Company Solicits Feedback on Next-Gen Recorder

An anonymous reader writes "According to LinuxDevices.com a multimedia device vendor has asked the open-source community to help define its next product, a Linux-based handheld portable media player/recorder (PMP/R) featuring audiophile-quality sound. The new product is a successor to the popular Neuros 442 PMP/R. Neuros has published the specs for a development board it calls the first prototype, and has asked hackers, open-source software authors, and others to review and weigh in on the design, which is expected to be finalized in the near future."

Comments

voice recorder

[richlv]

on a similar note, anybody knows about a good voice recorder that would compress to an open codec, allow removable storage (ideally - cf, so that it is interchangebale with photocameras ;) ) and would not suck feature-wise ?

and, on a funny note - from the linked article :

"More details, including a downloadable 18-page Word document describing the current development board specification"

Needs one or two things ..

[torpor]

{disclaimer: i work for a pro digital audio company.}

as a long-time linux hacker, musician, synthesist, and audio geek, this device screams out for one thing: MIDI.

yes, thats right, MIDI. give me a way to control it from a MIDI keyboard, give me a compiler onboard, stand back and watch the new softsynth plugin realm expand beyond that of VST et al..

course, i've got my own plans for such things too, but i'll save that for a future /. thread ..

Re:Needs one or two things ..

[Jeff DeMaagd]

I don't think MIDI I/O is going to be available on a consumer portable device. You are basically asking for a pro feature, and I don't think it makes sense to have extra hardware and ports that less than 1% of the device's purchasers will use.

Heh

[Bogtha]

...featuring audiophile-quality sound.

You mean it costs five times as much, but sounds exactly the same to everybody who isn't trying to justify their ridiculously expensive hobby? :)

Re:Heh

[jcupitt65]

They should glue some valves to the side, use deep cryogenic treatment on the mains cable for the battery charger, and include an integrated magic chip to automatically fix the CDs you copy on to it.

Re:Heh

[pev]

> If it's audiophile quality, it won't be digital. fullstop.
Er, no. Digital is fine, although higher bit-depth and sampling rate than CD-level is useful. It's the lossy compression that most of the stored audio will have that's the problem. Have you ever tried A-B'ing on a iPod or similar compressed audio player with a straight WAV/AIFF rip from CD to the MP3/OGG/Whatever compressed version? It's surprisingly noticable.

There's a fundamental irony when 'Audiophiles' harp on about how great their 30K setup sounds and how digital would never sound as good when the material they're listing to was mixed down using Pro-Tools in the first place...

FYI, the actual DAC in use (Burr-Brown PCM1803) can run up to 24/192 and have a decent S/N ratio. If the hardware layout is fairly quiet electrically it should be able to play back superbly to whatever you plug it in to if the source audio is of a decent quality.

~Pev

Re:Heh

[smithmc]

  You mean it costs five times as much, but sounds exactly the same to everybody who isn't trying to justify their ridiculously expensive hobby? :)

You don't actually hear the improvement until you scribble all over the outside of the case in green Magic Marker.

Okay

[iamdrscience]

First of all it needs a nice fin or two on it to make it more aerodynamic, we don't want this thing to be dragging. Second it needs some more LEDs.

What I want

[onyxruby]

What I want to see:

USB 2.0 port - full size please!

Infrared

Color!

4 GB hard disk

Flash card reader

Scratch resistant coating

Volume knob

Mini joystick similiar to gamepad

Make sure I can plug it in as a mass media drive without special drivers etc

Line in for audio

Rubber bumbers for shock protection

Rubber back for good grip

Built in modem for dial up when traveling

Re:What I want

[Andy_R]

Since their previous device is colour, it would be insane for this one not to be. Almost as insane as putting the 4Gb drive from your wants list in to replace the 40Gb one the old device shipped with!

It runs on x86

[Anonymous Coward]

You can tell. It's warmer.

Main requirement for the UK ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Main requirement for the UK is for this to be sold at a price that reflects the real dollar-pound exchange rate, instead of converting US$400 into 400 UK pounds like the blood-sucking middlemen typically do for gadgets.

Re:audiophile-quality sound

[Anonymous Coward]

Is it just me or two the terms "Audiophile-quality" and "handheld" mutually exclusive?

Although I guess if they can market it with wank words like 'oxygen impregnated battery interconnects to reduce the harmonics of the batteries natural resonance" and then charge $4000 for it, then I guess audiophiles might buy it ;)

But on a serious note, I guess to get close to that sort of sound quality I would expect the latest and greated chip like the new creative xfi chip? I dunno. Audiophile I am not.

Let's see...

[No Salvation]

I would like it to have a 6.8GHz processor with 1TB non-volatile Quantum-Optical RAM and a 2TB solid state AtomChip® optoelectronics drive. Oh and it should cost less than $149.99 and include a cool leather case.

Re:Let's see...

[maxwell demon]

You forgot the free audio codec which can compress 1 hour of music to 16 bytes while maintaining a sound quality which is indistinguishable from the original. Ah, and please add a Star Trek quality universal translator!

Re:More format support

[daserver]

I'm pretty sure their new device will support ogg vorbis as they were one of the first companies with an ogg vorbis compatible player (Neuros Audio) back in the day :-)

Please oh please oh please!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Put a volume knob that goes all the way to 11...!

Essential

[Frantactical Fruke]

Must run on an ethanol converter cell - so I can drink the battery when things get desperate. A side pocket for a lemon slice and an olive would be good, too.

Scratch my back...?

[Dekortage]

So if I give some good feedback, and the company takes it, what do I get in return? A demo model? A discount? Credits in the fine print? At least with OSS, my free contributions go to a free product. There are some intellectual property issues here, methinks (or else Neuros isn't taking this seriously).

Re:Scratch my back...?

[killmenow]

I think the point you're missing is they plan to release enough (all?) specs and firmware for this device. You can build your own.

It appears to me the plan is hindered only by TI being stingy about releasing key bits about its chips. Neuros will have to make what amounts to an API to a binary driver to keep TI happy and still release the firmware as open source.

It's a fine line to walk but I give Neuros kudos for at least daring to walk it. I've been on their mailing list for a while now, participated in some of their IRC meetings, and am impressed overall with their desire to do it right.

Right, both in terms of making a superb audio device and in terms of keeping it open and free as in libre. They are relative newbs at the open source thing, though, imho...so cut them some slack if they mis-step here or there.

Re:Yay!

[madman101]

Sure, why pay for R&D when you can get others to do it for free?

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

hot chicks

[1nhuman]

"Neuros has published the specs for a development board it calls the first prototype, and has asked hackers, open-source software authors, and others to review and weigh in on the design, which is expected to be finalized in the near future."

This is the brilliant design philopshy that will make it a wannahave for every trend consious teenager or non-geek!

Jobs, eat yer hart out!

NOTE: you don't have to do it in hardware.

[torpor]

MIDI can be added to this device as long as usb-midi.o is onboard, or at least as long as the ability to load modules supporting devices plugged into the USB Host port is not crippled in some way.

i've already got a Virus TI being run by my Zaurus.. it wouldn't take much more to add such devices to Archos, as long as they were open enough about peripheral support .. and thats really my point.

Re:NOTE: you don't have to do it in hardware.

[bundaegi]

What you need in terms of USB host is USB on the go. That, the midi driver and a USB <-> midi dongle will do what you're proposing.

The main use for USB on the go (its first intended purpose) is to both

• download images stored in your camera onto your computer (camera is slave)
  
• control a USB printer from the camera (camera is master)
  

You just found a new use for USB on the go! Well done :-)

Where are the audio geeks?

[prof_peabody]

This whole topic shows that there are very few audio geeks in here.

First, here is the link to the Neuros wiki about the project:

http://www.theneuros.com/index.php/Category_Roadma p:Neuros_III

This link should have been in the article itself, but the editors here are not the brightest.

Most audio geeks who do field recording (what this device will primarily used for on the recording side) is:

-direct to FLAC encoding
-high quality A/D (better than sony dat or a nomad JB3)
-digital input (many of us have better/expensive potable A/D boxes that would outclass anything consumer grade
-24 bit 96 kHz recording

and a few other things.