Calling journalists, PAs, etc: hand-held digital voice recorders...

[bakedpotato]

Any recommendations?
What sort of capacity do they have?

cough

I'd like to know too

Anyone able to help us?

I have an Olympus digital recorder (I'm a market researcher).

It's fantastic. I get my tapes transcribed and all the transcribers say how good the sound quality is.

Don't know about the capacity but safe to say it's hours - I think about 14? - it depends what quality you record on.

Does this help or do you need to know more? I can find model number for you later when I can be arsed to go upstairs to my office if you need that!

When I say tapes, clearly I'm speaking nonsense! I meant, when I get my sound files transcribed ...

Oh, thank goodness you have popped in.
How do you send the sound files elsewhere (I"m asking bcs I'll have to keep them for an indefinite period -- I'm a journalist)?
How much did yours cost?
How reliable is it? Has it EVER let you down and how long have you had it, how much do you use it?

It has never let me down [crossed fingers emoticon] - any problems have been down to me and lack of coping with new technology!

Don't know about cost because PA sourced it - but I can find out if you want? For us, the cost was also linked in with transcribing machines.

We send files through yousendit.com - a free service. There is a limit in terms of size of file, but for sound files it's fine.

It comes with software that means you download the files onto your computer, so you can keep them there as long as you want, and then you can delete them from the machine.

HTH

By pure coincidence I got an e-mail from another researcher this morning about some more kit. This will allow you to record/use sounds files as mp3 files which apparently the Olympus doesn't do - it uses wma files. (This hasn't been a problem for me, but what do I know!)

If you're interested, here is what he said:

"Hi there y'all - thought you might be interested in this offer on the Zoom audio recorder. I should hasten to add that I haven't personally tried this piece of kit but it ticks all the boxes: it runs on AA batteries, it has built in microphones but allows you to plug external mikes in. It uses SD memory cards so you can expand it. And it records in mp3 format - wma is proving to be a bit of a limitation for the Olympus machines. Actually it records at much higher resolutions than mp3 - it actually records at higher resolutions than CD audio if you really want to - it is designed for muscians to do field recordings. Best of all is the price - at £185 + VAT - you'll need to add a decent sized SD expansion card which will cost you another £20-30 but really its a bargain. I paid £300 for the equivalent Edirol product.

cpc.farnell.com/jsp/endecaSearch/partDetail.jsp?SKU=DP2936447

for much more detailed tech specs and a higher price!
www.solidstatesound.co.uk/zoomh4.htm"

HTH

Hi there,
I use an Olympus DM-02. It's very good, capacious storage capacity, small/discrete, battery lasts ages and good sound quality (although improving sound quality has much to do with what type of microphone you use for what kind of situation). They are not cheap however!
Not sure what you want it for, though becasue if you are looking at real sound quality then you are probably better off with a mini-disk type system, simply becasue they sample more info....
Hope this helps