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RE: Sony MZ-B100, Accessible-yes, but at What Sacrifice?

Subject: RE: Sony MZ-B100, Accessible-yes, but at What Sacrifice?
From: "Jerry Berrier" <>
Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2005 17:30:44 -0400
Aaron,

You're correct regarding the AGC issue.  I use an MZR70 now, which sure
isn't very blind-friendly, and I have that problems with it.

The biggest problem I have with the MZR70 is that I must put it on pause to
make changes like stereo to mono or AGC to manual volume, and then I have to
press the pause button a second time to take it off pause.  There's always
the chance that I'll end up pausing when I think I'm recording and recording
when I think I'm pausing.  

I may be better off to just hold off until an accessible chip recorder
becomes available that does not use minidisks.


-----Original Message-----
From: 
 On Behalf Of Aaron Ximm
Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2005 5:17 PM
To: 
Subject: Re: [Nature Recordists] Sony MZ-B100, Accessible-yes, but at What
Sacrifice?


Hi Jerry,

> I'm considering purchasing a Sony MZ-B100 minidisc recorder.  It's the 
> most user-friendly on the market for people who are blind.  It has 
> lots of nice features, but I've been told that its microphone input is 
> suitable for business meeting recording, but not for the frequency 
> range needed for nature recordings. If that's true, then I'd need to 
> use a

Re: microphone in, I believe you are conflating the onboard microphone(s),
and the microphone INPUT -- the former are probably voice-recorder quality,
as our the playback speakers; but the INPUT should be comparable to any
other consumer MD deck I would think.

The only issue that I suspect will be a pain to work with with this deck is
its predeliction (like other Sonys) to want to always record with the
automatic gain control (AGC) engaged -- if it works like other Sonys, you'll
have to specifically set it to "fixed gain" every time you record... sigh.

Fwiw Ben Adair from the NPR show Pacific Drift was using them for some kind
of field recording 101 workshop, I pointed them out to him as having large
controls when he asked my opinion -- I'm 99% sure he went with him. Write me
off-list if you want his contact info.

 best,
  aaron

  
  http://www.quietamerican.org

  |  quod omne animal post   |
  |  cogitum est triste...   |




"Microphones are not ears,
Loudspeakers are not birds,
A listening room is not nature."
Klas Strandberg 
Yahoo! Groups Links



 






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"Microphones are not ears,
Loudspeakers are not birds,
A listening room is not nature."
Klas Strandberg
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