Audio
From Fieldworkguide
Audio Recording
Of all the technologies discussed here, these are the ones that are changing the fastest. The best site to familiarize yourself with the different options is The Audio Field Recording Equipment Guide, developed by the Vermont Folklife Center. For a quick overview of portable digital recording check out this site. Just remember, as a general rule CD quality audio is 16-bit PCM, 44.1 kHz sample rate, stereo. You don’t have to worry about what those numbers mean, but just remember they should be your minimums (higher is better). You can always compress a higher quality recording (some of the current recordings can record at much higher rates), but you can never increase the quality of a recording.
What to buy… The best overall recorder available is the Marantz 660. I highly recommend getting a modified Marantz 660 from Oade Brothers. The staff there, particularly Doug, are extremely helpful and they carry a wide range of recorders. It is a great combination of quality, reliability, price and portability.
Here are some of my other thoughts: -The M-audio unit (sold by Oade bros. and mentioned in the digital recording overview) holds a lot of promise. They are releasing software (called “firmware”) updates every few months. If they work out all the problems with this unit it might be the best answer so far. - I am biased against min-discs as I find DRM (digital rights management) efforts and reliability to be problematic. However, there does seem to be some promise with their new format (mini-disc HD) which overcomes some of the technical limitations of past formats. If you are on an extremely tight budget this might be an answer. - Portable MP3 playback devices (e.g. i-river or i-pod) are becoming increasingly viable as low end digital recorders (usually with some kind of attachments). If you already own an MP3 player, this can be a good way to have a backup recorder as well. -There are external units that can turn your laptop into a portable recording studio. For some applications this may be a great option and there are many websites dedicated to this. If anyone has experience doing this, please let me know and I will include your advice on the subject here (laith.ulaby@gmail.com).
If you will be using a mini-disc or i-pod type device, I recommend checking out Sound Professionals, which has pre-amps, kits and useful accessories specifically for this use: http://www.soundprofessionals.com
