Guys, I believe Dave Dintenfass up in Seattle has and likes one of these same units. I am happy with
all Tascam gear I own. If one's last impression of Teac was that junky 1975 vintage 4-track reel to
reel (which may not have sounded like an Ampex but it wasn't so junking judging from how many are
still around and sold on eBay), they got much better and are a major manufacturer of computer drives
and components, so they understand digital recording.
Based on past postings to this list, some swear by and some swear at the Marantz flash recorders.
Trey, one good reality check might be to call a few radio stations with local news departments and
see what they are using these days. Many NPR stations have moved away from cassette and DAT and now
use flash recorders, I think.
Very much agree with your assessment that the consumer-grade dictation stuff -- especially if it's
made by Sony -- is unreliable, proprietary format, and generally not up to par with what you need.
The Tascam unit strikes me as being about as fragile as an old Marantz portable cassette recorder --
in other words less fragile than a consumer camcorder or for instance a little Canon digital camera
but still about as fragile as a Nikon digital SLR and more fragile than say an EV RE55 field
recording mic. Replacement costs are of course much greater than last generation cassette recorders
but recording results will be on par or better than the best DAT field recorders.
Make sure to get piles of extra memory cards and to regularly reformat them so you don't get bizarro
file errors.
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message -----
From: "Greg Johnson" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2007 3:46 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] flash recorder recommendations
> Trey,
>
> At the Blues Archive, we have a Tascam HD-P2 portable stereo audio recorder, which has worked
> quite nicely. It uses type I or type II compact flash media cards and can record up to
> 192kHz/24-bit.
> I have found it extremely easy to use, and have gotten great recordings with it. In addition to
> an internal mic (which actually isn't too bad - it picks up bass surprisingly well), it has two
> XLR inputs, two RCA inputs, and an S/PDIF audio input.
> Once I get my recordings onto the media card, you can quickly transfer the audio to your computer
> through a firewire cable.
> Now that 8GB (120x speed) compact flash cards can be purchased for around $80.00, you can fit
> quite a bit of audio onto the flash cards.
>
> Greg Johnson
>
> Trey Bunn wrote:
>> It looks like I may be able to convince the powers that be where I
>> work that I need to get a flash recorder. The archives wants to start
>> recording lectures and presentations to preserve them and to make them
>> available on our website. (Their initial test, which they conducted
>> before consulting me, was to stick a handheld consumer brand MP3
>> recorder on the lecturer's podium. "It sounds just fine to me!" one
>> person said. Sure, and while we're at it, let's take some pictures on
>> a camera phone to accompany this high quality web content... Hi, I'm
>> in snark mode...) I think I've made them see that in order to make
>> things suitable for web delivery, we need to start with the highest
>> quality possible since the quality will inevitably suffer once it's
>> compressed down to streaming content or MP3 or the like.
>>
>> Anyway, I've never bought a flash recorder and was hoping for
>> recommendations, particularly brands and models to look for and to
>> avoid. (Ditto for dealers of the equipment, too.) What we get
>> doesn't have to be top of the line, and right now we're only at the
>> stage where my supervisor is asking me to find quotes, preferably
>> cheap ones. But I'm well aware that you get what you pay for, so I
>> don't want to get something worthless. I'd also like this recorder to
>> be able to interface with the archives auditorium's existing PA
>> system, assuming that there are the right ins and outs on both, so to
>> speak.
>>
>> Comments and questions welcome here or off-list. Thanks!
>>
>>
>>
>> Trey Bunn
>> Folklife Archivist
>> Alabama Department of Archives and History
>> Montgomery, AL
>>
>>
>
> --
> Greg Johnson
> Blues Curator and Assistant Professor
> Archives & Special Collections
> J. D. Williams Library
> P. O. Box 1848
> University, MS 38677-1848
> work (662) 915-7753
> fax (662) 915-5734
> [log in to unmask]
>
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