[NYCFarmboy]

What is the best Digital portable audio recorder I can buy that is small and Mac compatible?

I need something to be able to digitially record a pipe organ, that is very small and rugged.

any suggestions?

I need something small, USB compatible/that will fit in a shirt pocket.

[Super Glitcher]

Well, I use a sony minidisc recorder. It is very versitile and sound quality is great, I use a little condenser mic I got from Radio Shack ($30). I do a lot of spot sampling for music and it has been great.
Mine cost $350, but you can get decent models for around $200 I think. It beats $700 for a portable DAT that's for sure

[k_munic]

Originally posted by Super Glitcher:
Well, I use a sony minidisc recorder. It is very versitile and sound quality is great, I use a little condenser mic I got from Radio Shack ($30). I do a lot of spot sampling for music and it has been great.
Mine cost $350, but you can get decent models for around $200 I think. It beats $700 for a portable DAT that's for sure

... and you need an optical<>usb adapter to connect the minidisk rec to your computer system, to stay "digital" in the recording process....

another clue:
the better the microphon, the better the recordings! most minidisk recorders have such good electronics, only the mic makes the difference!

btw:
you want to bootleg organ pipes?

[Super Glitcher]

yeah, what's up with the organ pipes?

[tr]

hey, maybe the guy's into organ pipes? or maybe he's sampling them?

i second (or third) the MD. i, too, use my MD to record stuff in the field. i have a small stereo condenser that i plug into the recorder; works great.

tr

[NYCFarmboy]

Originally posted by tr:
hey, maybe the guy's into organ pipes? or maybe he's sampling them?

i second (or third) the MD. i, too, use my MD to record stuff in the field. i have a small stereo condenser that i plug into the recorder; works great.

tr

LOL..no I'm actually buying a pipe organ and I want to record it before it gets taken apart.

There are like 1,000 individual pipes (and its a very small church organ), but I need a record of each one.

Its going to be a major undertaking so its important that I have a recording of each pipe for when I re-assemble the pipe organ at some point.

[Super Glitcher]

Then it's settled, go get your MiniDisc recorder and a rockin' condeser mic. Save yourself some dough, buy a mono mic- you don't need a stereo mic for that application.

[NYCFarmboy]

Originally posted by Super Glitcher:
Then it's settled, go get your MiniDisc recorder and a rockin' condeser mic. Save yourself some dough, buy a mono mic- you don't need a stereo mic for that application.

Thanks!

Any specific model of micophone I should get?

I'll probably pick one up at Radio Shack.. just any condensor mic that fits into the MD recorder?

Thanks!

[NYCFarmboy]

Originally posted by k_munic:
... and you need an optical<>usb adapter to connect the minidisk rec to your computer system, to stay "digital" in the recording process....

another clue:
the better the microphon, the better the recordings! most minidisk recorders have such good electronics, only the mic makes the difference!

btw:
you want to bootleg organ pipes?

What brand of Optical<>usb adapter do I need to get? I have the MD recorder ordered, but reading about it, it says it is only PC compatible.

But is USB. Do I need to find a minidisk USB reader of some sort? do they make such a thing?

[buddhabelly]

Originally posted by NYCFarmboy:
What brand of Optical<>usb adapter do I need to get? I have the MD recorder ordered, but reading about it, it says it is only PC compatible.

But is USB. Do I need to find a minidisk USB reader of some sort? do they make such a thing?

No they don't. There is currently no way to transfer minidisc directly to the mac, keeping it digital, unless your minidisc recorder has a digital output. Usually, only the minidisc decks do. I haven't found a portable with an optical out yet. (but I haven't looked very hard)

And as far as I've read, the usb transfer is one way only, ie from the pc to the mac. Lots more info can be found at www.minidisc.org

[k_munic]

Originally posted by NYCFarmboy:
What brand of Optical<>usb adapter do I need to get? I have the MD recorder ordered, but reading about it, it says it is only PC compatible.

But is USB. Do I need to find a minidisk USB reader of some sort? do they make such a thing?

hmmm...- i just have seen one, but i'm living in germany - i'm sure, over there, in the great white empire, you have lots of them

no, no, PC compatible is nonsense! optical out is just another output, a digital output to be precise 8every MD rec has an analog output, the good ones have an optical out, that's all.

what you should do is:
has the MD recorder an optical out?
No > don't buy it...
Yes > buy ANY optical<>usb connector.
get some recording software, e.g. SPARK (versiontracker), it's free!

btw: you have marvelous Apple store in NYNY! ask the boys&girls at the genius bar, probably, they can sell you an adapter!

now, the boring part:
connect all together, your sound app should show your MD as an input. press play at your MD and Rec in you app, watch the "music" flow into your Mac.
then, you have to edit your recordings.
do this a thousands times...

------
you de-construct a church organ? and for re-constructing you need the original sound of every pipe?? WOW! interesting hobby for a "newyorkfarmboy"

good luck for your project!

[NYCFarmboy]

you de-construct a church organ? and for re-constructing you need the original sound of every pipe?? WOW! interesting hobby for a "newyorkfarmboy"

good luck for your project! [/B]

Hi there... well yes.. a pipe organ is a mechanical beast. For every note played on the organ, there is an individual pipe.

I would like to record every pipe just to have a record of it down the road to have a comparison when voicing the pipe when everything gets reconnected.

This whole process of reinstalling the organ will take years and it will be nice down the road to have a record of what the organ sounded like in the church versus installed in my home.

This is a hobby, not a profession. Sadly pipe organs need to be rebuilt completely every 50 years or so to replace the leather parts of the pipe that form the actual voice. It is a very time consuming process. The estimate to rebuild the organ I'm working on was over 100,000 dollars. So the church decided to replace it with an electronic organ for around 20k.

In many cases when chuchs go electronic the old pipe organs simply get hauled off to the landfill. The costs are just too high to have professionally rebuilt so the organs end up in the trash, or in storage forever.

Its just too bad Apple doesn't make an iPod that records!!!!! This is becoming quite an ordeal just to record and get it onto a mac!

Were there only to be something that would record in WAV format and be recognized on my Mac as an external drive to copy all the files over easily to be popped into iTunes!

*sigh*

[booboo]

Originally posted by NYCFarmboy:
Thanks!

Any specific model of micophone I should get?

I'll probably pick one up at Radio Shack.. just any condensor mic that fits into the MD recorder?

Thanks!

You really should buy a decent microphone. There's no point buying a high quality digital recorder that faithfully reproduces all the shortcomings of your (cheap Radio Shack) microphone.

I might be biased, but I think any microphone with a mini-jack connector sold specifically for plugging into a MiniDisk recorder is likely not very good.

Having said that, Radio Shack (Tandy) used to sell a PZM microphone years ago that was very good for under $50 (£30)

A more conventional inexpensive ($140/£99) mic would be the AKG C1000S which, like the PZM is battery powered, so you won't have the hassle of setting up phantom power . . .