Portable Recorder

Introduction to portable recorder

First of all these portable recorders are also men made devices, these are very light in weight and the biggest advantage is that it can be taken anywhere.These are handheld devices with built in microphones  that pickup stereo sound and record it digitally either on internal memory or SD micro card or SDHC Crow cards which runs on normal battery powers. These devices gives you the opportunity to record mp3 format or even full audio files which takes more space. The image above is an example of a portable recorder,  There  are many other similarities such as different shapes, size and colors. 

The use of an audio portable recorder; 

These can be used for live music concerts, song demos, podcasts conferences or even nature recording, for example in Task 2 we have to record a) traffic noise which is similar to nature recording and b) we also have to record beach sound waves, which in this case its definitely a proper nature recording.  

This can also be used for the benefits of students, especially in large classes such as the University of Malta which holds up to nearly 100 students in each lecture room, apart from that if a lecture is highly important it makes obvious sens that by recording the lecture, when you go back to study you can listen to that once again.

These are also being used by Journalists even in Malta, since they are a great way of capturing interviews, anywhere and at anytime, for example the image below is a photo of an interview being recorded at the Malta Junior Eurovision song Contest by Radio International. As you can see two people are holding an audio portable recorder, along with a portable microphone since, this radio show streams live radio programs and also uploads full interview videos on YouTube. 

Different type and brands of portable recorders; -The prices of all these models range from under to 100 dollars to 230 dollars.

Tascam DR-03

This is perfectly design for students who want to record their lectures.  although this can capture all kind of sound source, this also features looping and also speed playback, which is a good feature if you want to take notes. It has a metronome and also a tuner which can be used for students who are into music. It records WAV or mp3 format up to 24-bit/48K Hz,  also it uses micro SD flash memory, and is built with a stereo condenser microphone. The price for this varies from 15 - 20 euros. 

 Alexis Palm Track 

This is also a hand held digital audio recorder like the one before, this model has features such as four microphones,  which gives you the option to record from each side which is very useful for conferences, small meeting discussions. One of the main feature about this is the menu section has user adjustable effects which allows user to revers, delay chorus type, mix, loop playback mode, pitch shift, voice cancelling mode and so on. These are expensive to buy. 

Zoom H1 Ultra portable digital Audio Recorder

This tiny portable recorder fits very good in your hand as you can see in the picture, similar to the ones above. This also feature XY position microphone on the front to capture great stereo sound with excellent depth of field with very high resolutions, these are great for live musical performance and so much more. These are also recommended to buy the whole package with it such as tripod, pocket, adapter USB cable and also a foam wind screen to cut down wind noise. The price for this is about 40 euros. 

                             Sony PCM - M10

This is a SONY brand portable recorder, its know for its low noise floor which has made this recorder of a good quality, these are used by sound musicians and professional people, apart from the memory SD Card slots, this Sony pcm-M10 also had 4 GB of internal flash memory, this device also comes with a remote which gives you more features such as pre-record function such as 5 seconds before, and also pitch control. This device also comes with Sound Forge Audio Studio software, that allows users to edit and master audio files on their computer. The price for this various from 100 euro upwards. 

Online shopping - Amazon - Portable recorders;

The video below gives more both general and in depth information about Portable recorders or also knows as digital audio recorders;

                             

The Use of Head-Phones

What are Headphones ? 

First of all head phones are a man made, these are devices which give the human an opportunity to listen to any sound coming from any other device such as; phones, radio, computers, electric/automatic instruments and so on.

Mainly headphones are build with an audio connector jack, and these are usually made universal which means that they can fit in many different devices/brands and are inserted in the device connector.

Nowadays headphones can be also wireless which usually needs Bluetooth to work such the ear pods that Apple just invented few weeks ago, which is only compatible with I Phone 7, picture found below;

Types of headphones; 

Ear buds Headphones; These are mostly the popular headphones, which offer great sound quality, for a cheap price,  although the disadvantage of these are that they don't block the noise coming from outside, are poorly fit within our ears, sometimes they be hurtful to our ears. 

In Ear Headphones: These types of headphones successfully seal your ear canal opening, offering favorable noise-isolation. these are also for a great price and usually these type of headphones are found inside a box when you buy a smartphone. 

Once music is played through these types of headphones, most of the ambient-noise gets blocked like birds chirping, passerby footsteps, car passing by and so on. 

On ear Headphones:

these type of headphones are sit right over your outer ear, this covers your ear canal rather than your entire ear, these type also come as closed back headphones which are more preferred both for indoor and outdoor use. 

These sound quality for these type of headphones are not of a high quality, since they don't provide a proper seal and ambient /background noise might still be heard. on the other hand these are very light in weight so these shouldn't cause any strain on the ear and also on the neck. 

Over the ear headphones;

These type of headphones are similar to the one above, although the have ear cups that cover the entire ear,  the size for these type are usually larger than the other normal types,  these are also meant to be used only for normal use such as at home, since the weight for these type might cause neck ache if worn outside and for longer time.These type of headphones also come in two ways such as;

Close Back Headphones;

closed back headphones are more popular among average day consumers and come in more affordable range compared to the other type. The back of these headphones are closed so that it block outside ambient noise, while also avoids the sound to leak. These eliminate outside completely  offering an excellent noise. example of this type is  AKG K550 

Open Back Headphones

These look similar to the other one mentioned before,  the back of these type of headphones is completely open, these allow outside ambient noise to enter inside your ear cans, for example while listening to full on music, you still can hear movements. these type of headphones allow free movement of air which makes the headphones to create a livelier sound with excellent bass response. example of this open back headphone is AKG K 601

Here you can find thousands of headphones of your'e choice, from Amazon.co.uk