15 replies to this topic

[IrishMonk]

Im looking at a sony icd-ux71... it says it reords at 192 kbps on its highest setting... is this the same as sample rate, or something diff ?

[CaveRat2]

That would be the sample rate assuming it is recording in a non-lossy format (WAV, etc.) If it is using this with MP3 though that may be the sample rate of the MP3, not necessarily the same as its original rate. But assuming it is WAV it would be satisfactory for EVP work.

[SGT Miles]

Where do you find this info at? All I can find on any of the recorders I am looking say things like Records High quality WMA at 44.1 khz...I know pretty much zip about digital voice recorders so I am pretty much lost when it comes to trying to find the right sample rate. The fact that none of the spec sheets have anything that has to do with kbps other than one of them(only showed it for the MP3 format) doesn't help me either.

[SGT Miles]

Here is everything I found on the Spec sheet for the recorder I was looking at. Not sure if any of this means good or crap.

Recording Format
WMA (Windows Media Audio)
Recording Media
Built-in 4GB flash memory
Recording Time
Stereo XQ Mode: 69 hours, 30 minutes
Stereo HQ Mode: 139 hours, 35 minutes
Stereo SP Mode: 278 hours, 10 minutes
HQ Mode: 278 hours 10 minutes
SP Mode: 547 hours 25 minutes
LP Mode: 1,088 hours 05 minutes
Card Format
N/A
Input Level
-70 dBv
PC Interface
USB direct, Hi speed
LCD
1.23 inch
LED
Yes
Folders Messages
5 folders/200 messages per folder
Sampling Frequency
Stereo XQ Mode: 44.1 kHz
Stereo HQ Mode: 44.1 kHz
Stereo SP Mode: 22.0 kHz
HQ Mode:44.1kHz
SP Mode: 22.0kHz
LP Mode: 8.0kHz
Overall Frequency Response
Stereo XQ Mode: 50-19,000Hz
Stereo HQ Mode: 50-15,000 Hz
Stereo SP Mode: 50-9,000Hz
HQ Mode:50-13,000Hz
SP Mode: 100-7,000Hz
LP Mode:100-3,000Hz
LP Mode
Yes
Voice Activation
Yes
Demographic Data Input
N/A
Practical Maximum Output
70 mW
Write Protection
Yes
Speaker
Built-in 16 mm round dynamic speaker
Microphone Jack
Yes
Earphone Jack
Yes
Power Supply
One AAA battery (Ni-MH is chargeable via USB)
External Power Supply
N/A
Battery Life
21 hours (Alkaline, LP mode recording)
Size
3.7" L x 1.5" W x 0.4" D (94.8 x 38.0 x 11.0 mm), excluding protrusions
Weight
1.6 oz. (46g), including battery
OS Supported
Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/Vista
Mac OS X 10.2.8 - 10.5
USB Port
One free port

[IrishMonk]

Well, in my search for a good recorder I found a few basic things that make a recorder acceptable for Evp work. although you may pick up some EVPs with "lesser" recorders... whatever that means.

1- it needs to record in true stereo
2- it needs to record in a non-compressed format like .wav
3- it needs to have a sample rate of at least 44.1 khz minimum. 44.1 khz sample rate is the same sample rate with which CDs are recorded, so in effect you will be recording in CD quality. anything above that is better, but this is minimum for EVP hunters ( so ive heard )

I dont know alot about this.... but this is what ive gathered from alot of diff sources. I went with a Zoom H2, it is amazing all the features on it. Im a guitar player, and had no idea it has a built in guitar tuner and metronome lol... 179.00 at Best buy. very nice. sample rate in the 90s on highest setting, with 4 internal stereo mics... awesome.

[SGT Miles]

Thanks for the reply, like I said I am not so great with the math and such so trying to figure out the conversion for the sample rate from 44.1khz to xxkbps was giving me a rough time.

[IrishMonk]

Well, in my original post I was asking about a sony recorder that claimed to record at 190 something kbps... i later found that this recorder had a sample rate of 44.1 khz.

What i found is that spec sheets like the one you posted are usualy not complete. You have to go to that manufacturers site and look at the online user manual, then scroll down to the specs within that manual for the full story. There it will list the KHZ sample rate.

[IrishMonk]

IrishMonk, on Feb 6 2010, 09:38 AM, said:

Well, in my original post I was asking about a sony recorder that claimed to record at 190 something kbps... i later found that this recorder had a sample rate of 44.1 khz.

What i found is that spec sheets like the one you posted are usualy not complete. You have to go to that manufacturers site and look at the online user manual, then scroll down to the specs within that manual for the full story. There it will list the KHZ sample rate.

however, the sheet u posted does state the sample rate... at 44.1 khz on the higher settings. Not sure if WMA is compressed....

[SGT Miles]

WMA Should be uncompressed from what I understand. I think I will be picking this model up seeing as how it is only $104 on Amazon right now.

[SGT Miles]

Well not uncompressed but supposed to be "lossless" compression rather than lossy

[CaveRat2]

No such thing! Any compression is by nature lossy to some degree. True some are better than others.

Consider the analogy, suppose you have a bucket that holds one gallon. Now suppose you have a gallon of liquid. You can easily pour the gallon of liquid into the gallon bucket. That is lossless.

Now suppose you compress the file down 50%. That means that you now have a half gallon bucket. Try as you might, there is no way the gallon of liquid will fit that bucket. You can remove some of the liquid to make it fit, or you can not pour the entire gallon in, but something has to give. That's compression, fitting the data into a smaller file.

[SGT Miles]

Whatever...I am just going to Get the Olympus WS-510M and deal with the shortcomings, it's not like Paranormal investigation is my job, and my actual job doesn't pay enough to spend excess amounts on something that was supposed to save me the cost of buying tapes in the long run. So guess I will just stick with the low quality BS recorder.

[SGT Miles]

Whatever...I am just going to Get the Olympus WS-510M and deal with the shortcomings, it's not like Paranormal investigation is my job, and my actual job doesn't pay enough to spend excess amounts on something that was supposed to save me the cost of buying tapes in the long run. So guess I will just stick with the low quality BS recorder...I'll wait until I have more free time to myself to spend on buying stuff so I can try to figure out what I need.

[IrishMonk]

there are plenty of people who claim to get great results from digital recorders of all sorts. I think youll do fine with your choice !

[IrishMonk]

By the way SGT Miles, be careful over there. I appriciate your service.