Krishnageeks.com - Spiritualised Technology

I have been using the Marantz PMD660 Handheld CompactFlash Recorder ($450) for about a year now to record classes and bhajans.  It is a little bit larger than the new crop of portable recorders, but that size comes with some features that are lacking in nearly all recorders I’ve seen.

First, what I like about the recorder:

• Records to Compact Flash
• XLR Inputs
• Analog level adjustments
• Powered by AA batteries
• Bright LED level meters

What I don’t like about the recorder:

• A bit bulky
• Record time could be longer
• Built-in Microphones are useless
• Left and Right levels are hard to adjust independently.

This recorder has very good quality MIC Pre-amplifiers through the XLR inputs.  I hear very little noise when the levels are cranked way up.  I will go into more detail on XLR inputs when I cover microphones, but almost all good microphones use XLR connectors.  You can convert to mini-jacks used by other recorders, but the resulting quality probably is not as good as using a good pre-amplifier like one that is built into the Marantz.  The recorder also supports built-in phantom power which can be used to power condenser microphones.

You can also record line-in through a 1/8″ jack — might be useful if you want to hook up through the temple’s PA system or a mixing board. 

The analog level adjustment feature is very important.  Most recorders (including this one) support some sort of automatic gain control.  This feature will allow the recorder automatically adjust the levels as the speaker or bhajan becomes louder and softer.  This may seem like a good feature at first, but the end result will often end up with a recording that is not natural sounding.  Instead, one should disable the automatic gain control and use the manual control.  Many of the smaller recorders bury the level controls pretty deep in the menu system.  Better recorders provide a nice analog knob or slider that can be used to adjust the level.  In combination with the bright LED level meters, one can ensure that the recording isn’t too loud (distortion) or too quiet.  This unit allows you to adjust the left/right levels independently.  This is useful to record the speaker with one microphone and to have another microphone for recording questions from the audience.

The recorder has many options that I really don’t bother using.  I always record in WAV format at 48Khz (to match the sampling done by my video camera).  This gives me about 6 hours on a 4 gig card if recording in stereo or 12 hours if recording in mono.  It does support recording as MP3, but only at 128Kbps.  If you plan on doing any post processing of the audio, just record in WAV format.

Record time is about 4 hours on 4 AA batteries.  I use rechargeable and tend to change them out at the 3hr mark.  One severe flaw in this device is that if you are actively recording and the battery runs out then it is likely that the track that is being recorded will be lost.  This hasn’t been an issue since I normally recharge after every use and don’t generally record for longer than 2hrs at a run anyway.

Alternatives:

I highly recommend this Marantz PMD660, but it is a bit bulky compared to some other recorders.  If you are looking for something smaller and are not going to use nice microphones, there are other alternatives.

I have generally recommended the Roland R-09HR ($350).  This is a small recorder that has good built-in microphones.  You can also use an external microphone that uses 1/8″ jacks. 

Another recorder that looks promising is the Tascam DR-1 ($250).  A friend of mine just took it to the New York Rathayatra and it seems to have worked out for him.

If you need something that supports more than two tracks, Roland just came out with the Roland R-44 ($895).  It can be linked with another unit for synchronized 8 track recording.  This would be great for recording live bhajans.

Next week?  A quick review of microphones.