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Audio Recording on New iPods
Vertig0gitreV writes "Over at iPodding they are reporting that in the Diagnostic Mode of the new new iPods (released on the 28th of May) there are two options for audio recording: mono through the headphone jack, and a stereo line-in through the docking port via the yet-to-be-announced line-in adaptor."
I have been looking into using the iPod as a PDA (read only, of course), and I am really excited about this. With this feature you can either take audio notes on the run, or, if there is enough processor power for voice recognition, enter information into the Calendar / Address Book, etc.
There is also a third option, which would be neat, to record the audio onto the iPod disk, and then have your Mac transcribe the audio when the iPod hooks up. This could be a work around if the iPod does not have the computing capacity for taking voice input.
This would be so like Apple - they know we are all getting just a little sick of Graffitti and scribbling tiny marks on a tiny screen. Voice recognition / recording would make the iPod a PDA with a unique and convenient interface.
"Well it's not Victory - but then it's not Death either."
This could be VERY cool. Assuming that the input can work as a line in, I could see hooking up a nice set of mics to a mixer, run it into the ipod and use it as a very quick and easy recording setup for band practices. Download the resulting MP3/WAV files and email them out to band members. :) (or perhaps come up with some funky script that would de-hiss the recording, compress it slightly, etc)
If they've got line (or mic) in, how much further can voice recognition be? Imagine an AUI (Aural User Interface):
"iPod, play Pink Floyd, album Dark Side of the Moon."
Might be a nice alternative to the scroll wheel, cool as it is.
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Recording capabilities and the ability to store pics from my digital camera are two things I was looking forward to seeing in the new iPod revision. Hopefully, Apple plans to implement both using the dock connector.
Imagine sleds similar to those iPaqs have. One sled contains a mic and other connections for recording, another sled acts as a flash memory reader, while another is simply an additional battery (Belkin already makes an extra battery pack this but it seems rather inelegant). I can even see Apple or third parties creating new docks for a car or even a portable stereo. Perhaps the dock will allow it the versatility of the Delphi XM unit. Here's to the endless possibilities!
They'll have to buffer audio in the 32MB RAM, compress it, and when the RAM fills up, spin the HD and write it down. If they've got decent MP3(AAC?) encoding hardware on it, then they might not need to buffer the incoming audio at all, in which case I imagine they could avoid spinning the disk more often than once every twenty minutes or so.
If they pull that off, you could get hours and hours and hours of recording time on a single charge. Er... but idunno about the power requirements of a decent mic. This might not be everything a bootlegger dreamed of, but close to it. They'll probably still need to carry around some kind of power source to drive their mic. Any audio folks out there to illuminate the issue?
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
Not specific to recording, but since you mention you're a dj, did you notice that iTunes 4 has a BPM field in the ID3 tag now? If you were "spinning" mp3s, could make organizing your library easier. Don't know. I'm not a dj, but I thought it was a cool, yet unmentioned, addition.
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It has been in hardware (processor) from the first iPods, however, this 3rd generation iPod finally has the hardware connection and initial rudamentary software connection to take advantage of it. I think that coupled with the notes feature, which has also been refered to as "museum mode," and the "experiments in education," Apple is preparing the iPod for more vertical markets.
It'll be interesting to see what iPodding finds when they conduct the take-apart. I imagine that this one will be far more optimized since it is significantly smaller than the first two generations and uses specialized connections. The design process of the last one was designed to take advantage of "off the shelf" components.
Perhaps a few of the 30(?) pins on the dock connector provide SPDIF in/out? Many "pro" tapers (phish, pearl jam, etc.) use external A/Ds on their decks anyway. This would eliminate hard drive noise.
:)
My fantasy: iPod would record uncompressed 24bit/96k audio from an external (portable) A/D converter. I suppose I'd accept 16bit/44.1k
My super-fantasy: iPod would act as a "smart" DV drive, allowing me to use the iPod to record video directly from my DV camera, and then letting me edit it (even if just cuts only) on the fly right from the iPod (using the camera's viewfinder or video out as the display).
Apple would never do any of these. I can only hope that a firmware hack (something similar to the linux for ipod project?) will appear, allowing enthusiasts to add features such as those I list above.
I'm wondering what makes the most sense. Someone at the sound desk live encoding an aac file with drm and serving it up to one of Apple's servers, or a truck full of CD recorders parked out back of a venue producing, hmm exactly how many do they produce? 50, 100, 1000? and then running around to the main gate and selling them as people are leaving the show. Don't know about you but I get goosebumps imagining being able to download last nights Yes concert somewhere in Europe for $9.99 while I get ready to go to work here in Seattle, WA.