Brian Clark" wrote:
> I'm looking for a recording device for long
> recording times, 2 to 5 hours or more
I think the answer lies in recording directly
to a computer hard disc. Using the example
of 16/44.1 stereo WAV recording, five hours
would create a file of 3.2 GB. A file of
this size is easily within the capacity of
Windows NTFS or Mac OS X file system.
Sound Forge 6 supports files greater than 4GB,
and I'm sure some other audio editors do as well.
To record direct to disc you'll need a computer
whose operating system is set up specifically
for audio (removing the chance that some process
unrelated to audio will steal bus cycles at
an inoportune time). Many pre-amps connect to
the computer via USB, which is convenient, but they
can occasionally be problematic. I'd suggest you
use a sound card plugged directly into the PCI
bus. If you want to use a laptop
for field work, then you'll need a big
external battery to keep it going all day.
To manage the recording process you'd want
a program that saves the 3.2GB of data as a
series of smaller files, so if something goes
wrong the entire recording session is not lost.
Many decision points, and not too many people
who have hands-on experience to give guidance.
The rec.audio.pro newsgroup is one source of
knowledgeable (or at least opinionated) advice.
--oryoki
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