Using low-cost ultraportable computers for audio editing on the go

A colleague wrote me the other day to ask for advice on setting up a portable audio recording/editing kit. Most radio journalists are used to carrying around a recorder, recording media (flash cards, minidiscs, digital audio tape, etc), a microphone, assorted cables, and a good set of headphones. Typically, you can run out to conduct an interview, record a press conference, or otherwise gather sound, and then run back to your office or studio to load the audio onto a computer for editing. But if you're on deadline and need to file your audio as quickly as possible, you might want to carry a laptop so you can edit your sound in the field and then upload it over a wireless internet connection.

All of which is to say that low-cost, tiny computers like the Asus Eee PC look like a godsend for professional radio journalists who spend a lot of time away from their desks. What my colleague wanted to know was whether the $400 Eee PC 701 would be up to the task. Here was my reply:

As for Audacity, it runs pretty well on the Eee PC 701. Keep in mind, while the Eee PC offers extreme portability, there are a few downsides for digital audio editing:

1. It has a very small amount of storage space. If you expect to be editing more than 1 or 2 GB worth of audio files at a time, you might want to invest in a 4GB or large SDHC card for the memory slot.
2. It has a pretty slow processor. That said, we were all using computers that were slower than the Eee PC just a few years ago, so it can certainly handle Audacity and several other audio packages. I haven't tried installing my old copy of Cool Edit, but it runs Reaper (www.reaper.fm) quite well. It just takes longer to import/export/render long files than it would on a faster laptop.
3. The 800 x 480 pixel display is less than ideal for mixing long pieces, since you just can't fit that much on the screen at once. But for simple cut and paste editing, it will do.

I've never tried mixing a full story on my Eee PC. But I have used it to trim long files, convert them from stereo to mono, and upload them to FTP sites. I frequently wind up doing tape syncs and other audio engineering gigs in Manhattan, and rather than come all the way back to my studio in Brooklyn I just find the nearest public library or coffee shop with WiFi and upload the audio from there.
be up to the task.

I've been playing with the HP Mini-Note for the past week, and while its processor is as slow, if not slower than the Eee PC 701, the Mini-Note is much more comfortable to use. It has a larger keyboard, which HP describes as being 92% full size. And it has a larger, higher resolution screen, cramming 1280 x 768 pixels onto an 8.9 inch display. That's just a few pixels shy of the resolution on the 15.4 inch laptop I use for most of my day to day computing. In other words, you should have no problem viewing multitrack project files using the audio editing software of your choice on a Mini-Note.

The Mini-Note is also a bit pricier than the Eee PC. The cheapest model is $499, and prices go all the way up to $750. That makes it cheap by ultraportable standards, but not necessarily cheaper than any other discount computer you can pick up at most big box electronics/computer retail stores. But at just 2.6 pounds, the Mini-Note probably fits in your bag easier than the big ole Dell/HP/Acer computer you'd find at Best Buy. The interesting thing is that Dell, Acer, and at least a dozen other companies, some of which you've heard of, plan to release low-cost tiny computers to compete with the Eee PC within the next few months.

You can read much more about this low-cost ultraportable revolution at my other blog, Liliputing.

The city that never sleeps is getting a bit sleepy: My latest NPR story

You can't really tell from the photo above, because it turns out I'm much better with an audio recorder than a digital camera, but this is a picture of Little West 12th Street in Manhattan's Meat Packing district. I snapped this shot at 2:30 in the morning on a recent Saturday night. And the place was hopping. There were dozens of people wandering between clubs and bars on this corner, and this was just the tip of the iceberg.

Throughout the city there are bars, clubs, and restaurants regularly open until 4:00am or later. There's a reason they call New York the city that never sleeps. But what happens when you live next to a club that's blasting music all night long? There are a series of community boards that represent Manhattan residents who have been pressuring new liquor license applicants to close up shop at 2:00am or at least to better police what goes on inside and outside of their clubs. And while the number of liquor licensed establishments that are choosing to close early is still relatively small, the community board recommendations have gained so much weight with the state liquor authority that it's getting hard to open a bar without getting approval from one of these boards.

For my latest NPR story I tried to look at both sides of this issue. There's been a lot of reporting in the local press over the last few weeks. But for the most part reporters talked to one community board member and the lawyer for the New York Nightlife association. I talked to them both, but also headed out way past my bedtime to find some of the people who enjoy New York's nightlife scene and find out what they think. My editor also pushed me to actually find someone who lives next to some of these noisy bars, and I'm glad she did because that made the story a lot stronger. All told, I conducted 5 sets of interviews for this short story and had to leave a lot of things out. But I'm pretty happy with the way things turned out.

For anyone keeping track, this piece was recorded with a Sony PCM-D50 digital audio recorder and an Electrovoice RE-50 dynamic microphone.

The Value of Trash on NPR

I have a story on NPR's Day to Day today about Justin Gignac and Christine Santora, two New York artists that enjoy playing with the idea of value. Gignac has been selling cubes of New York trash for a few years. At first, he sold them for $10 per cube, but he keeps raising the price and people keep buying them. By the time they hit $100 for special occasion trash (New Year's Eve, Opening day at Yankee Stadium), people started discussing them as art and not just a novelty.

The couple also sells paintings of things they want for the price of those items. They've sold paintings of items ranging from a slice of pizza to an iPhone. The idea is surprisingly popular. Every time they post new items on the Wants for Sale site, they sell out almost immediately. Well, almost every item. The million dollar painting of financial security doesn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.

Gignac and Santora also run Needs for Sale, a site with a similar premise, except the money is all donated to charity.

I actually did all the reporting for this story in January, but a series of unforeseen events have held up its broadcast until today. Day to Day paired it with an interview with musician Moby about the value of music.

For anyone interested in the technical aspects, my interview with Gignac and Santora was recorded using a Sony PCM-D50 digital audio recorder and EV RE-50 microphone. There's a little background noise, because this interview was recorded in a New York apartment, and as I'm increasingly coming to notice there is no such thing as a quiet interview in New York City. I've conducted interview on the 20th floor of a downtown skyscraper, and you can still hear news coming in from the streets. In fact, we had to keep stopping this interview because a car alarm kept going off outside the apartment. But overall, it was a lot of fun talking to Gignac and Santora about their work and their thoughts on the value of art.

Anti-deportation video game story on The World

The World is running my story on a video game called ICED today. ICED stands for I Can End Deportation. The game was released a few weeks go by Breakthrough, a non-profit immigration and human rights advocacy group. Players choose one of five characters, listen to their stories, and then wander through a 3D version of New York City trying to avoid detention and deportation.

A game where you play a character running from immigration officers is understandably controversial, so in addition to talking to Breakthrough's director, one of the game designers, and a group of children who agreed to play the game and share their thoughts, I spoke with Heather Mac Donald at the conservative think tank the Manhattan Institute.

Overall I think the story came out pretty well. I'd probably remix the game music a bit if I had a chance, and it's always annoying trying to fit several hours worth of interviews into a 4 and a half minute story. I had tons of good tape that I didn't get to use.

I'd like to thank Carlyle Leach, director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture's Junior Scholars Program for helping me find some kids and young adults to test the game.

From a technical perspective, all of the interviews were recorded using my Sony PCM-D50 recorder and EV RE-50 dynamic microphone.

You can listen to streaming audio of the story from The World's web site. For some reason the direct link to the story seems to stop playing about 2 minutes in, but you can also find the story by streaming the full program and skipping ahead to about 35:25.

Radio stories from 2007

2007 was my first full year as a freelance journalist. I left my full time position as a reporter at WHYY in the fall of 2006, and continued to do a little freelance work for the station when I still lived in the region. But since moving to New York, I've been focusing primarily on producing stories for national outlets. And of course, I've spent a lot of my time blogging.

This year I probably produced fewer radio news stories than in previous years, but my ratio of in-depth feature length reports to quick spot news stories has gone way up. Here's an almost complete list of radio stories I've filed over the past 12 months:

Philadelphia Housing Authority announces severe job cuts - NPR's All Things Considered 1/9/07
Responding to federal funding cuts, the PHA announces it will have to layoff 20 percent of its staff and cut back on services. Other housing agencies around the country are making similar cuts.

Companies create their own health clinics - NPR's Day to Day 1/23/07
More and more U.S. companies are providing in-house health clinics for their employees as a way to contain medical costs. The on-site clinics can offer flu shots, fill prescriptions and other services — it's a convenience for employees and a money-saver for the company.


Why low-income housing matters - NPR's Justice Talking 2/05/07
This edition of Justice Talking examined issues related to low-income housing. For this story I visited with a formerly homeless woman who was looking forward to moving into her first real house with her three children.

Gambling in Pennsylvania - NPR's Justice Talking 3/05/07
This edition of Justice Talking looked at issue related to gambling. Pennsylvania had recently passed legislation expanding legalized gambling in the state. I visited one of the first horse racetracks in Pennsylvania to add a slot machine parlor, and talked to community leaders about the potential impact on the region.

The Death Penalty in New Jersey - NPR's Justice Talking 3/26/07
In December of 2007, New Jersey officials approved a ban on the death penalty after years of debate. Earlier this year I visited with a lawmaker who had proposed abolishing the death penalty, an official in the public defender's office who opposed the death penalty, and two strong supporters of the death penalty: A lawyer advocating its punitive and preventative impact and Sharon Hazard-Johnson, whose parents were murdered by one of the men currently on death row. This may be the most powerful piece I produced this year. I spent a lot of time on this story and I hope it shows.

PennDhamaka goes to Best of the Best - Weekend America 4/7/2007
This is probably my favorite piece of the year in terms of how I used sound to tell a story. Of course, the folks at Weekend America did a great job of mixing the sound, by my editor and I spent a lot of time finding the best bits of tape to make this story work.

For this piece I spent a weekend watching Penn students in PennDhamaka, a South Asian dance group prepared for the Best of the Best competition in Chicago. I also talked to two of the members of the group at length and found out a bit about what drives these young Americans to participate in this activity which combines eastern and western traditions.

Philadelphia mayor's race - NPR's Morning Edition 5/8/2007
This story felt like a nice bookend to my time covering Philadelphia politics. I'd been covering Philadelphia City Hall since the 2003 mayor's race, and I won a national SPJ award for coverage of a corruption scandal that rocked that election (but not the way you would have thought). Just days before we moved to New York City, I filed this preview of the 2007 race to replace outgoing mayor John Street. In Philadelphia, where Democrats outnumber Republicans by 4 to 1, the Democratic primary is usually the equivalent of a general election, and the winner of the primary went on to defeat his underfunded Republican challenger by a landslide in November.

Oil companies serve up biodiesel - The Environment Report 7/9/2007
There's no better way to get your new neighborhood than by reporting on local stories. One of the first that I found in Brooklyn was the story of a local oil distributor that was planning to build one of the largest biodiesel distribution facilities in the country.




New Jersey church considers selling treasured windows - Weekend America 8/04/2007
Elizabeth, NJ was once one of the wealthiest cities in the state. Now it's one of the poorest. And St John's Episcopal Church is spending more money providing services for the needy than it is collecting from donations. So the church is considering selling it's valuable Tiffany Windows to raise money for an endowment -- but many congregation members are reluctant to let them go.

New York trans fat ban takes effect - NPR's Justice Talking 9/03/07
New York became the first city in the country to ban trans fat from restaurants. I spoke with health officials and chefs about the impact, and whether the government has the right to start playing the food police.

Casual co-working at Jelly - NPR's Morning Edition 9/12/07
Most days I work from home. While I generally find I'm a lot more productive without a ton of other people around, it's also nice to have some people to interact with and tried ideas with occasionally. It's also nice to pretend your not a hermit. So one day I read about this group called Jelly, which invites pretty much anyone to come work together. Co-Founders Amit Gupta and Luke Crawford started with regular meetings at their Manhattan apartment, and now the group occasionally meets in Brooklyn or other Manhattan apartments.

At first I figured I'd just go to get some work done, and then it occurred to me that there was a story here. Although I wasn't the first person to report on Jelly, since NPR aired my piece the group has gotten a lot more attention and groups have started up in other cities including Boston, Houston, and Sydney, Australia.

Nintendo Wii shortage - NPR's Day to Day 11/23/07
An NPR producer called me in November and asked me to get to the bottom of a question: Was the Nintendo Wii shortage real or manufactured to make the game system look hotter than it was? I'll let you listen to discover the answer. Again, the audio producers did a great job with the tape I fed them. I giggle every time I hear the last few seconds of this story.


Global Warming Garden - The Environment Report 12/03/07
Yes, I know it's kind of funny to do a gardening piece on December, but I reported most of this story in November when the gardeners I spoke with were still busy planting, transplanting, and doing whatever else it is gardeners do to prepare their plants for the winter.

Anyway, this story shows the impact of global warming on plants. Gardeners in the northern US are noticing that they can grow plants that normally thrive much further south. In fact, gardeners at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx have designed an entire plot that shows off exotic plants. But is global warming good news or bad for gardeners.

So there you have it. 13 stories. On average, I produced just a bit over one feature-length news report per month. But I've also assisted other reporters with stories, filed a bunch of spot news reports for NPR, done some commercial audio production, and of course, written thousands of blog posts, and done a couple of other things to help keep the lights on.

When it comes to radio, I think this year I've focused on quality over quantity, and looking back at those 13 stories, I'm pretty happy with the body of work I've produced.

Definitive guide to using Skype to record interviews

I've been using Skype to record telephone interviews pretty much since the day I started my career as a freelance journalist. This wasn't because I believed Skype to land line telephone calls necessarily sounded better than phone to phone calls. It was because I was having all sorts of problems with our home phone. Verizon came out to "fix" the phone several times, but there was still a loud humming noise that was impossible to eliminate, even in post-production. So I cancelled our phone service and signed up for a SkypeIn number and bought some SkypeOut credit.

Over time, I realized that there are a few advantages to using Skype. First, it doesn't tend to record the same kind of line noise as you get on a standard phone. When working with old fashioned phone recordings, I almost always had to add a filter to eliminate sound that was over 3KHz or below 300KHz. Telephones don't actually transmit anything outside of those ranges, so anything else you pick up on a recording is noise. But I've noticed that applying that filter on Skype calls doesn't change much, which would indicate there's not much noise.

On the down side, Skype calls are digital calls sent over the internet. As such, if you have bandwidth problems or dropped packets, you can wind up with glitches that make the call sound like a bad cellphone call. But there are ways to minimize those problems. The Conversation Network's Doug Kaye and Paul Figgiani have put together an extensive video explaining how to configure Skype for the best possible results. And when I say extensive, I mean it. The video weighs in at 22 minutes, but it's well worth watching.

| View | Upload your own

Some of the tips are no-brainers, like shut down other applications on your computer when making calls. But the advice on configuring your firewall is pretty useful.

Unboxing the Sony PCM-D50

A nice FedEx man rang my doorbell today and dropped of my brand new Sony PCM-D50 digital audio recorder. I won't be able to post a thorough review for another day or two, but here are some photos in the meantime.



Oh yeah, and I also couldn't resist giving the recorder a quick sound check. Keep in mind, I haven't read through the instruction manual yet, and I haven't tinkered with the settings very much. But my first impression is that while the internal mics have just about the same level of hiss as the mics on the Zoom H4, you get a much more natural sounding vocal tone with the PCM-D50.

You also do need to hold the PCM-D50 carefully when using the built-in mics. While you don't get as much handling noise as with the Zoom H4, you'll definitely notice some noise if you change your grip.

But the most impressive thing, and the reason I bought this recorder in the first place (aside from good hardware controls, a great limiter, a sturdy body, and 4GB internal memory), is that it sounds great with a dynamic microphone. Grab a good pair of headphones and listen for yourself.



Related Posts:

• Sony PCM-D50 review
  
• Comparison of popular field recorders
• Sony announces PCM-D50 digital audio recorder
• Zoom H2 review roundup
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Global Warming Garden

When you think about global warming, you probably think about the big things like melting polar ice caps, hurricanes, and so on. But climate change also has more subtle impacts.

Milder winters and warmer summers in the Northeastern US, for example, means that plants that traditionally grow in warmer climates are thriving in New York City. The New York Botanical Garden highlights this phenomenon in its Ladies Border Garden, an experimental plot where the garden grows all sorts of plants that are not native to this region.

I recently visited the Ladies Border Garden, which is sometimes called the "global warming garden" for a radio story which feeds this week on The Environment Report.

Wii shortage on NPR

More than a year after Nintendo launched the Nintendo Wii, it's still the hottest selling video game console around. And good luck trying to find it. Stores are selling out of Wiis almost as soon as they get them in stock.

NPR called me last week and asked if I'd get to the bottom of a simple question: is this a real shortage or is it an artificial scarcity created to make the Wii look hotter than it really is?

For the answer, check out my report that ran this afternoon on NPR's Day to Day. As you can probably guess, this was a fun story to work on. I got to track down a Nintendo Wii owner and play some games. And NPR did a great job mixing the audio for this story.

Alesis USB Podcasting Mic Kit: mobile studio, just add laptop

Alesis is offering what looks like a great starter kid for podcasters. If this had been around a year ago, I might not have bought my USB mixer/condenser microphone setup.

The Alesis USB Podcasting Mic Kit includes a USB Mic, a mic stand, and a decent set of headphones, and a set of ove the ear headphones. You can pick up the whole kit for $99 at BSW, and there's a $15 rebate available. Alesis is also throwing in a free nylon carrying case for the podcaster on the go (PDF link).

Here are some of the recording kit's highlights:

• 16 bit 44.1/48Khz recordings on OS X or Windows machines
• Bundled with Audacity software for digital audio editin (which isn't really that impressive, considering you can download Audacity for free)
• 30 day trial subscription to the podcast hosting service at alesispodcast.com.
  

I'm still glad I went with the mixer/mic solution, as it gives me far more control over my recordings. But for $85 (after rebate), this looks like a great solution for recording podcasts, voiceovers or other vocals on a budget.

The last USB microphone I tried was the Samson C01U, which had a latency issue. If you plugged the mic into a PC, and then plugged the headphones into the PC, you'd hear your own voice echoing back to with a slight (but annoying delay). Some higher end USB mics like the Rode Podcaster eliminate this problem by including a headphone jack right on the mic itself. I can't tell from the pictures or specs if there's a jack on the Alesis mic. So you may have some latency issues with this kit.

Comparing the Sony PCM-D50, Fostex FR2-LE, Zoom H4 and Sound Devices 702

I tested out a couple of different flash audio recorders at AES yesterday. And while recording conditions weren't ideal on the noisy show room floor, here are the results. Ideally I'd love to take each of these recorders into a quiet room and record an interview and some ambiance, because even the Zoom H4 with its noisy preamp sounded halfway decent with all that background noise.

Fostex FR2-LE using an Electrovoice RE-50 microphone:



The FR2-LE is a trimmed down version of the Fostex FR2. It packs combo XLR/quarter inch inputs, track marking, and most of the features I'd want, on paper. But as you can hear when the gain is turned down the preamps are a bit noisier than I'd hoped.

Sound Devices 702 with RE-50 mic:



The Sound Devices 702 is a high end compact flash recorder. It'll set you back about $2000 but honestly, I've never heard a DAT/minidisc/Flash recorder that sounds as good.

Sony PCM-D50 with RE-50 mic:



The Sony PCM-D50 sounds surprisingly good with an external mic. Although it sports 1/8th inputs, meaning no phantom power, you can get an extraordinarily high record level with a dynamic microphone like the RE-50. That, plus the fact that you can mark tracks on the fly, pre-buffer recordings, and change record levels on the fly makes this an excellent recorder or anyone who likes the convenience of a compact minidisc recorder but wants the sound quality of a DAT or high quality flash recorder.

Sony PCM-D50 with the built-in stereo condenser mics:



The PCM-D50 also has stereo condenser mics built in. If no mic is plugged in, the recorder will use these by default. Plug anything into the mic or line input and they'll shut off. While they're not ideal for recording on a noisy show-room floor (they pick up way too much ambiance and not enough of the people they're pointed at), these mics would be excellent for quick interviews in the field or for recording music or outdoor ambiance. There's an optional wind-screen for $50, and there's almost no handling noise when using the built-in mics, which is a huge problem with the cheaper Zoom H-4.

Zoom H4 using an RE-50:



I brought along my Zoom H4 recorder in order to make a comparison recording. The preamps are pretty noisy and in a quiet recording environment a Zoom H4/RE-50 combination is really less than satisfactory. But because of all the background noise, this recording actually came out pretty decent.

In other words, take all of the other recordings with a grain of salt. That said, I think it's still safe to say that in this limited test the Sound Devices 702 an the Sony PCM-D50 both produced cleaner recordings than the Fostex FR2-LE or the Zoom H4. When you add the PCM-D50's extra features like the ability to create new tracks, change record levels, and switch between internal and external mics, I think it's the clear winner.

If you've got high quality mics that require phantom power, the PCM-D50 probably isn't the way to go unless you've got another $500 to drop on Sony's XLR-1 mic adapter. But for radio producers and podcasters looking for a high quality and affordable device for recording interviews, music, and ambiance, the PCM-D50 looks (and sounds) awesome.

Related Posts:

• Sony announces PCM-D50 handheld flash audio recorder
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• M-Audio to launch the Microtrack II in November
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M-Audio Microtrack II available for $299 in November

While Marantz was a no show at the AES convention, I did get a close look at a non-functional M-Audio Microtrack II.

I used a Microtrack for a little while at my old radio station. It was a decent little machine. The quarter-inch mic and line inputs seemed a bit sturdier than the 1/8th inch inputs on a minidisc recorder. The ability to record uncompressed WAV audio or MP3 was nice. And the sound quality was respectable for a $400 unit.

But there was no way to make track marks, the menu system was a bit clunky, and it took 15 seconds to boot up, making it less than ideal for grab and go recording. The Microtrack also had a non-removable internal rechargeable battery, meaning you had to get a makeshift external battery if you wanted to record for more than 4 hours at a time without stopping to recharge.

One of the strangest choices M-Audio made with the original Microtrack was the inclusion of a 30V phantom power supply. That means you could get certain powered microphones to work off of phantom power, while others would not. Some issues M-Audio was able to address through firmware upgrades. For example you couldn't record in mono when the unit was first released, but a firmware upgrade eventually added support for mono recording.

The Microtrack II doesn't address all of those issues, but it does appear to be a step in the right direction. Here are some of the updates:

• 48V phantom power
• Better battery life (but the battery is still non-removable)
• BWF file marking ability
• A new brightness control button on the side
• A shiny new $299 price tag (making this unit about $100 cheaper than the original Microtrack)

I'm not sure if that price is list or street, as the M-Audio rep didn't seem to have a lot of details. but he said the Microtrack II should be available in November, and that the company would be phasing out the original Microtrack.

Update: It looks like that $299 is the street price. Minidisco has a preorder page up for the Microtrack II and it's selling for $299.

Related Posts:

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Sony announces PCM-D50 handheld flash recorder

I went to the AES show this afternoon with my mind almost made up. My next field recorder would be a Fostex FR2-LE. On paper it's the next step up from my Zoom H4. It has decent preamps, combo XLR/quarter inch inputs, the ability to make track marks/split WAV files without pausing your recording. Sure, the battery compartment is a bit hard to get at, but that's a small price to pay for a $600 high quality device.

But a funny thing happened. I fell in love with a different recorder, the new Sony PCM-D50. The D50 is the follow-up to Sony's PCM-D1 recorder.

Like the PCM-D1, the D50 packs 4GB of internal flash memory, a Sony memory stick slot for expanded storage, high quality internal stereo condenser mics, and the ability to record 22.05 kHz, 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz and 96 kHz, 16 and 24 bit WAV audio. But the D50 is about one third the price. While the D1 lists for $1995, the D50 will be available in November and has a list price of $599, which is the same as the Fostex FR2-LE. The street price could be even lower.

So what's the difference between the D1 and D50? The D1 has higher quality mics, old-fashioned analog VU meters, and a few more expensive components under the hood. The D50 has adjustable mics. You can change their position and the recorder will automatically adjust.

Here's a shot of the two recorders side by side:

What does the PCM-D50 have that the FR2-LE doesn't? On paper, not much. In fact, the D50 doesn't even have XLR inputs or offer phantom power for external condenser mics. But here's why I'm leaning toward picking one up in November:

1. It's compact, fits easily in the hand, and has excellent internal mics, making it great for grab and go recording. The FR2-LE has internal mics too, but they're the kind of mics you'd find on a third rate digital voice recorder. I think my PDA has a better mic.
2. When I plugged a dynamic mic into the FR2-LE I had to crank up the gain all the way to get a decent record level. When I plugged the same mic into the PCM-D50, I had to turn the record volume down to 3 or 4 to keep from clipping. This little puppy has some powerful preamps.
3. The PCM-D50 automatically detects when you've got an external mic plugged in and switches between the internal and external mic.

I picked up the Zoom H4 earlier this year because it offered some of the same features as the PCM-D1 at a fraction of the price. I was on a budget and it seemed like a good buy. But here's why I'm thinking about upgrading to the PCM-D50.

1. I haven't found a single external mic that sounds good with the H4. The preamps are way too noisy.
2. When using the excellent internal mics on the H4, the unit is susceptible to handling noise. I detected almost no handling noise when using the PCM-D50.
3. In order to save your track or create a new file on the H4, you have to stop your recording and start a new one, which causes a you to lose a few seconds of audio. The PCM-D50 lets you create new tracks on the fly.
4. The PCM-D50 controls are super easy to use, and you can change record levels on the fly with a simple jog dial. On the H4, you have to go through a bunch of software menus which will result in handling noise if you're using the internal mics.
5. The H4 has a cheap plastic feel, the PCM-D50 has a sturdy metal feel.

There are more reasons, but for now I'll just show you this side by side comparison:

Here are a few more specs:

• Runs on 4 AA batteries
• Estimated battery life: 16 hours with headphones, 20 hours without
• Weights 12.88 ounces (including batteries)
• Supports MP3 playback, but does not record to MP3
  
• Four separate circuit boards to separate analog audio, digital audio, digital recording, and power supply circuits
• Transfer recordings to your computer using USB 2.0
• High pass filter
• 5-second pre buffer when using record pause mode

I recorded some audio using with the PCM-D50, the Fostex FR2-LE, my Zoom H4, and a Sound Devices 702 (which is way out of my price range at $2000, but since the recordings were all made on the noisy show room floor I wanted to get a recording using the best gear I could find to use as a reference point).

I'll post the audio tomorrow. Since these recordings were made in a noisy environment, I don't have an answer to my biggest question: which device would sound best in a quiet interview environment. But I'm pretty sure the Fostex FR2-LE doesn't sound enough better than my H4 to justify the price.

Update: Now you can listen to some sample recordings I made in the less than ideal setting of the AES show room floor.

Update 2: It looks like this digital audio recorder is getting a street price of $499.

Update 3: Sony has started shipping the PCM-D50, and I should be getting mine in early December, so expect a comprehensive review soon.

Update 4: It's here!

Related Posts:

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• Zoom H4 review

Tiny Marantz PMD620 gets a hand model

I knew the Marantz PMD620 was small. But so far I hadn't seen any photos of the device comparing it to other objects, so we couldn't say just how small.

Susan A. Kitchens of Family Oral History Using Digital Tools got a chance to check out the 620 last week and she uploaded a photo of the flash recorder in her hand. And I have to say, it makes my Zoom H4 look huge.

Not too much else to report. She plugged in a mic and headphones and the PMD620 sounded decent. But it's hard to really test things like the mic preamps when you're recording in a noisy setting like a showroom floor.

Related Posts:

• More Marantz PMD620 details emerge
  
• Marantz Announces the PMD620 handheld flash recorder
• Marantz PMD620 gets a price
• Zoom H2 review roundup
• More Zoom H2 reviews roll in: some users have better results than others
  
• Zoom H4 review
• 5 gadgets for producing radio or podcasts on the cheap

More Marantz PMD620 details emerge

When the Marantz PMD620 flash recorder was announced a few days ago we didn't have too many details to share. That hasn't stopped people from talking though. Boing Boing, Gizmodo, and other popular gadget blogs have weighed in on the compact prosumer device.

While Marantz still hasn't posted any details about the PMD620 on its website, Podcasting News got their hands on some of the specs. So here's what we know:

• Records WAV audio in 44.1/48KHz at 16 or 24 bit resolutions
• Records direct to MP3 at three different quality levels (no word on what that means in terms of kpbs yet)
• Includes 2 internal condenser mics, a 1/8th inch external mic input, and a 1/8th inch line input
• First Marantz recorder to use SD flash memory with support for cards up to 2 TB (that's terabytes with a T)
• You'll get a nifty little red glow when you're recording so you know you're recording
• OLED display for low power consumption
• Powered by 2 AA batteries
• Configurable screen with 2 font sizes
• Do basic non-destructive copy and paste style editing directly on the device
• Transfer audio to your PC via USB 2.0
• "Skip back" feature lets transcribers review audio recorded from 1 to 60 seconds go (we assume this means while you're still recording, which means this could be an ideal device for anyone who needs to transcribe audio in real-time, like courtroom reporters).
• Level and Peak LEDs
• Display can be set to show time remaining, elapsed time, or other important numbers.
  

Now if we could just get a picture of this thing in someone's hand, or better yet, side by side with a Zoom H2. The Marantz PMD620 will be out in November, and will set you back about $400. That's twice the price of the H2, but it looks like the Marantz has a few features the H2 doesn't, like a better display, Skip Back, on-board editing, and support for massive SD cards.

Of course, the things that matter most to me are how noisy the preamps are, how clean the audio recorded with the internal mics sounds, and the ease of use. All the rest is gravy. And until we start to see some hands-on reviews, we won't know how the PMD620 stacks up against the H2, the H4, or even the PMD660.

Related Posts:

• Marantz Announces the PMD620 handheld flash recorder
• Marantz PMD620 gets a price
• Zoom H2 review roundup
• More Zoom H2 reviews roll in: some users have better results than others
  
• Zoom H4 review
• 5 gadgets for producing radio or podcasts on the cheap

Public Radio Talent Quest finalists selected

The finalists have been selected in the Public Radio Talent Quest. And while I've been keeping tabs on the contest since it started, I was so busy last week that I completely missed it.

Here's something else you may have missed. While the Public Radio Exchange was arranging a public contest that attracted over 1400 entrants, Launch, another group of public radio veterans was holed up in semi-secrecy conducting a parallel process. And so six finalists have been selected to produce pilot public radio programs, not three.

1. Mark Bittman - Cookbook author, PBS host, and newspaper columnist. We have his book How to Cook Everything in our kitchen.
2. Majora Carter - Founder of Sustainable South Bronx
3. Julia Sweeney - Actress and comedian.
4. Al Letson - Poet, playwright, director, author, actor.
5. Glynn Washington - Director of the Council for Responsible Public Investment.
6. Rebecca Watson - founder of Skepchick magazine and the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe podcast.
   

Each finalist will get $10,000 and the chance to produce a public radio pilot program. It'd be great to see every one get picked up and distributed nationally, but something in my gut tells me that's not going to happen. Not that each of these hosts isn't capable of carrying a show, but there's just only so much room on the dial.

Hopefully one day podcasting will be a bit more profitable and we'll see talented people like these finalists producing high quality programs that would sound at home on any public radio station -- but distributing them online with limited underwriting spots.

Marantz PMD620 will reportedly cost $400