Quick response required!

[zxon]

I've been recording lectures with my MZ-RH10 and they sound really good but extremely quiet (The loudest I've ever had from a recording is less than half way) and unfortunately, I'm resorting to using a pair of headphones to record the lectures (Don't shoot me just yet...)

Anyway I've been looking around for a suitable microphone and I think I've found it.

http://tinyurl.com/dvmaz

I've seen this microphone on SonyStyle's website for $100 (Approx £60-70 ish) and to get it for under £15 sounds too good to be true. I have no idea about the recording limitations of the RH10 or anything - I've no idea if this would make my MD player go kap00t - so if anyone can advise (especially anyone who's got one!) then please do.

From time of posting this, I believe there's 14 hours left in the auction so I need to get your opinions ASAP.

Click the link to see more details about the auction.

Thanks in advance!

[greenmachine]

It's not great, but at least 2000% better than headphones.

Main limitations: relatively high self noise, fixed distance between the elements, weak bass response - but for speech propably more than good enough.

[zxon]

Main limitations: relatively high self noise, fixed distance between the elements, weak bass response - but for speech propably more than good enough.

How dya mean "high self noise"? Does it add a loud hiss to the recording like?

Also is it more likely to record louder (without making any hissing louder or anything)?

Edited October 14, 2005 by zxon

[A440]

It's perfectly compatible with minidisc. For recording lectures, if you can get it for that low price, it should be ideal. It will record MUCH louder than your headphones.

Like most small mics, it will add a small degree of hiss to your recording--not enough to worry about. It's not great for music because it doesn't have much bass response and won't give you much stereo separation.

But for voice, it's fine. Even better if you get a little extension cord to separate it from the MD unit so you're not recording the whir of the MD motor.

[zxon]

UPDATE: I've placed a bid on the item. It ends in 5 hours time and hopefully it'll be mine. Pity the delivery will take anything up to two weeks mind, but it's worth it since I'll be saving <> £50.

Also, since this microphone will record louder, it may be an idea to start recording the lectures in HiLP instead of HiSP. I've had to use HiSP (to be on the safe side) to record the lectures because the recording is so quiet. It's difficult enough to listen to it on playback without having to worry about it's quality.

It had better come sharpish - each lecture recording takes <> 100Mb! I won't have any HD space left at this rate!

[greenmachine]

>100 GB Hard Disks are rather inexpensive nowadays. Your ears decide if HiLP will do suffice, but for speech it propably will.

[soundalike]

Do you convert the files to MP3? If not it's porbably worth it as you will save on HD space and the loss of quality will not matter if it's just speech.

[A440]

You don't have to leave the lectures on your hard drive, either. Use HiMDRenderer (from Downloads) to convert them to mp3 (use a high bitrate, above 192, for best fidelity) and burn them onto CDs.

[greenmachine]

Why bother with lossy transcoding other than for compatibility reasons if you can have Atrac3(+) files without DRM?

[zxon]

Actually it was brought to my attention before that I could burn them all onto DVD-Rs. I'd easily be able to fit 0.5 - 1 year's worth of lectures onto one of them if I converted them to summit like 256Kbps MP3 (or even HiLP).

Or I could convert them all to HiLP and keep them all on a 1Gb MD or two

Also, update on the auction front. I lost on that first auction, and on a 2nd one that I tried a little later. However, third time lucky, I tried today and won. Got the item for £20.49 (including delivery) which isn't bad. A good £40 saving IYAM, at least.

I should expect it in about 10 days time though. Damn chinese delivery!

Edited October 16, 2005 by zxon

[A440]

Why bother with lossy transcoding other than for compatibility reasons if you can have Atrac3(+) files without DRM?

For compatibility reasons. He might want to play back those lectures on a computer or CD player without SonicStage or ATRAC.

Might as well record them initially in Hi-LP--it would be good enough for a voice recording.

[zxon]

Well, I received it this morning and recorded my first lecture. It's soooo much better than before. I can see what greenmachine meant about the high self noise when using this mic. I could hear the whirring of the MD player motor very clearly for the first 10-15 seconds of the recording, but then the motor slowed down and I couldn't hear it anymore (either because it stopped completely, which is unlikely, or it became so quiet that it couldn't be distinguished from normal background noise).

I thought I'd take it upon myself to quickly show the difference. Attached are two recordings of the same 20 second part of a song (Sorry, its Oasis - Turn Up The Sun) * I recorded them by holding the two "recording devices" one metre away from the speakers of my hifi one at a time. As you can tell, you can clearly see a difference. Understandably the microphone doesn't have much bass response, but it's still pretty damn good.

This is extremely useful for anyone who (1) wishes to purchase this product, (2) thinks that "a pair of headphones will do", (3) likes Oasis.

*Copyrighters: no entire copies of songs have been given out or submitted to this board in any way, only the attached two samples. if there are any copyright enfringements i'll gladly remove the attached files.

Oasis_Recorded_with_headphones.mp3

Oasis_Recorded_with_microphone.mp3

Edited October 26, 2005 by zxon