Prototype Small Digital Audio Recorder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z0WRUu0qpQ

This is a prototype small digital audio recorder from Robert from JuicedLink. It is designed to either replace the H1 or wireless setups. He is currently looking for feedback. Below is my feedback.

This looks promising at $50 or so. Otherwise, I already have the H1, H4n, Tascam 40, and 4 wireless sets. Plus, I’m looking to get the H6n with the 2 channel module. But at $50 or so, I would buy a few of them. Two of my wireless sets are not that great. But once it get’s closer to the H1’s price, it doesn’t make sense. If it’s $100, I’ll just get the H1 because it has a built in mic. The H1 is small enough to hide in a suit jacket inside pocket. The H1 is also small enough to fit in many people’s pant pockets, on their lap during an interview, or on the seat next to them in an interview.

I love the bracketing. All recorders should have that built in.

I couldn’t tell from the video how to set the recording level. I am guessing there would be two modes. Manual and auto. Hopefully.

Also, I couldn’t tell how you could play back the audio to review a recording. If we can’t monitor during the recording, I want to be able to quickly check parts of the audio file to make sure it was ok before moving on. It would be could to quickly play through the whole file to hear if there was clothes noise, missing audio, static, etc. Plus, regular play mode as well.

Maybe he can create an XLR adapter. That way in a “man on the street” style interview with a reporter, you could plug in a handheld mic then clip this to the reporter. In a pinch, I have seen the H1 used in this way and it looks odd. Or the H1 could be shaped more like a microphone.

Basically, this is a poor man’s wireless set up. To have wireless monitoring from a smart phone, I think is too much to expect. If you want wireless monitoring, you might just want to use an actual wireless lav.

Or he can make that the premium version that has the smart phone monitoring.

In the poor man’s wireless set up, like using an H1, reviewing audio after is important.

Also, he should have some 1/4-20 mounting points and possibly a hot shoe mount. But with 1/4-20 we could just add a hot shoe mount. A belt is one place to put this. We might want to mount it in all kinds of different places since it is so small.

He should make the holes that hold the current belt clip, 1/4-20 size also. This should be in addition to another 1/4-20 hole somewhere else.

He should sell those 1/4-20 mountable belt clips. I would buy those for $1-$5 each. Then I could put that on my H4n, H1, and Tascam 40.

I have a Panasonic LX7 as my camera in my backpack at all times. It does not have any mic inputs. It shoots decent video but for audio I keep an Olympus VN-8100PC with a cheap Azden lav mic. It works in a pinch. BTW, I would not recommend this recorder. I bought it to see if it could do this type of thing.

Also, maybe he could add a crappy little microphone on there. Sort of like the ones they have on a camera. Sometimes, in a pinch, you just need to hear something. On his blog, he gave an example of mounting this to a skier’s boots to get that sound.

If it had a little microphone on there, that might be good enough to capture that type of sound.

You can also read about it here: http://www.juicedlink.com/blogs/news/13161873-new-for-nab-little-darling-distributed-audio-recorder?ref=cheesycam.com