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Professional, Portable, Live MP3 Encoding

Posted by timothy on from the frauenhofferism dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes: "Developed by DIALOG4/ORBAN the unit is called the Sountainer, a fliptop portable about the dimensions of a cell phone. Emphasized as an audio field recorder, the unit was designed for broadcasters, journalists, and artists who wish to record a live feed of their performance off the mixing board."

7 of 147 comments (clear)

  1. we are talking "live" recordings by night_flyer · · Score: 3, Informative

    128k is more than enough for live recordings, considering background noise, proximity of the source of the recording (loud speakers, etc)

    anything over 128 is overkill... it just depends on how well it records in the first place.

    I chalenge even "golden ears" to tell me the difference in a 256 rate Megadeth concert and a 128 rate one...

    --


    Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
    Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
    1. Re:we are talking "live" recordings by seanadams.com · · Score: 3, Informative

      128k is more than enough for live recordings, considering background noise, proximity of the source of the recording (loud speakers, etc)

      Actually, I've found the opposite to be true. The kinds of "noise" on a live recording include clapping and cheering, as well as quiet bits of background din. Sounds such as these, which either use a wide chunk of bandwidth or are much quieter than the music, are very difficult for an MPEG encoder to capture at ANY bitrate - in fact, this is exactly the part of the signal that MP3 is *designed* to lose. As a specific example, try encoding the sound of an audience clapping in unison.

      I have found that studio recordings almost always sound as good as the original CD with 256K+/VBR encoding, whereas live albums can have a significant amount of distortion/loss.

      I'm neither a musician nor do I have a "golden ear", but this stuff is quite audible when you're used to listening to the original CD and then you go to your MP3 player.

  2. Microphone Connections / Alternatives by stereoroid · · Score: 5, Informative

    Another reason why this is definitely not a professional device: the microphone connection is a stereo 3.5mm jack. I would expect to see at least a 1/4" balanced jack per channl, ideally XLRs with phantom power.

    There are better alternatives out there:

    • Sonifex Courier (as used by BBC and NPR - serious kit.
    • Marantz PMD600 series (semi-pro, good connectivity).
    • MiniDisc systems (some of them), as you know.

    And, in the Vaporware corner, the Shine MP3 Recorder for Handspring Visor!

    --
    (this is not a .sig)
  3. Re:Why this instead of MiniDisc (or DAT?) by Shelled · · Score: 4, Informative

    Minidiscs are recorded in Sony's proprietary ATRAC format. No easily available computer drive bays or audio editors/software codecs exist, meaning a reporter would be required to re-record the entire interview in real time to .WAV for computer editing.

  4. Due in April, $475 by ChrisCampbell47 · · Score: 3, Informative
    I volunteer for a non-commercial radio station. Our Marantz wandered off so I'm in the market for one of these.

    I just got off the phone with the U.S. distributor (Harris Broadcast) for Orban. The Sountainer (great name guys) will be available in April at an MSRP of $475. The distributor said that Orban is still tweaking the design.

    This was developed by Dialog4, which was purchased by Orban last week.

    Also, for the folks who are whining about bitrate, please note that the primary market for this is the broadcast industry, for field recording use. "Field recording" means a single mic pointed at someone's face or perhaps a stage performance, not a multi-mic studio mixdown. 128 kbps is more than adequate for this, especially when you consider that the broadcast medium (e.g. FM radio) usually ends up being the quality bottleneck (spectral bandwidth, stereo separation, etc.).

    --
    One simple rule for its versus it's
  5. Re:What it's missing: 802.11b by sphix42 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Live acts have been offering soundboard patches for years. The Grateful Dead being the most famous.

    http://db.etree.org/shncirc/ has just some of the bands and their shows that are in circulation and http://btat.wagnerone.com/ has a list of just bands that allow taping.

    While some of the bands do not allow sbd patches, many do. Those that don't allow sbds do allow audience recordings.

  6. Re:Professional ??? by fleener · · Score: 3, Informative

    If journalists are the target audience, they'd be better off with something like the Archos Recorder (or the 20GB version coming soon. Far greater storage and useful for recording notes or radio sound bites.