I record with a laptop as it is capable of many channels at very fine
audio quality. I record with an external dsp to the laptop and use
Audition.
I agree that multi-channel is always messy.
I have now switched to the Panasonic CF-29.
This laptop is not cheap but can take a rain storm, you can see the
screen in direct daylight, the keyboard is backlit for night use, you
can drop it, there is no fan, the harddrive is shockmounted so you can
not hear it either, it has a lot of ports except firewire. It is
heavy but a 3 lb toughbook is due for release shortly.
Rich
--- In Derek Holzer <> wrote:
>
> Hi Jake,
>
> > Does anyone record in the field using a laptop?
> >
> > Are there reasons not to do so?
>
> Laptops are heavy, bulky, clumsy and fragile compared with a good field
> recorder. They are also noisy! Even the quietest laptop still has a fan
> that a sensitive mike will pick up. That and all the cables and
possibly
> other power supply needs involved in external sound cards gets
pretty messy.
>
> There are some good reasons to use computers, however. The ability to
> schedule or script various recording behaviours (i.e. only record at
> certain times or intervals, for set durations, or in the presence of
> certain frequencies or sound intensities) is something that most
> dedicated field recorders cannot do. Automatic location tagging from a
> Bluetooth or USB GPS device would be another. Or perhaps doing
frequency
> or gain analysis and cataloging the sounds in a database based on the
> results. Basically, all the kinds of things that computers are good at
> could be automated into your recorder if it were computerized.
>
> But you'd do better off using a fanless ITX board and building up some
> recording hardware around that if you wanted to use a computer to
> record. Or trying it with an IPaq and the Core Sound hardware. But
> touchscreens and mice and things are terrible outdoor interfaces, and
> some people just prefer to have solid buttons at their reach.
>
> d.
>
> --
> derek holzer ::: http://www.umatic.nl
> ---Oblique Strategy # 126:
> "Only one element of each kind"
>
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