to the technical aspects of the recordings I listen to - I rip at 128) so I can't really quantify my thoughts on quality into bits/khz. But what I need, put another way, is a recording that will be clear and easily understood (minimal static, no warble, no "I'm talking from deep underwater" muddle) when burnt to CD and played, say, in a car stereo or desktop boombox. When I mentioned mikes earlier, I was literally thinking of those black plastic Radio Shack microphones that used to come with tabletop audiocassette recorders; my thought being that an exterior mike is nearly always superior to the built-in one. That assumption may have, of course, been in error.