Any good MP3 portable recorders?

[chumbo]

Hi,
I'm looking for a portable mp3 recorder which has adjustable recording levels. Anybody know of one? I would like one to replace my broken minidisc recorder which was very useful to record rehearsals, quick ideas, gigs etc...
Cheers,
Chumbo

 

[Prizmaxic]

I own an Archos JukeBox Recorder http://www.archos.com/lang=en//products/prw_500277.html

about 200 bucks, records mp3's with built in mic or line in. I love mine.

 

[chumbo]

Thanks for your reply but my question was quite specific. I'm looking for an MP3 recorder which allows me to adjust recording levels either before or while recording. The Archos doesn't do that.
Cheers,
Chumbo

 

[c3hammer]

The Archos Jukebox Recorder's have rec. level meters on screen when in record mode. Not particularly accurate for determining if you are getting clipping, but they give you the idea of where you are at. Hint: record with them way, way lower than what looks visually correct.

There is a better version of the software available from http://rockbox.haxx.se

It has a nicer interface and a little more adjustabilty of rec. level for recording.

With all that being said. The internal mic is worthless on the Archos Recorders. You need a preamplified mic going into line-in. I have had spectacular results with one from http://www.soundprofessionals.com

Here's a high quality sample of some recordings I did at a bluegrass jam and at an outside barbeque. The second was with the unit and the mics stashed inside my hoody pocket. LOL!

(@ 176 kbps ave. VBR - 1.3 megs)

(down sampled to 56 kbps - 300k)

 

[chumbo]

Hey c3hammer! thanks m8, that's the answer I was looking for. Well guess what, I have a Soundprofessionals mic as well, hehe
It's true they are excellent and man! your recording definitely proves that!
The Archos unfortunately is not the most stealthy of the mp3 recorders around and I'm not sure how easy the recording can be done with whipping out the 'huge' machine and scrolling thru tons of menus to start the recording and checking the levels. I think for the time being, until mp3 players really catch on to developing some serious recording features I'll stick with getting a new Minidisc. The Aiwas are very cool in that respect, you can start and pause recording from the remote! Level adjustment is accessed directly on the main unit thru two buttons so it's pretty easy to control that too. Thanks a lot anyway for your reply and if you do hear of a smaller player with more recording features please email me!
cheers,
Chumbo
smiley2002@skynet.be

 

[jake-owa]

Wow c3hammer, great sample. That is an mp3 recorder? Nice music man.

 

[c3hammer]

Chumbo: I thought you were talking about recording rehearsals? If you are talking about poaching concerts, you simply start the recording before you get there. It will record about 8 hours at full quality before the batteries die.

jake-owa: That is direct from the mp3 recorder. This is the only way I know of to cost effectively drag and drop my recordings in Windows Explorer. You simply plug in the USB 2.0 and drop the file to a directory in seconds.

The first clip was in a pizza joint, with over 20 musicians and about 50 people eating. I recorded the whole jam of about 3 1/2 hours. I cut it all up into individual songs, ran a little compression on some of them in Cooledit and burned couple of CD sets for people in about 2 hours. You just can't do anything of the kind with any of the other types of recorders.

Cheers,
Pete