Bill Rankin wrote:
>
> It would seem to me that HHB already has 80% of a perfect nature sounds
> recorder already made.
I would say it's more like 95% plus. Better straps would fix most of
that, a good weatherproof case to put it in while running it would also help.
> All they need to do is use the portadisc recorder casing and drop in say a
> 30Gb hard drive with associated motherboard and software and a USB2 and or
> Firewire output for fast file transfer to the computer.
Last year I recorded over a 6 month period pretty steady. I transferred
all that, track by track to the computer in part of two days while also
packing the truck for a multi month road trip. The edited version now
occupies 9 audio CD's worth. So I'm not overly worried about the speed
of getting the recordings into the computer. It's such a minor part of
the process even at 1X...
> They would need to add a buffer for shock proofing the hard drive and leave
> all the other nice features of the portadisc i.e. the ergonomics, the XLR
> inputs etc. Battery capacity would probably have to be increased to cope with
> the extra load of the hard disk.
I'm not convinced that the hard knocks department would be that nice to
a hard drive. And think about bumping the recorder while the hard drive
is running, or dropping it. Generally those super specs you see about
hard disks and shock are with the heads parked, not in use. Now think
about all your recordings from that trip around the world being on
it....Someone else can risk their trip, not me. I want to see a lot more
track record on how this works out. Laptops simply don't get treated
like portable field recorders.
I'd vote for going Lion, even though that would mean expensive custom
battery pacs and very poor availability. You'd need that kind of power
boost and they are reliable.
> Making the hard drive bay upgradeable would be a nice touch so that we could
> install larger hard drives when required or even swap them over in the field.
Note that in the mockup of the 8 track that the HD is in a removable
mount. The same mount would probably fit in the space of the drive in
the portadisc.
> Oh and while they are at it, a few rubber corners on the casing and improved
> strap attachments.
> Just give me a 2 track machine that I can afford!!
> Come on!! HHB or some other company will beat you to it!!!
I took care of the strap problems myself:
http://wwknapp.home.mindspring.com/naturerecordists/strap01.jpg
The attachment studs are ok, and my setup requires a screwdriver to
remove the strap. So strap failure is not how I'm likely to damage it.
I've, so far, avoided the need for rubber corners. I'm careful.
I agree, what's needed is not all that fancy, and 2 track is enough of a
challenge for most of us. Few have even one good stereo pair of mics.
And the wide strap is very comfortable.
> I've got my checkbook ready and I bet there are a quite a few others out
> there too.
I don't see any need to replace my portadisc. I'll build my own
weatherproof case.
The market is tiny. I don't think we will see companies rushing to
supply nature recordists.
Walt
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