I am a grad student and I would like to record lectures, meetings,
seminars, etc. So I need some recording device that can pick up sound
from at least 25' away. (It would be even better if it could record
from 50' away in case the room is really packed.) I've considered a
number of options:
1. Digital recorder: I've heard the Olympus WS-310M (or a similar
model) might be usable for this purpose.
2. mp3 player: I've heard the iRiver iHP-120 has a decent built-in
microphone. It costs about the same as the Olympus WS-310M, but it
seems like I would get a lot more for my money since it has 20 GB of
storage and doubles as an mp3 player. I think it also has an input jack
so I could get a better (or directional) microphone if that turns out
to be necessary for a particular purpose. However, I wouldn't know what
mic to buy.
3. PDA: I don't know much about this option, although I would have to
guess that any PDA that comes with an adequate microphone (or line-in)
and adequate storage would be fairly expensive. Since I don't currently
use a PDA, it might be hard to justify the cost.
4. USB microphone: It sounds like this thing would do quite well:
http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/gold/item/SP-USB-MIC-1
I would guess it's a better microphone than I would get with options
1-3; the only question is whether the difference in quality would
justify hauling my laptop everywhere.
I'd really appreciate any advice about the advantages of each of these
options, particularly if you can reccommend a specific product.
-Paul
|
