Yahoo Tuning Groups Ultimate Backup metatuning ok, I see the "bundles"

Hi Jon,

Ok, I finally found the "bundles...' in with their "general
information..." It wasn't in the sidebar "index..."

Well, I see they are selling the Sharp MD-DR7 that you use with the
mics for under $500. Well, "big deal" with the "bundle...", I save
$9.00. You know, that's not such a big deal when I'm potentially
spending $500! :)

Anyway, could you please tell me more about the "downsides" to this
present gear?

I guess the "upside" would be the fact, that if I had any trouble
figuring it out or using it *you* already have experience with it
which you might be willing to share with me...

Otherwise, there's the iHP100.

So, which way do you think I should go? There is no rush; I'm not
*that* impulsive... (I'm hoping it buy it within the next couple of
hours though...) [just a joke]

Thanks!

Joe

🔗Carl Lumma <clumma@...>

> Anyway, could you please tell me more about the "downsides"
> to this present gear?

Joe,

I've been using minidisc since it first appeared on the
market in '93 or so, and I STRONGLY recommend against
spending any money on minidisc gear, unless you absolutely
positively must have a very tiny recorder that'll give you
slightly better quality than tape in the next 1-2 years.

Despite legistlation to the contrary, solid state digital
recorders will start to appear.

-Carl

🔗Joseph Pehrson <jpehrson@...>

--- In metatuning@yahoogroups.com, "Carl Lumma" <clumma@y...> wrote:

/metatuning/topicId_5847.html#5850

> > Anyway, could you please tell me more about the "downsides"
> > to this present gear?
>
> Joe,
>
> I've been using minidisc since it first appeared on the
> market in '93 or so, and I STRONGLY recommend against
> spending any money on minidisc gear, unless you absolutely
> positively must have a very tiny recorder that'll give you
> slightly better quality than tape in the next 1-2 years.
>
> Despite legistlation to the contrary, solid state digital
> recorders will start to appear.
>
> -Carl

***Hmmm. Got it. Well, we'll have to hear back from Jon too, about
how he likes *his* unit.

But, you're scaring me off for sure. Generally, my preference is to
use what I have and spend no money at all... :)

But, it looks like this new portable hard-drive recorder iRiver iHP-
100 might be an intriguing option...

http://www.outwardsound.com/

J. Pehrson

🔗Jon Szanto <JSZANTO@...>

Joe,

Jon here again...

--- In metatuning@yahoogroups.com, "Joseph Pehrson" <jpehrson@r...> wrote:
> ***Hmmm. Got it. Well, we'll have to hear back from Jon too,
> about how he likes *his* unit.

I love my two minidiscs. They let me do things I could never do, unless I wanted to carry bulkier equipment that would be more obtrusive to my settings. And I weigh this against the fact that if they were to start acting up, it would be difficult to get good servicing done on them, though it might not be easy to get the old Walkman Pros worked on as well!

That's just me, and the form factor, battery life, ease of use, and recording quality of these units are fabulous for me. However...

YMMV.

> But, you're scaring me off for sure. Generally, my preference
> is to use what I have and spend no money at all... :)

Well, the more I've read since your intial posting I not only agree with you, but wonder why you asked in the first place! Yet read on...

> But, it looks like this new portable hard-drive recorder iRiver
> iHP-100 might be an intriguing option...

Nope. You didn't read an earlier post, to Carl and Joe: I downloaded the manual for the iHP-100 and it doesn't allow manual settings of recording levels. It is possible they will come out with a newer model that does, or something from someone else will come out. There *are* hard-disk recording devices, but the ones for professionals are way over your budget.

I truly believe, like Carl, that the future (which I'm hoping is just around the corner) is in devices that will record to a memory card. No moving parts, swap the media in and out easily, enormous battery life, etc. It just HAS to happen. That PDA device from Core Sound is a step in the right direction.

It is only a matter of time, but to tell you the truth, I would stick with your cassette for now, unless for fun you wanted to shop for an MD on the used market just to play around with it.

Cheers,
Jon

🔗Joseph Pehrson <jpehrson@...>

--- In metatuning@yahoogroups.com, "Jon Szanto" <JSZANTO@A...> wrote:

/metatuning/topicId_5847.html#5852

>
> Jon here again...
>
> --- In metatuning@yahoogroups.com, "Joseph Pehrson" <jpehrson@r...>
wrote:
> > ***Hmmm. Got it. Well, we'll have to hear back from Jon too,
> > about how he likes *his* unit.
>
> I love my two minidiscs. They let me do things I could never do,
unless I wanted to carry bulkier equipment that would be more
obtrusive to my settings. And I weigh this against the fact that if
they were to start acting up, it would be difficult to get good
servicing done on them, though it might not be easy to get the old
Walkman Pros worked on as well!
>
> That's just me, and the form factor, battery life, ease of use, and
recording quality of these units are fabulous for me. However...
>
> YMMV.
>
> > But, you're scaring me off for sure. Generally, my preference
> > is to use what I have and spend no money at all... :)
>
> Well, the more I've read since your intial posting I not only agree
with you, but wonder why you asked in the first place!

***Well, quite frankly, I have this vague feeling I should be using
something *digital* in this, supposedly, digital age...

Yet read on...
>
> > But, it looks like this new portable hard-drive recorder iRiver
> > iHP-100 might be an intriguing option...
>
> Nope. You didn't read an earlier post, to Carl and Joe: I
downloaded the manual for the iHP-100 and it doesn't allow manual
settings of recording levels.

***Aggggh! That wouldn't work, then... Thanks for catching this for
me!!!!

It is possible they will come out with a newer model that does, or
something from someone else will come out. There *are* hard-disk
recording devices, but the ones for professionals are way over your
budget.
>

***Please keep me posted if you hear of anything... you seem to keep
up with what's going on, Jon!

> I truly believe, like Carl, that the future (which I'm hoping is
just around the corner) is in devices that will record to a memory
card. No moving parts, swap the media in and out easily, enormous
battery life, etc. It just HAS to happen. That PDA device from Core
Sound is a step in the right direction.
>
> It is only a matter of time, but to tell you the truth, I would
stick with your cassette for now, unless for fun you wanted to shop
for an MD on the used market just to play around with it.
>

***Well, the Walkman Professional is bound to go "on the fritz" at
some point, and I'll be *forced* to do something else.

But, I *greatly* thank youse guys for all the help!!!

🔗Jon Szanto <JSZANTO@...>

--- In metatuning@yahoogroups.com, "Joseph Pehrson" <jpehrson@r...> wrote:
> ***Well, quite frankly, I have this vague feeling I should be using
> something *digital* in this, supposedly, digital age...

Yeah, but then I'd expect you to be dressing in this fall's fashions - the Mod look - as well! Stick with what works UNTIL there are compelling reasons to change. I moved to something else, but my situations are slightly different than yours.

> ***Well, the Walkman Professional is bound to go "on the fritz" at
> some point, and I'll be *forced* to do something else.

One of the best things I ever did for my Walkman Pro was have a friend make a good battery pack: two little components from a Radio Shack (a plastic holder for 4 D-cell batteries, and a little plug for the "DC In") and a little wire. This gives you very clean and stable power, and much much longer battery life than the 4 AA batts. It can be put together with just a rudimentary knowledge of soldering, and while it is more cumbersome, is very helpful in quite a few situations.

Cheers,
Jon

🔗Joseph Pehrson <jpehrson@...>

--- In metatuning@yahoogroups.com, "Jon Szanto" <JSZANTO@A...> wrote:

/metatuning/topicId_5847.html#5861

> --- In metatuning@yahoogroups.com, "Joseph Pehrson" <jpehrson@r...>
wrote:
> > ***Well, quite frankly, I have this vague feeling I should be
using
> > something *digital* in this, supposedly, digital age...
>
> Yeah, but then I'd expect you to be dressing in this fall's
fashions - the Mod look - as well! Stick with what works UNTIL there
are compelling reasons to change. I moved to something else, but my
situations are slightly different than yours.
>

**Another factor to consider is that, in the majority of cases,
*other* people record my pieces, so it's just that "odd" concert here
and there where nobody has or can afford a recording setup (it
happened frequently in Russia...) [But then, *they* will think the
Sony Professional is "state of the art..." (They're still using
Casio PDAs there... :)

🔗Carl Lumma <clumma@...>

🔗Joseph Pehrson <jpehrson@...>

--- In metatuning@yahoogroups.com, "Carl Lumma" <clumma@y...> wrote:

/metatuning/topicId_5847.html#5865

> > But, it looks like this new portable hard-drive recorder
> > iRiver iHP-100 might be an intriguing option...
>
> It's set up to record from the built-in FM tuner, and it
> might have a "voice" mode (low bitrate). The Pogo and
> Archos units have line in, but aren't very mic friendly.
>
> The only portable, solid-state, mic-friendly recorder
> is the nagra unit I pointed you to.
>
> -Carl

***Thanks, Carl!

🔗Jon Szanto <JSZANTO@...>

🔗Joseph Pehrson <jpehrson@...>

--- In metatuning@yahoogroups.com, "Carl Lumma" <clumma@y...> wrote:

/metatuning/topicId_5847.html#5865

***I've gotta admit that the name "Nagra" scares me. Over they years
I've associated them with very high-end $$$ recording technology.
Does it say on the website how much that unit costs? I don't believe
so. It's too scary...

J. Pehrson

🔗kraig grady <kraiggrady@...>

Regardless they are great machines and just because they are portible doen't
mean you can't use them at home.
I have a sony dat machine which has served me well. it is battery power for
my neumanns that is hard in the field. i do have a battery pack for them but
the sound is definately different. Since i got mine, Tascam started to make
one that has phanthom power in the 2,000 range. All my Cds were recorded on
my dat, so you could think of one machine/setup that does both. But would
like something i could put in my pocket. the real key is microphones

Joseph Pehrson wrote:

> --- In metatuning@yahoogroups.com, "Carl Lumma" <clumma@y...> wrote:
>
> /metatuning/topicId_5847.html#5865
>
> > > But, it looks like this new portable hard-drive recorder
> > > iRiver iHP-100 might be an intriguing option...
> >
> > It's set up to record from the built-in FM tuner, and it
> > might have a "voice" mode (low bitrate). The Pogo and
> > Archos units have line in, but aren't very mic friendly.
> >
> > The only portable, solid-state, mic-friendly recorder
> > is the nagra unit I pointed you to.
> >
> > -Carl
>
> ***I've gotta admit that the name "Nagra" scares me. Over they years
> I've associated them with very high-end $$$ recording technology.
> Does it say on the website how much that unit costs? I don't believe
> so. It's too scary...
>
> J. Pehrson
>
>

-- -Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island
http://www.anaphoria.com
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU 88.9 FM WED 8-9PM PST

🔗Carl Lumma <clumma@...>

> > The only portable, solid-state, mic-friendly recorder
> > is the nagra unit I pointed you to.
>
> I'm going to investigate these a little more myself. For more
>complicated recording situations, have you seen the units from
>HHB (esp the being-released PortaDrive)?:
>
> http://www.hhbusa.com/000/usa.htm

I said portable. This thing is as big as a house. It
probably wouldn't even fit in my shirt pocket.

In this class, the Marantz still looks preferrable.

-Carl