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The olympus dm-1 looks interesting. http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/olympusdm1/ >>> [log in to unmask] 04/22/02 06:54PM >>> Gerry, Great! Glad this worked out well for you. I thought about using the Archos but I was a little worried about how reliable and durable it would be. At the moment I'm using minidisc and waiting (and waiting...) for the Orban/Dialog4 Sountainer Solid State MP3 recorder but who knows when it will arrive. At some point I will also mount a web page with comparison samples from cassette tape, minidisc, and the Sountainer (if I ever get hold of one). Alan PS Another harddrive-based recording device is the Creative Labs Nomad. Also needs a preamp. You can see a review here: http://www.proaudioreview.com/par/april01/CREATIVE-LABS-Nomad-Jukebox-web.sh tml And samples here: http://kuren.org/jukebox/ A new version was just released. See a review here: http://www6.tomshardware.com/mobile/02q2/020419/index.html ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mitchell-Smith,GM" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Monday, April 22, 2002 6:33 PM Subject: Recording interviews with an MP3 Player - Update After touching off a discussion a few months ago re: using MP3 players to record interviews, thought i would give feedback on my experience: To recap, this is my inventory : 1. Archos 6GB MP3 recorder £220. (couldn't wait any longer for the 20GB version to come out) 2. Radio Shack 'Amplified Listener'. just under £20. 3. Express Scribe 2.04 transcription sotware. Free 4. Pedals , fitted to gaming steering wheel. Bought ages ago for about £50. The 'Amplified Listener' is plugged into the MP3 recorder and used as a microphone. The sound quality of the recording is excellent. Have put extracts of an MP3 and a dictaphone recording for comparison on my webpage: http://www.mitchell-smith.net/mp3/ <http://www.mitchell-smith.net/mp3/> We heeded Alan Stockdale's advice and noted you can't plug a normal microphone into the MP3 player because the signal from the microphone is not strong enough. However, the 'Amplified Listener' is like a pre-amp and boost s its signal. Other people on the discussion list Alan suggested were also looking to do the same thing and some of them were using this combination to record interviews etc <http://forums.funmp3players.com/forum/forum.asp?forum_id=8&forum_title=Gene r> http://forums.funmp3players.com/forum/forum.asp?forum_id=8&forum_title=Gener <http://forums.funmp3players.com/forum/forum.asp?forum_id=8&forum_title=Gene ral+%2D+Jukebox+Player%2FRecorder> al+%2D+Jukebox+Player%2FRecorder The 'Express Scribe' software works a treat, with or without the pedals. The pedals would work a treat if our IT department could get their act together. At the end of each day, I transfer the interviews onto the computer, which take a couple of minutes. Once I have enough interviews, I archive them onto CD-ROM. There were a few gripes : 1. The recording function on the MP3 player was designed in hell !! Completely unintuitive and very dangerous. It doesn't warn you when you're going to overwrite a file! You have to practise the procedure to start recording very carefully before going on the road with this one. 2. There is no indicator on the Amplified listener to tell you if the batteries are failing. However, the volume indicator on the MP3 recorder can pick this up. 3. The build quality of the MP3 recorder doesn't seem that fantastic. Nothing has gone wrong so far, but doesn't feel like a Sony etc. All in all, I very happy with the setup. It does sometime feel like I'm on the 'bleeding edge' though. However, with about 30 interviews on it so far, it is much preferred over the bundles of tapes I used to have - and means that i can listen to all my interviews while trailing around the underground map for further fieldwork. What is more, i can keep all the original interviews without buying 100s of tapes. I think MP3s are definitely the way to go, either by using a dedicated dictation machine like the Olympus voice recorder, http://www.voicerecognition.com/products/olympus/ <http://www.voicerecognition.com/products/olympus/> or by adapting a general product like the Archos Recorder as we've done. Gerry Mitchell CASE, LSE Email: [log in to unmask]