I have some questions about the recording functionality of sansa fuze. I am thinking to by a player but because I need especialy the recording functionality I want to check first if it fits my requirements. I have searcherd the Board but I found already no answeres, maybe someone of you can help:
My problem is I have record lots of hours of speech without pc access. I found out, that the recording format is wav. But as I now, wav needs lots of space (?!) Can I limit the recording quality to get more hours of recording time? How many hours can I record at a strech? Has someone expiriences how much memory is used for one hour recording? Is it posible to record directly to the external memory card? or can I copy from internal to external memory without using my pc? .
Has someone expirience with the recording quality? I dont speak direct tom the mic. The scenario is a discussion round where the people are in 1 to 4 m distance to the mic.
I have a 4GB one. It can record, I think, up to 20 hours, but that’s only if there’s nothing else on it. I may be wrong with the number. I’m not sure how much memory is used for one hour. Last time I checked, you can’t record directly to a memory card and you can’t transfer recordings onto it. The whole speaking thing should be fine; it should be able to pick up the voices. If you’re gonna get one, I recommend you get an 8GB, and if you want music or anything on it, to put it on a memory card.
I bought the Sansa Fuze 8GB from Amazon a few weeks ago and know I can answere all the questions I had - so may be some of you are interested in my findings: The Recording Functionality for voice is very good, I use it for recordings in Discussion groups etc. 1 hour recording needs about 168 MB disk space. The format is wav and cannot be changed!
The wav files can of course be converted to mp3 using any number of shareware “converter” programs.
I share your desire to have the recording capabilitie increased even further.
I’d pay $200 for the 8gb Fuze if it had 3mm stereo mic inputs, recorded to the micro SD card, could record in either wav or mp3 format and had a selectable bit rate.
However, for the price, and compared to other mp3 players with no recording capability, it really is cool and useful.
Since Sandisk does not make an mp3 recorder that has a mic jack(I wish they did), I feel that it is okay to mention a product by another manufacturer that does have these feautures. The Samson Zoom H2 handy recorder is around $175. It records in mp3 at a user selectable bitrate(from 48 kbps to 320 kbps), or WAV. It records to an SD card.It runs on 2 AA batteries(nimh rechargeables can be used). The recorder has built in mics that are said to be fairly decent, a mic jack, and a line in. Some have said that the mic jack is a bit noisy so the mic jack is not really good enough for professional applications, so the line in or built in mics would be much better. I don’t know of any other mp3 recorders under $200. In the $300+ range there is the Roland Edirol R9. and perhaps others that might have a better mic jack. I don’t have an mp3 recorder, however I have looking for an inexpensive one. The Zoom H2 is the best inexpensive one I have found so far. I would prefer to find a decent one under $100 if possible.
The Fuze does an okay job of recording within around a meter and a half of the the speaker. It is best within a meter though. Don’t expect to get decent quality recordings at high enough volume with the Fuze more than a meter and a half away.
Yeah I’ve seen those devices like the Zoom. Pretty cool. There are a quite a few in the 200-450 range from Tascam, Olympus, Sony, Alesis, Marantz,…but they are pretty much dedicated units.
There is one manufacturer that makes a unit which “docks” an iPod and essentially functions as an extender for the mp3 player: contains the mics, etc.
