equipment specifications and notes

Voices Project. This page describes equipment useful for recording oral history. See Dr Joe Cain for more information.

Note: there's a great deal of kit out there, things change quickly. These are my individual notes, drawn from real use. I do not aim to keep perfectly up-to-date or to consider all possibilities. Do your consumer research before buying.

		Marantz PMD620 (datasheet \| manual \| Web site) Highly portable. Easy to use. Excellent sound quality. Useful for casual recording in the field.
		Marantz PMD660 (datasheet \| manual \| audio samples) Highly portable. Easy to use. Excellent sound quality. Ideal for all environments, including broadcast quality. This model has been updated with the Marantz PMD661 (datasheet \| Web)
		Olympus WS320M (datasheet \| audio samples \| Web) A bit fiddlely; use takes a bit of training. Sound quality is fair to good. Microphone sensitively good but not great. Plug and play technology works best with Olympus transcription tools. Useful for casual recording in the field. File formats (WMA) not ideal. Good as a lower cost option, but preference is for the PMD620. This model has been updated with the Olympus WS331M (Web), key upgrade is 2Gb memory, rather than 1Gb in WS320. Highly portable. Self-contained.
		SoundDesign USBPre (brochure \| Web) Recording direct to PC via USB. Requires recording software, such as Audacity or RecordPad, and microphones. Good for mixing two microphones or one microphone and other audio inputs. A bit fiddley. Not portable. Expensive, too. This does not run on Windows 64-bit operating systems. Review. This piece of equipment has been superceded by other, far less expensive, USB podcast starter kits, such as the Behringer Podcastudio. For a in-studio project, non-demanding project, these alternatives seem better.
		Edirol R-1 (datasheet \| manual \| audio samples) Not recommended. Microphone (internal) sensitivity is poor. External microphone input is 3.5mm only.
		Marantz PMD222 cassette (brochure \| manual \| audio samples)
		Other recorders Marantz (Web) Tascam (Web) other equipment - including ipod - recommendations by Andy Kolovos (Web)

Page last modified on 05 aug 10 15:45 by Joe Cain

Professor Joe Cain
UCL Department of Science and Technology Studies

		Marantz PMD620 (datasheet \| manual \| Web site) Highly portable. Easy to use. Excellent sound quality. Useful for casual recording in the field.
		Marantz PMD660 (datasheet \| manual \| audio samples) Highly portable. Easy to use. Excellent sound quality. Ideal for all environments, including broadcast quality. This model has been updated with the Marantz PMD661 (datasheet \| Web)
		Olympus WS320M (datasheet \| audio samples \| Web) A bit fiddlely; use takes a bit of training. Sound quality is fair to good. Microphone sensitively good but not great. Plug and play technology works best with Olympus transcription tools. Useful for casual recording in the field. File formats (WMA) not ideal. Good as a lower cost option, but preference is for the PMD620. This model has been updated with the Olympus WS331M (Web), key upgrade is 2Gb memory, rather than 1Gb in WS320. Highly portable. Self-contained.
		SoundDesign USBPre (brochure \| Web) Recording direct to PC via USB. Requires recording software, such as Audacity or RecordPad, and microphones. Good for mixing two microphones or one microphone and other audio inputs. A bit fiddley. Not portable. Expensive, too. This does not run on Windows 64-bit operating systems. Review. This piece of equipment has been superceded by other, far less expensive, USB podcast starter kits, such as the Behringer Podcastudio. For a in-studio project, non-demanding project, these alternatives seem better.
		Edirol R-1 (datasheet \| manual \| audio samples) Not recommended. Microphone (internal) sensitivity is poor. External microphone input is 3.5mm only.
		Marantz PMD222 cassette (brochure \| manual \| audio samples)
		Other recorders Marantz (Web) Tascam (Web) other equipment - including ipod - recommendations by Andy Kolovos (Web)

UCL Department of Science and Technology Studies

Cain, Joe

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equipment specifications and notes

Marantz PMD620

Marantz PMD660

Olympus WS320M

SoundDesign USBPre

Edirol R-1

Marantz PMD222 cassette

Other recorders