Olympus LS-11

Visually similar to the currently popular LS-10 but with more in-built memory and longer claimed battery life.

More information from Olympus here.

Zoom Q3

This new Zoom shares build with the H4 series but adds a camera.

Zoom Q3, in a colour that looks like something Dr Manhattan would come up with

Not sure if that is a good idea or not.

Zoom says, “The Q3 uses the same microphone capsules as our industry-leading H4n Handy Recorder and is perfect for recording anything where great audio and video are a must. From live musical performances and rehearsals, interviews, conferences to video podcasts, journalism, education, recitals, weddings or sports, the Q3′s pristine audio quality takes your videos to another level. Designed with everything you need to make your movies right out of the box, the Q3 includes HandyShare software for editing, and a 2GB SD card for up to 1 hour of video recording time. And the Q3 will also accept up to 32GB SDHC cards for a staggering 16 hours of moviemaking”

Details from Zoom here.

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Sony PCM M-10

This looks like the best of the bunch to me. A smaller model than the D-50 and much cheaper than the D-1. This model adds the ability to record to MP3 on the device, apparantly not available on the D-1 or D-50 (never used one).

An article on Sound on Sound here.

Nothing on the Sony pro site with information on this.

Sound on Sound say, “It’s capable of recording 24-bit audio at sample rates up to 96kHz, and it can also record straight to MP3, a feature not found on Sony’s more expensive portable recorders. (The D1 and D50 come with computer software that lets you convert the recorded PCM audio into a variety of formats, including MP3.)

Other features of the M10 include on-board DSP processors that can alter the pitch and speed of audio during playback, so you can slow down a recorded guitar solo to learn how to play it, for example, and there’s a limiter that can be engaged to prevent the input signal from distorting.

Clever recording functions include a five-second buffer, and there’s the option to install a removable flash memory card, which can be used for computer-less backup and for extending the total recording time of the device (a cross-memory feature spreads a long recording over both the on-board memory and the flash card). Computer connection is via USB and it’s powered by conventional AA batteries.”

I use a Zoom H2 a lot and have been considering the PMD620 as a replacement as it has similar features (AA batteries and small being my main requirements) but this video highlights some show stoppers for me – unable to adjust recording volume during recording and similar handling noise for twice the cost.

I’ll stick with the H2 for now as my most portable unit and look at some of the newer units from Tascam.

I won’t dwell on the technical differences as these are quite easy to google but briefly, both are single point stereo microphones with capsules in X-Y configuration.

Power

Both mics are battery powered (NT4 9V or phantom, AT822 1.5V) so work well with things like minidisc and a zoom H2. This means that the NT4 works well with almost everything but the AT822 is better with plug-in power type devices.

Weight

The NT4 weighs about double (I would guess but have not weighed them on scales) that of the AT822. This could important for when you end up standing like a statue to capture a sound you weren’t expecting.

Costs

The NT4 also costs about double what an AT822 does. My at822 was £120 via ebay and the NT4 was £240 via competitive high street store.

Sounds

The AT822 I would say is better at soundscapes (wide sounds with lots of variety/range), in that it picks up and handles off axis sound better than the NT4, but then the NT4 is more accurate and directional. The NT4 also picks up sound from behind the MIC array – something that I don’t think the AT822 does. One important difference for the casual user is the AT822 is better at handling windnoise and comes with a lowcut/filter. The better performance in a slight breeze is I think, down to the fact that the mic capsules are have a protection screen build around them and that the mic capsules themselves (I think) are smaller. The NT4 will distort in a very slight breeze, whereas the AT822 handles well with the low pass filter (has proved itself at the top of a hill in moderate winds).

I still have the supplied Fedora based Linux distribution running managed to use the yum installer entirely (apart from the swh plug ins which seem to be available via tarball only).

Steps to get there are numerous but the key was to install the lib-fftw development libraries before trying to build the swh plug ins.

So now I get gverb in Audacity on the train without lugging a 3kg laptop.

Steps were something like

• Remove default acer desktop (Googlable)
• Enable right click menu (Googlable)
• Install Audacity via yum installer (sudo yum install Audacity)
• Install lib-ffwtw-devel package via yum (yum install etc…)
• Download swh plug ins
• Compile and install swh plugs ins and away (./configure; make; make test; make install)

I like my H2 over my Fostex recorder because of portability which the Pocketrak has but will a AAA battery last a day of erratic recording?

I won’t dwell on the technical differences as these are quite easy to google but briefly, both are single point stereo microphones with capsules in X-Y configuration.

Power: Both mics are battery powered (NT4 9V or phantom, AT822 1.5V) so work well with things like minidisc and a zoom H2. This means that the NT4 works well with almost everything but the AT822 is better with plug-in power type devices.

Weight: The NT4 weighs about double (I would guess but have not weighed them on scales) that of the AT822. This could important for when you end up standing like a statue to capture a sound you weren’t expecting.

Costs: The NT4 also costs about double what an AT822 does. My at822 was £120 via ebay and the NT4 was £240 via competetive high street store.

Sounds: The AT822 I would say is better at soundscapes (wide sounds with lots of variety/range), in that it picks up and handles off axis sound better than the NT4, but then the NT4 is more accurate and directional. The NT4 also picks up sound from behind the MIC array – something that I don’t think the AT822 does. One important difference for the casual user is the AT822 is better at handling windnoise and comes with a lowcut/filter. The NT4 will distort in a very low draft, whereas the AT822 handles well with the low pass filter.