Journalist needs MD advice

[Guest Anonymous]

G'day all -- have checked exhaustively in order not to post a duplicate question and have found bits of answers but not everything I need, so here goes...

My husband works 98 percent of the time from home, recording telephone interviews on a balky full-size cassette recorder. The other 2 percent of the time he's on assignment, interviewing people in person. No need for a mike, since he's a magazine writer and doesn't have to worry about sound quality, just covering his ass, legally speaking.

He used MD recorders in 2000 when he was working for a high-flying dot.com that bought them for all the reporters and he raved about them then, but when the bubble burst and he came home to work, we couldn't afford to duplicate the setup. Now that prices are more reasonable, I want to get him an MD recorder for Xmas.

Why not a digital voice recorder? Because he's a bit of a Luddite, and I think he really values the hard copy. He also has no need to upload files to computer; if an editor ever wants a hard copy of an interview (usually transcripts are fine) he can always copy the damn thing to cassette.

Things he needs:

-- He has wide stubby fingers and a review I saw of the Sony MZ B10 from a journalist complained that the buttons were too small to manipulate. So mission one is to find a MD recorder with decent-size buttons.

-- Variable pitch control and an easy-to-manipulate control of it, so he can slow/speed up easily, without slogging through menus.

-- Relatively heavy-duty case. He's, um, hard on things. I'm not looking for the lightest unit here, by any stretch of the imagination.

-- Decent-size screen, minimum of menus.

-- Something that says "recording" so he knows it's working.

-- A unit that starts recording where you left off, rather than forcing you to find where you left off before you push record. God forbid he tapes over someone....you don't get those people back...

-- Line in to enable hookup to phone line. That's universal, isn't it?

-- (This would be nice but not crucial) Ability to attach foot pedal.

In short, he needs a fairly featureless but tough box. Sound quality isn't as important as ensuring the thing is working at optimum record level.

Are there bells going off for anyone? I've tried to slog through reviews for weeks, but I'm just getting more confused....So much of the emphasis is on recording quality for music, and all the upload controversy that just doesn't concern me, and I get bogged down....

TIA,

Kren

[KJ_Palmer]

There aren't that many units that take a footswitch, only the Sony 'B' series, unless I'm mistaken. The only other current model in that range is the Sony MZ-B100, which is slightly larger, so may have bigger buttons. It's got a remote so that might help. I could check later, I have both models (but no stubby fingers ).

[Guest Anonymous]

Yes, the B100 looked like a plausible option. I'll check it out further. Appreciate it!

kren

[Guest Anonymous]

I will be doing interviews as well. These, however, will be loaded on the web, so quality is important. While in college radio, we had these great old Tascam tape decks that were built strong, with mic jacks and levels and buttons. Easy to use. They has had phone jacks built into them.

I will be doing both in-person and over the phone interviews. Does anyone have any suggestions for the kind of mini-disc players that journalists use? I'll use it both on phone and in person. And we're going to load them on the internet.

Thanks in advance.

André