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iRiver (or any other external recorder) help please
Hi all,
Here’s my dilemma…
I’m a wedding videographer and need to record audio from a wireless lapel mic (Sennheiser ew-112). Up until now, I’ve hooked the mic receiver up to an old DV camera and recorded the audio to tape – clunky, I know – but it’s done the trick up until now…
I decided it was time to purchase an external recorder and after hearing so much about iRivers, purchased a T30 1Gb model. I’ve just experimented with it and after dumping the audio tracks to PC it is extremely quiet – almost inaudible – even at the highest “Line-in volume” setting of 31. Having just done some poking around, I’ve discovered this to be a common complaint with users (isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing?).
Obviously this unit will be totally unacceptable for it’s intended use, and I’m resigned to the fact I now have a shiny new “rose red” mp3 player…
My question is, what are people using to record external mic sources? Seems like people are recommending the iRiver 799 and 899 for this kind of thing, but I’m a little hesitant to rush out and buy another iRiver without knowing if it’s going to be suitable or not. The other thing is, they appear to be discontinued and the newer models don’t offer this feature – why, I don’t understand?
I’d like to know what fellow videographers are using and recommend – whether mp3 recorders (and if so, which models?), minidisc recorders or any others…
Next wedding in <2 weeks so would like to find a solution ASAP. Thanks in advance!
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4 Replies
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Any recording unit you buy MUST have a MIC LEVEL input.
If the unit only has a LINE LEVEL input, it will not record from a mic at enough level to use.
A MIC can have “thousands of times” lower output than LINE.
That’s about all you need to know.
This applies to units that record on mp3, miniDisc, DAT, cassette, DV… anything.
BTW, the idea of recording to DV tape in another camcorder…
THAT is a GREAT PLAN.
It gives you full-quality audio on a tape with permanent, repeatable timecode. -
Your current method (wireless mic)is certainly not “clunky”. It’s the standard.
The iRiver is a great alternative or backup device. Low cost, and acceptable audio quality. However, you bought the wrong model. ONLY the iFP-7xx and -8xx series models have the ability to accept a mic level signal at their external jack. The T series devices cannot do this, and are unacceptable for our purposes.
There are a few other MP3 recorders on the market that have a mic in capability, but they are considerably more expensive than the iRivers. The models I mentioned above are the ONLY consumer MP3 recorders I know of that have the needed capability.
Regards,
Doug Graham -
Do the irivers work on a mac? Does it just show up as a hard drive or does one need special software to “see” what is on the thing?
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can’t one put a preamp into the setup, to boost the audio before it hits the iRiver?
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