Back home again and a lot of e-mails to sift through again, I still
never caught up after going to the UK, Yes I bought the Sharp MD-DR7 as
Doug and am thrilled with the little beauty, this is a must if this is
your budget the cheapest I found as Doug did at
http://www.audiocubes.com <http://www.audiocubes.com/>
The adjustable record level is one of the advantages with this and
indeed with all Sharps, but as Doug says the Buffer (trace-back) is a
must, this little machine does it all, as in the Portadisk, this has a
variable buffer for that last minute surprise, bang! You've recorded
it!!! I like to set this at 10 seconds too and if you are like me, once
you hit the pause button, I'm stretching around and scratching me bum!
Of course you will record all of this if you have it set on 30seconds,
plus other maybe embarrassing noises!!!!!
There is no Day/Date marking, Sony automatically marks each recording
with the day and date of each track, but if you are used to speaking as
I do before every take, this wont be a problem. I don't like the remote
I'm afraid either, the buttons are all the same. One or two have a tiny
dot on them that are hard to feel unless you can read Braille!!! The
rest are undistinguishable. Too many buttons! You can't push a button on
one side without also pushing one on the other, with my fingers anyway!
You can't adjust the volume without adjusting bass at the same time!
It's impossible. There is only one way to hold it without pushing any
buttons.
These are minor problems but one that would put the cream on top of this
great unit.
If you want to take a portable recorder into the field without all the
weight, this is the chap for you with long battery life
Martyn
Martyn Stewart
<http://naturesound.org> http://naturesound.org
-----Original Message-----
From: Doug Von Gausig
Sent: Saturday, August 23, 2003 9:37 AM
To: Nature Recordists
Subject: [Nature Recordists] Preliminary Report - Sharp MD-DR7
I've had my new Sharp MD-DR7 now for a week and have been able to put it
through it's menus, learned the titling procedures, edited lots of
samples,
etc. The recordings I've made with it seem at the outset to be
comparable
to recordings made with the Sony MZ-R30 and -R50 recorders - no big
surprises there. Self noise seems about comparable with the Sonys.
Things I like about this recorder:
1. Adjustable record level while recording - like all Sharps
2. No need to be sure you've hit "End Search" before recording - like
all
Sharps. New recordings are always started at the end of the last track.
3. Recording and mode-setting are all done by default - I tell the
recorder
what the default settings are and every recording is started with those
settings upon the press of one button. With the Sonys you press the
"Record" slider and the "Pause" button at one time, hold the "Record"
slider in one position until the record mode changes to "Manual Record",
then press the "Mode" button to switch to Mono recording - you have to
do
this every time you start recording! All these settings are set as the
default settings on the Sharp.
4. Track and disc naming utility is much easier with the Sharp - no more
wearing out the reed switches picking the letters in a track name.
5. The battery, although it is NiMH, not Lithium Ion, is tiny and gives
10.5 hours of record time, 27 hours of playback on a 3-hour recharge.
The
recorder also comes with a AA "outrigger" caddy that holds one AA
battery -
it will supply 13 hours of recording and more than 40 hours of playback!
This guy is energy efficient.
6. Finally, I LOVE the "Trace-Back Recording" feature. This allows you
to
set (as default) a 5-second, 10-second, or 30-second pre-record. No need
to
reset it each time you turn the unit on or start recording. I've kept
mine
on 10-second trace back and it has worked flawlessly. This will get me
that
Cooper's Hawk that suddenly flies into the tree just above my head and
calls while the recorder is in record-pause.
This that I dislike:
1. There is no Day/Date marking of tracks. Sonys automatically mark each
recording with the day and date of each track. No such utility with the
Sharp.
2. This unit is still a Japan-only unit. The instruction manual, except
for
a very condensed section, is in Japanese. The English manual is
available,
though, at MiniDisc.org, so I downloaded the .pdf file and printed it.
No
biggy.
All in all (and very preliminarily) I like this unit a lot. If anyone
would
like a particular test, let me know.
I know Martyn has one too, by now, so did I leave anything out, Martyn?
Doug
Doug Von Gausig
Clarkdale, Arizona, USA
Moderator
Nature Recordists e-mail group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naturerecordists
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