Category: accessible Devices
Hi.
I'm looking for a small recording device that would allow me to record tunes i'm playing in my braille music sessions for transfering to a computer for playback/storage/editing. Requirements:
fairly good quality
reasonable size memory
good battery life
screen reading support such as spoken menus etc (if possible)
must be available in a UK computer store such as PCWorld.
Someone suggested that I should get an olympus recorder.
Any suggestions would be great!
Thanks. PS. I will be going to get it on sunday so recommendations by then would be helpful.
If you're after something with screen reader support, or spoken menus, then I guess the Olympus series is your best bet. The only reason I wouldn't get it, is because of the fact that it has a reasonably hign noise floor, where as your more high-end recorders don't.
Pricewise, the Olympus is quite cheaper than e.g. your Edirol R09, the Zoom series, and of course, the Sony SD series.
Hi. I have a lot of experience with pocket sized solid state recorders. you don't really need spoken menus etc for basic recording, playback, setting input and playback volume levels, etc. I currently use the original edirol R-09 and highly recommend it. it uses normal double A batteries, you can also use rechargeables, and you can use any sd or sd hc card. I have an eight gig in it currently but you can use up to a 32 gig sd hc card. The internal stereo condensers are great and you've got rolloff, limiter, etc. my other top choice in that price range would be the m audio micro track or micro track 2. For more money, my top choices would be sony and merints. Plextalk also make a solid state recorder now which I believe does have spoken menus etc, however, I haven't been able to field test that model yet. Happy hunting!
the olympus LS series is one of the best and not to be confused with the less inexpensive DS series. The quality is much better, internal memory and SD card slot as well and the option to record at 24 bit. i believe its goes for $299 us retail.
There is a fairly new Olympus series with talking menus out on the market. I've seen it, and it works well, I can't attest to the technical quality, but for spoken word recordings, it would be more than adequate. If you only want it for music lessons, I suspect it would be fine. Good luck with the transcribing into braille.
Lou
Tell me this, do you have any type of notetaking device? I say this because some of these cool things have a recording option and if you record with an external mic, it works wonders. The internal mics aren't so bad either, you got to set it just write. Also, a laptop will work as well. If you have one already you could bring it and use that. Using the two options I suggest saves you some money and gives you basically the same effect. I record my teachers on the Braillenote BT and it works wonderfully!
About the olympus ls's, can you suggest any specific brand?