Slashdot Mirror
Professional, Portable, Live MP3 Encoding
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."
With wireless add-on capability, this could be an ideal tool for "man-in-the-field interviews", or perhaps the audio equivalent of live hidden webcams. Here's to the documented life!
Question: What's the advantage to this MP3 recorder over a minidisc recorder?
I know both recorders use types of compression, but wouldn't your standard MD player offer better overall quality?
(DAT would obviously be better, but I'm trying to figure out why anyone would use this thing over an MD recorder and a decent mic.)
This isn't meant to be a flame or a troll -- I'm curious. I realize MD is limited to the amount of time on an MD tape, but I've used MD to record a lot of Dylan concerts, and always -- almost always, at least -- the sound is superb. The few times the sound hasn't been superb has been my own fault -- cheap mic, bad seating, etc.
Sony MZ-R900 Comparing with Orban Sountainer 1. Cheaper media 2. Max playback/record/recharge time: 53 / 19 / 3.5 hours 3. Dimensions: 80 (W) x 20.5 (H) x 75.5 (D) mm 4. Weight: 135g (including NiMH battery) I don't sea how Orban Sountainer can compete with usual MD recorder in a field it was targeted.
I've been looking for some kind of little handheld thing i can slip in a pocket or backpack and use for random field recordings, and this may be what i've been looking for for some time.. i'm not happy about the whole "128 kbps max" thing, and it would be convenient if there were an integrated mic (although i guess i could find a mic that would just clip on).. but still. That's handy. I wish there were pricing information available.. it'll probably be out of my budget, but if it's less than a few hundred dollars, or at least under the rediculous prices you seem to have to pay to get any kind of working portable DAT tape recorder, i want one..
.. daydream 2), i guess..
A random thought: something i've been wishfully daydreaming about for some time is the idea of rigging an iPod to work like one of these-- get some kind of USB-firewire bridge and then hook up a USB microphone, then abuse the iPod's upgradeable firmware feature to add the ability to read in AIFFs to the iPod's hard drive. You could maybe even add the ability to have the iPod go back and encode the recorded AIFFs sitting around into mp3s to conserve space.. This may or may not be possible (i don't know how flexible/hackable the iPod is-- i believe it has an ARM chip though, doesn't it? that should be able to do just about whatever you like, no?) and it would require reverse-engineering the iPod's firmware, which would not be fun and definitely not be something i'm capable of (though someone out there is almost certainly already trying to do exactly that, at least for the purpose of A) adding some more games to complement the built-in breakout easter egg, TI-83 style or B) adding ogg vorbis support), but it's a lovely thought.
I have this mental image of someday some company creating a little slip-on chassis for the ipod that hooks into the firewire port and contains a firewire mic, then contracting with apple to create a legitimate version of the hacked firmware described above.. i know that will never happen, but that would be basically the most perfect piece of equipment possible for my needs..
Ahh, if only professional (read: no "copy protection" bullshit) DAT tape recorders weren't so expensive.. (i can't find any for under $700. Am i maybe just not looking hard enough?
Bleh. Well, back to my daydreams (daydream 1
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
Hmm ...
... or even better, if this thing had *802.11b*, then we could all just record the gig with the thing in our pocket.
... walk away from that gig with a good recording, which you paid for with the price of admission.
...
Not sure I like the idea of using MP3 for sample recording (lossy), but it would be really, really sweet for recording live acts.
As a musician, and as a music lover, I'd really like to see live acts offering outputs from the mix desk
Betcha any money we'll see that within the next 2 years
Beat *that*, RIAA
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
You also have to look at costs...My band uses Emagic's Logic for recording, and that thing is expensive, and we still have a mixing board too. This thing circumvents that huge cash outlay for a good sound device.
Also, this thing could be great for musicians trying to make that first demo. You can rent a mixing board from your local music store for a small amount of money, and then use this thing to do the recording. You won't have a lot of editing capability, but it would be good enough to give club owners in an effort to get a gig.
In a concert, it's even easier to tell than usual - the background audience noise is especially susceptible to MP3 artifacting.
± 29 dB