Hi Martyn,
> Anyone here familiar with the system including the mic?
Which mic are you talking about here? I hope not the mike in the
palmtop!!!! That thing records in MONO.
I have one of these things sitting around, which is to say that I have
an IPaq 5550, a Mic2496 preamp and PDAudio-CF interface. I find the
whole thing quite clumsy compared to all--in-one units.
The Mic2496 preamp is solid, although I find it badly designed and far
larger than it technically could be. My biggest gripes are the weird
gain control (you can see it in the pics) and fact that you have knobs
on one side-edge and cables on the other, making it very difficult to
lay it down in your field bag. But the quality it gives you won't find
in the preamps of any DAT/MD or the Microtrack, so keep that in mind.
Plus it does give phantom power, although with a rechargable 9 volt in
the preamp this might not last longer than 1 1/2 hours. I'm not sure how
it compares in the price-vs-quality dept against some of the other
portable preamp/DA converters out there, but if you did get one, you'd
be safe using it with other recording gear later on if the PDA didn't
work out for you.
And speaking of PDAs, I found this component the clumsiest part of the
arrangement by far. It just doesn't work for me in terms of ergonomics,
not would I trust it in the field if "the field" includes any kind of
dust, humidity or mild impact. Lastly, the LCD screen of most PDAs is
pretty much unreadable in direct sunlight!
I bought mine to use because of the possibility of programing the PDA to
record at time intervals, certain frequencies, sound thresholds, etc etc
for a specific project. This project does not depend on human input
during the recording process at all---everything is automated. But for a
regular field recorder, I probably wouldn't recommend it.
I do give credit to Core-Sound for filling an empty space in the market
when they came up with the system. But that space is rapidly being
filled by newer dedicated recorders whose quality will soon approach the
PDA system. So I'd hold out a little longer before diving in, and check
out some of the newer stuff hitting the market now, maybe a combination
of something like the Microtrack and an outboard preamp/phantom power
supply/DA unit.
best,
d.
Martyn Stewart wrote:
> http://www.core-sound.com/pdaudio_system/1.php
>
> I would appreciate any feedback from the above link, I do not own one of
> these but I have had an e-mail from a woman who intends to use it in New
> Zealand this November, she wants to record ambient sounds and also concer=
ts,
> personally I would not go down this road but who knows!!
> Anyone here familiar with the system including the mic?
>
> I would think handling noises would also be a problem with it?
--
derek holzer ::: http://www.umatic.nl
---Oblique Strategy # 45:
"Disciplined self-indulgence"
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