Portable Digital Recorder Resources

Posted on November 17, 2008 by John CS Keston

After several weeks of research I have finally made a decision and purchased a Sony PCM-D50 digital recorder (without the fancy leather carrying case) to replace my mostly broken Sony PCM-M1 portable DAT.

During my research I came across some excellent resources that helped me make up my mind. I found some of the most thorough information on O’Reilly Digital Media. Their comparison chart was invaluable along with the extensive reviews of all the devices listed there. I consulted other in-depth reviews and another great comparison chart at Transom.org. I also read many of Brad Linder’s reviews including his review of the PCM-D50 and Create Digital Music pointed me to more reviews of just about everything I looked into.

This is by no means a complete list. I read lots of other articles and websites along the way, but these sites certainly helped the process along. I have yet to receive my new toy, but as soon as I do I’ll be posting some first impressions and sample recordings.

iPod Garbled Piano Recording

Posted on November 15, 2008 by John CS Keston

I finally made a dock connector for my third generation iPod that I’ve been making experimental recordings on with Linux and an AT822 stereo mic. Prior to making the dock connector I was only able to make mono recordings via the headphone jack. Since the dock connector only accepts a line level signal, I am pre-amping the AT822 with my ailing Sony PCM-M1 DAT recorder (it eats tapes, so it’s a useful retirement).

With this setup I am able to use the otherwise useless DAT recorder by connecting the stereo mic to the mic input, putting the device in record mode, adjusting the levels, and then taking the line out to the dock connector on the iPod as shown in the photograph. The recordings are relatively clean except for a tiny bit of high frequency interference that I haven’t tracked down yet.

The only other problem is that recording in stereo seems to tax the resources of the iPod. When I try to record at a sampling rate higher than 44.1kHz the audio is likely to suffer from a bizarre digital jitter effect. Here’s an example of a piano recording at 88kHz that I played and edited together to illustrate the jitter problem. I wouldn’t use this rate for anything I want to record well, but I kind of like the stuttering sound it creates as the iPod fails to process the audio quickly enough to store it accurately.

iPod Garbled Piano Recording

One Hundred Sounds in Eight Seconds

Posted on November 12, 2008 by John CS Keston

Last Friday, November 7th, to mark my one hundredth sound posted in the One Sound Every Day category, I sequenced forty two equally sized micro samples extracted from sounds I had posted here on AudioCookbook.org. Due to a trip scheduled out of the country, I ran out of time and did not compile all of the available ninety nine sounds into the piece. As promised in the original post, I have now managed to complete the chronologically sequenced compilation of micro samples into eight seconds of chaotic noise. I extended the one hundredth sample of Caribbean surf as an ending to the staccato sequence.

100 Micro Samples

The Sounds of Failing Hard Drives

Posted on November 12, 2008 by John CS Keston

Slashdot.org has an article about a site that is hosting the sounds of thirty five different hard drives failing. Although the recording quality is generally poor there are some really interesting sounds including a Maxtor drive with a stuck spindle producing a “futuristic cell phone melody”. You can read the article and checkout the sounds here, although it might be a bit busy due to the site being slashdotted.

Also, click the image to see a video of a remix of Nude by Radiohead made entirely out of sounds captured from old computer peripherals including a dot matrix printer, scanner, cassette drive, hard drives, and so on. The remix and video was created by Glasgow based artist James Houston.

One Hundred Consecutive Sounds

Posted on November 7, 2008 by John CS Keston

Today marks a total of one hundred sounds that I have posted consecutively in the One Sound Every Day category. To create todays sound I have simply started grabbing tiny, uniform chunks of audio from previous entries in the One Sound Every Day category. I sequenced them chronologically from oldest to newest, selecting what I thought might work in a micro sample opus. Sadly I ran out of time before I was able to sequence one hundred consectutive sounds, but I managed to make some good progress. As soon I return to the country I will continue this sequence and post a new version for you to listen to.