iriver e10 (help my recordings!)

[oreca]

Hello to everyone! This is my first post here, I believe I'm posting my thread in the right forum, hopefully it gets enough views to generate some good ideas/recommendations . First off, I must say that I don't have a MD, tho I have found that the collection of information and people here to be of great esteem, making it the ideal place to post even if I don't exactly belong...

I have purchased an iriver e10 almost a year ago when it came out in South Korea, got it delivered to my home in Canada and I've been very happy with it since. I've always enjoyed its portability and built-in mic for live music taping, yet I was always disappointed with the results even if I'm glad I was at least able to immortalize the moment in digital form.

The main drawback is the fact that there's no line-in and the built-in mic gets saturated very easily in louder environments, which is of course to be expected; a 'voice recorder' isn't a 'loud rock concert recorder', hehe. Another drawback is the lossy mp3 format which it records in, the highest quality setting records at 128Kbps.

Now, the fun part:

I want to drastically improve the quality of my recordings. I have a few main uses, which I believe is important to take in consideration with picking a mic. I tend to record live music in bars, which I would say can get pretty loud, maybe not as loud as a full-blown rock concert, but keep in mind that I will be recording those too. It's just that they don't come by as often here. The other use, is audio recording for movies. My friends and I do little movies for fun, and I find that the audio recorded with the video camera isn't all that great... Especially if it's a scene from far, it's nice to have a 2nd audio source... I have used the e10 in the past and got great results by sticking it to the end of a broomstick to use it as a boomstick

I also do amateur recordings of myself playing music at home.

One night I got thinking and figured out a little genius trick I could use to make decent recordings. The e10 can record FM radio, so my idea was to get a mic, plug it to an FM transmitter, catch that feed on the e10 and record it. One aspect of this that I liked, was the possibility of actually hearing what I record through the headphones as I'm recording. You can listen to the radio while recording the radio. Also, the quality of FM recording is 256Kbps, still not lossless, but better than 128.

For the mic, I was debating with myself over 2 choices, tho I'm quite open to suggestion since I'm not really an expert by any means. There's the Greenmachine Audio GM Pro, and the VisiVox Hammerhead. The GM Pro is a lot more expensive, but I really like the stealth factor. Ideally, I would purchase both but I must limit my choice to only one mic.

From what I understand, I will need a preamp/batt box and a decent FM transmitter. This is where I'm absolutely clueless. In the long run, I'm thinking about the headphone volume control as an attenuator, but if I've read correctly, you don't need one with the batt box since the diaphragm gets more voltage and lets you record at a higher dB. The fun part is if I get one, I could play with it and hear what it does to my sound by just putting the headphones on.

Now, to finish this very long first post... I'm basically wondering what kind of mic, FM transmitter, batt box I should be getting to make this work. I'm hoping you guys can put me on the right track... I'll be eventually posting a similar post on some iriver forums, but no offence to them, I've found this forum much more informative when it comes to recording technique/technology.

Thanks in advance for any replies

P.S. for the fun of it, I have included a sample of unedited audio captured in a bar.

Edit: Woah, come to think of it, looking on eBay, I should probably just invest in a Hi-MD to record...

e10sample.mp3

Edited March 15, 2007 by oreca

[bobt]

Hi There,

For what it would cost to get you mediocre recordings at best, I think your best bet is an NH-800 for budget, or an RH-1 for the best. All things considered, the price of an RH-1 isn't outrageous for what you can do with it. Search the archives here for mic recommendations etc.

Good luck,

Bob

[oreca]

Hey bobt,

Now that I've thought about it, it would be quite unreasonable for me to go out and buy an FM transmitor worth as much as an Hi-MD when the outcome would be a lossy recording, tho I still think my idea wasn't bad!

In any case, the RH1 looks to be quite the unit, I wish I could afford it. Instead I'm looking at either the NH800 which you've said, and the NH900.

I think overall I'd prefer the NH900, it not only looks better, but it seems to have a better build.

Now I just need to find one used! On eBay there isn't even one at the moment and the only NH800 auction is ending soon. There isn't even either one for sale on the Classifieds here... I think I'm gonna have a hard time finding one :\

Edit: I called my local Sony Store and I thought I had found a good deal at 134$ for the DH710, but then I realized it doesn't record :\

Edited March 16, 2007 by oreca

[7854SUKI]

Hello to everyone! This is my first post here, I believe I'm posting my thread in the right forum, hopefully it gets enough views to generate some good ideas/recommendations . First off, I must say that I don't have a MD, tho I have found that the collection of information and people here to be of great esteem, making it the ideal place to post even if I don't exactly belong...

I have purchased an iriver e10 almost a year ago when it came out in South Korea, got it delivered to my home in Canada and I've been very happy with it since. I've always enjoyed its portability and built-in mic for live music taping, yet I was always disappointed with the results even if I'm glad I was at least able to immortalize the moment in digital form.

The main drawback is the fact that there's no line-in and the built-in mic gets saturated very easily in louder environments, which is of course to be expected; a 'voice recorder' isn't a 'loud rock concert recorder', hehe. Another drawback is the lossy mp3 format which it records in, the highest quality setting records at 128Kbps.

Now, the fun part:

I want to drastically improve the quality of my recordings. I have a few main uses, which I believe is important to take in consideration with picking a mic. I tend to record live music in bars, which I would say can get pretty loud, maybe not as loud as a full-blown rock concert, but keep in mind that I will be recording those too. It's just that they don't come by as often here. The other use, is audio recording for movies. My friends and I do little movies for fun, and I find that the audio recorded with the video camera isn't all that great... Especially if it's a scene from far, it's nice to have a 2nd audio source... I have used the e10 in the past and got great results by sticking it to the end of a broomstick to use it as a boomstick

I also do amateur recordings of myself playing music at home.

One night I got thinking and figured out a little genius trick I could use to make decent recordings. The e10 can record FM radio, so my idea was to get a mic, plug it to an FM transmitter, catch that feed on the e10 and record it. One aspect of this that I liked, was the possibility of actually hearing what I record through the headphones as I'm recording. You can listen to the radio while recording the radio. Also, the quality of FM recording is 256Kbps, still not lossless, but better than 128.

For the mic, I was debating with myself over 2 choices, tho I'm quite open to suggestion since I'm not really an expert by any means. There's the Greenmachine Audio GM Pro, and the VisiVox Hammerhead. The GM Pro is a lot more expensive, but I really like the stealth factor. Ideally, I would purchase both but I must limit my choice to only one mic.

From what I understand, I will need a preamp/batt box and a decent FM transmitter. This is where I'm absolutely clueless. In the long run, I'm thinking about the headphone volume control as an attenuator, but if I've read correctly, you don't need one with the batt box since the diaphragm gets more voltage and lets you record at a higher dB. The fun part is if I get one, I could play with it and hear what it does to my sound by just putting the headphones on.

Now, to finish this very long first post... I'm basically wondering what kind of mic, FM transmitter, batt box I should be getting to make this work. I'm hoping you guys can put me on the right track... I'll be eventually posting a similar post on some iriver forums, but no offence to them, I've found this forum much more informative when it comes to recording technique/technology.

Thanks in advance for any replies

P.S. for the fun of it, I have included a sample of unedited audio captured in a bar.

Edit: Woah, come to think of it, looking on eBay, I should probably just invest in a Hi-MD to record...

I'm really sorry that I had to ask this because I cant help you with your problem

I 've been looking everywhere in Canada for the iriver e10, and I was wondering which site did you order the iriver e10 ?