EQ Magazine - September 2008 - (Page 60)

protects the mics from being hit— great idea. But if you prefer to use a different mic, there’s the usual 1/8" jack with a plug-in power switch. As to power, the PCM-D50 requires four AA cells, which contributes to a record time of about 14 hours when also monitoring—about 20 hours for playbackonly—which means a lot of music before you have to think about batteries. Another very cool feature is prerecording, which lets you record up to five seconds of sound prior to the time recording started. There's an "intelligent" limiter than can banish distortion by seamlessly substituting a track recorded at a lower level (very cool!), and the record level control has a small shield over it to prevent accidental changes. Limitations: The batteries can’t be recharged while sitting in the unit; they need an external charger. And I’m never thrilled with non-standard formats, like using the Pro-HG Duo memory stick instead of the SD memory that most others have adopted. However, given 4GB of internal memory, there are few scenarios where that isn’t enough. Bottom line: It’s a Sony, and they’ve been down this road before—the PCMD50 is a serious, quality, pro piece of gear for real world recording. AMERICAN AUDIO POCKET RECORD ($209.95, WWW.AMERICANAUDIO.US) This is larger than average, doesn’t look particularly sophisticated, and isn’t exactly feature-packed compared to costlier models—but it’s also the least expensive one in the roundup by far. In that context, there’s definitely value for money. It’s clearly designed to be a general-purpose device for such tasks as interviews and recording music, but nonetheless has a few features that are not expected with a product in this price range. It runs off two standard AA batteries (included) or rechargeables, but you can also run it from a USB 5V adapter. What it does best: Not put a dent in your wallet would have to be the main thing it does best. But Pocket Record has some cool extra features. It includes two built-in mics and a built-in monitor speaker, but also has two audio inputs with associated level controls. These can use the two lavalier mics included with the player, but also, they can mix with the built-in mics so you could, say, rap over a drum machine that’s also being recorded. It also has a switch to match the input to mic, line, or guitar-level signals (kudos for the instrument input). Furthermore, because there aren’t a lot of bells and whistles, it’s very easy to use: Once you’ve figured out the nine front panel buttons, you’re pretty much covered. By the way, it records both WAV and MP3. Limitations: It handles SD cards up to 4GB, but that’s the upper limit. Audio quality is on the lower end of the scale compared to higher-priced units, but it’s certainly acceptable for most applications. Due to its size (and input volume knobs) the Pocket Record isn’t particularly ergonomic, but it can fit in a decent-sized shirt pocket. Subjectively it feels somewhat klunky rather than sleek—but of course, that doesn’t really affect performance. Bottom line: If I was a journalist doing interviews, this would be ideal; having two lavaliers included might indicate American Audio thinks the same way. Besides, it’s really inexpensive, and more run time is just a couple AA batteries away. 60 EQ SEPTEMBER 2008 www.eqmag.com http://www.EQmag.com http://WWW.AMERICANAUDIO.US http://www.EQmag.com http://www.eqmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of EQ Magazine - September 2008

EQ Magazine - September 2008 Contents Talk Box Sounding Board Punch In Freak Folk Todd Rundgren Guitar Trax Bass Management Key Issues Drum Heads Vocal Cords Mix Bus Cheat Sheet Sony Acid 6 Ableton Live 7 Portable Recorder Showdown Gadgets and Goodies Sounds Room with a Vu

EQ Magazine - September 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.