December 09, 2008

Pocket Digital Audio Recorder

Someone asked the following question - so I answered it.

On Dec 7, 2008, at 12:05 AM, Matt Hampel wrote:

I'm searching for a small digital audio recorder that uses common media formats and connects to Macs without extra software. Do you have a favorite you can recommend?

Thanks,
Matt

My Answer:

Yes - I love the Sansa MP3 Players as voice recorders:

http://go.shopsansa.com/content/clip

They have good sound and record into compressed WAV files - The clip clips to your lapel like a microphone. You can get them at Best Buy off the shelf.

They are just a USB drive on the mac - so it is drag and drop - you do have to convert from WAV to MP3 before putting them up for podcast - I use the software called "Switch" for that to convert from WAV to MP3.

There is something weird w.r.t the mac and Sansa - at least the older model Sansa that I have and use daily - when you eject the player's disk it re-mounts instead of staying ejected - maybe this has been fixed in later models. My workaround is to do my copy/delete/empty trash - eject the disk - let it remount the disk and then just yank it out and tolerate the warning.

Note: I do not use the Sansa as anything other than an Audio recorder. I don't leave it plugged into my Mac - I just plug it in, copy data and unplug it. I actually charge the Sansa using a Wall USB charger (for my ipod). I use an iPod for my music and Sansa only for my audio recording.

/Chuck

Posted by csev at December 9, 2008 09:51 AM