[Dixielandjazz] FW: mp3, CD etc. and DAT

Fri Nov 10 09:30:55 PST 2006

There are a whole bunch of options now.  Go to www.musiciansfriend.com and 
they have quite a few that range from a couple hundred up.  The ones that 
are most portable use camera memory and if you want to record for a long 
time you can just use several of them which are becoming quite cheap.

I use a Sony walkman recorder which is about the size of a Klondike bar.  I 
use their dual mike with switchable coverage.  Sorry I don't have it right 
now to give you a number.  The mike that comes with them picks up motor 
noise if plugged directly into the recorder.  The whole thing can be hung 
from a mike stand.  I usually just leave the recorder on the floor at the 
base of the stand or wrap a rubber band around it and the stand so it moves 
with the stand.  They make quite good digital recordings but you have to 
transfer the music via a standard patch cord into an editing program.  If 
you use their software the files are transferred but then are removed from 
the disk.  It's something to do with copyright.  They don't want you to have 
multiple copies of copyrighted work.  I can't tell if there is any 
deterioration in the sound using an audio patch cord.  The only thing that 
is annoying is the automatic volume control shuts down and makes sort of a 
whoosh sound if you put it too close to a banjo or tambourine.  It's very 
quick though.  I think these without the mike cost about $250.

I wanted something that would fit in a case and be very light.

I like the solid state memory recorders they have out and some are quite 
inexpensive and also small.
Larry
St. Louis
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Kashishian" <jim at kashprod.com>
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Friday, November 10, 2006 5:15 AM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] FW: mp3, CD etc. and DAT

> Bill Gunter asked, referring to hard disc recording:
> However, there is the problem of such technology being made compact and
> portable so that recording in the field is feasible and I have zero idea 
> of
> what exists currently to deal with this issue. I would think that DAT is
> rapidly becoming obsolete.
>
>
> Da world goes 'round & 'round, Bill!  When portable DAT recorders became
> available to on-site recording engineers (for film work), people were
> reluctant to ditch their beloved analogue tape recorders, not trusting the
> new fangled small tape & having their audio in a non-linear format.
>
> DAT can record, on a separate track, the time code which is slaved to the
> cameras for automatic sync of picture & sound, so it was certainly a 
> viable
> replacement for the more cumbersome analogue recorders.
>
> And, surprise, surprise, Hollywood was the last to make the changeover!
> (The U.S. is always reluctant to change in the professional audio
> world....curious, huh??)  The changeover will not be "rapid", Bill.  It is
> still not fully accepted in Europe, so expect to see tape recording in
> Hollywood for a good while.
>
> Today, you can buy an 8 track hard disc field recorder from hhb, the same
> crowd I mentioned on DJML yesterday.  Go again to
> http://www.hhb.co.uk/hhb/usa/index.asp & click on PORTADRIVE to read all
> about it if you're interested.  Being a professional recorded for film 
> work,
> they are way over the top for domestic music recording, and I only mention
> it here as Bill asked.
>
> I already mentioned I supply most of the film makers in Spain with their 
> DAT
> tapes (I handle the hhb brand), and although many are buying into the hard
> disc recorder idea, most are still using their DAT recorders, as those
> die-hards with their analogue tape recorders did when DAT was introduced.
> Change comes slowly.
>
> My only complaint with hard disc recorders in such a delicate area such as
> film recording is, if there's a problem with a hard disc, you lose the 
> whole
> days audio, whereas on digital tape, a glitch usually is miliseconds, and
> you can usually find a similar word or syllable to patch into the hole, or
> bring the actor in for an overdub.  That is why the portable recorder
> mentioned above records onto its hard disc & onto a DVD at the same time.
> The DVD is a mix-down of the 8 tracks to 2, I believe, and they say it is 
> to
> give the director the instant chance to hear his day's audio takes already
> mixed.  Just happens to be a nice little safety copy in case the hard disc
> blows the days recording!
>
> Any kind of misgivings like that, however, are completely frowned upon by
> the hard disc advocates, and will brand the speaker as being "old", or old
> fashioned....a death toll in the audio business!
>
> I was the very first person to record audio to hard disc in all of Spain 
> in
> 1987.  I was invited to huge meetings, carrying my two huge bricks that
> amounted to a total of 700 megabytes of hard disc, to speak on the
> technology.  At one meeting of audio experts where I felt completely out 
> of
> place, knowing that really I'm really just a trombonist that happened to 
> be
> in the right place at the right time, I was challenged by the expert on
> digital tape recording at the meeting.  "Limited headroom, etc., etc.", 
> said
> he!  My answer, was "if you need to manipulate the audio, then hard disc 
> is
> the only answer".
>
> That is the escence of the argument between hard disc & tape.  The fact 
> that
> tape is disappearing from the market will require everyone to end up on hd
> only, obviously.  Doesn't mean that tape wasn't good, and didn't have a
> place in the recording industry, though.
>
> P.s. I just bought a memory stick the size of a thumb nail for my Sony
> digital camera that has 1 GB of memory.....which is really weird when I
> think about my two original recording "bricks"!  What a world we are 
> living
> in, the speed of the innovation!
>
> Jim
>
>
>
>
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