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catsittingstillI wanted an mp3 recorder that would upload recordings to my Mac. Alas, the iPod doesn't record, though there's now a "voice recorder" that can be attached to it--any word on the sound quality of those recordings? Mac compatibility pointed me at iRiver in the first place; it was one of the few companies that supported Mac at all, though we're definitely second class citizens there. If you're not a Mac person, you will have a wider choice of companies (and there are a lot of them).
Mp3 players all have one thing in common--they need to have someplace to store mp3-encoded sound files. The most common alternatives are 1) on flash memory, 2) on a hard drive, or 3) on a CD-R or CD-RW. iRiver uses all three alternatives in different models. The model numbers let you know which storage medium one of their players uses--an iFP(XXX) uses flash memory, an iHP(XXX) uses a hard drive and an iMP(XXX) uses a CD-R or CD-RW. As I understand it, only the iFPs and iHPs can record. Furthermore I wanted a unit that supported line-in recording--which means it could accept a powered external mic(as voice recording mics are frequently not all that good). Line-in recording can also accept line-out input from a stereo or mixer or CD player. This requirement narrowed my choices even more--to the iHPs or the iFP3XXs (except the iFP340).
I was most interested in the iHP player/recorders, which can hold 10 or 20 GB of music. These cost in the $350 to $450 range. Figuring about a MB per minute (very roughly) for good quality mp3s, that would be 10,000 minutes, or about 160 hours of music for the 10 GB version. I would never have to worry about "running out of tape" with one of these, and I could carry more than enough filk with me to listen to while travelling. Alas, these weren't available in my area. I ended up trying out the flash-memory based iFP390T, ($200) which holds 256 MB or about 4 hours of music on an internal (not upgradeable, alas) flash card. This second choice turned out to be pretty good in many ways.
The player is tiny (slightly longer than my middle finger, and about 2 fingers wide) and light. I didn't weigh it, but the single AA battery that runs it is probably roughly a third of the total weight. Unless you're going to tape it to an eyelid, it's light enough for whatever you want to do with it. It looks a little funky, but I found it had more charisma in person than it did in the photographs. It comes with various dohickeys to let you attach it to your person, which is actually kind of nice if you want to do the dishes or go for a walk, though I don't recommend it for recording.
It's slick and sleek and beautiful--but how useable is it? Hang on to the user manual--you will need it for the first few days. Press the "jog lever," a mini-joystick on the front, straight in like a button--a brief press gives access to the folders of mp3s to pick the one you want to listen to. Working your way through the mp3s is easy--the jog lever works just as you would expect. See the illustration below.
Press the joystick straight in for a longer time and you get access to a menu of options for playback and recording. Working your way around the menu is darned confusing until you figure out that the map of jog lever directions has been given a 90 degree counterclockwise twist. See the illustration below. There's pretty much nothing you can do in this menu that's irreparable, but it's irritating until you get the hang of it.
There are three buttons along the top edge of the player. This is where you really need the manual, because the buttons are all context-sensitive; they do different things, depending on what the player is already doing, and depending on whether you press them for a short time or a longer one. The player has so many functions and so few buttons that it really has to be this way. But if you get this player to record live music, make sure you have several hours to play around with it first. Recording isn't hard once you can remember how to do it, but it's a little confusing until you've used it for a while. If you're trying to catch a concert, you want to be quick with the buttons. (On the other hand, after two days I was considerably more dexterous with this recorder than I am with my minidisk recorder--for what it's worth.)
Voice recording works--to my ear--surprisingly well. It's at least as good as my minidisk recorder. The mic is good enough that I can tell the difference between 128 Kbps recording and the next step down (64 Kbps). There is no way to set the volume while voice recording, but one of the setup options available in the menu is labeled cryptically "AGC." That stands for Automatic Gain Control, and unless you're recording something very quiet and don't expect any loud bits, I heartily recommend it. It makes the quiet parts louder and the loud parts softer so the mic doesn't distort. I recorded a concert (with permission) to try it out: one singer, with guitar or dobro, in a wood floored space (the Appalachian Center at Carson-Newman College, actually). I was sitting perhaps twelve feet from the performer, with the recorder on my lap, or on the floor. The few songs I recorded without AGC got buzzy when they got loud; the ones with AGC handled both the performer's quiet speaking, and the louder singing, laughter and clapping well. AGC does tend to make for a slight hiss during the recording, since the gain is turned up for the quiet bits, but it's still better than my minidisk recorder. I don't think AGC is available with line-in recording, but when you're using a better mic it might not be necessary in the first place. Naturally enough every little touch leaves its mark on the voice recordings, so you'll want to find a safe place to set the recorder down and only handle it between songs if you can help it.
I don't have a powered stereo mic, and it didn't occur to me to test line-in recording from a CD player or some such. Other reviewers have tested this capability and say they can't tell the difference between an mp3 ripped on a computer with a CD drive, and an mp3 ripped by the player from a Discman. An external mic would pretty much eliminate the problems associated with touching the unit during recording.
The iFP3XX (where XX is not equal to 40) will record mp3s from the internal FM radio. I originally thought this was just a curiosity, but once I tried it I found myself using it a lot. The recordings sound as good as the original broadcast to me. It's easy to delete tracks you've decided you don't like, so I must have recorded hours of music off the radio in order to gloat over the one or two gems that came along in Prairie Home Companion and Thistle and Shamrock. The iHPs can't do this, supposedly because spinning up the hard disk causes too much radio interference.
I went through 2 AA batteries in the 10 days I had the thing. Unfortunately I didn't keep track of how long one battery would play mp3s vs play the radio vs record off the radio vs record with the internal mic. For what it's worth, playing seems to take a lot less energy than recording, and you can record about an hour and a half off one AA battery and still have what looks like 1/2 to 3/4 of the battery left. But battery indicators are like gas gauges--kind of idiosyncratic. My guess is you could get 2 to maybe 3 hours of recording time off one battery. Also, while I was experimenting with singing my own stuff to the recorder early on, I got results that suggest that recording with a low battery (possibly only when AGC is on) gives a strange intermittently muffled sound to the recording. I haven't replicated these results, or had an independent listener verify them. Changing the battery is easy and quick and doesn't affect previous recordings.
Alas, I ran into serious problems connecting the player to the computer. Theoretically it should work with Mac OS 10.1.5, but I could not get the software for communicating with the player to work with my computer until I upgraded to OS 10.2. At this point the software would run, but wouldn't recognize that the player was hooked up. During the attempts to install the software I sent three separate e-mails to iRiver tech support, but got no answer (part of this was over the weekend, but still). Finally I called them on the phone (their hours are 8-5 M-F Pacific time), and got prompt knowledgeable help. They still haven't answered the e-mails, a week later, so I recommend phoning if you have a problem you can't resolve with the manual.
The upshot of the help was that the software was indeed now working properly but the player had a bad USB port. The solution was to take it back to Best Buy and swap it for another. The voice recordings of Carl Rutherford's concert, of my new mando harmony for Wanderer's Prayer and of the neat Harvest Time song from Prairie Home Companion were irretrievable. Alas--ephemeral music, frailest of the arts!
I inquired about the player when I returned it. The customer service person I spoke to said Best Buy had been selling the players for about a year and they'd only had one other return for a bad USB port, so I gather I just got unlucky. Alas, they were completely out of that particular model of player that day. I asked if they'd be willing to give me a free upgrade to the next level of player, the iFP395 ($300). That model has 512 MB of memory and would hold 8 hours of music, probably enough for a whole con. But the answer was no. So I got a refund instead. Ah, well. If I don't get an iFP or iHP for Christmas, I may come back for the January sales :-)
So here's what Cat thinks: they're neat. They're slick. Yes, I spent days tearing my hair getting the software installed--and I still like the player. Having returned it, I miss it irrationally. So I can't claim to be clear eyed and unemotional here. You have been warned.
I think the iFP390 and the iFP395 would work fine for recording filk. The voice mic is pretty good right out of the box, and the line-in recording option offers the possibility of upgrading to better quality recordings if I can get a good powered stereo mic next Christmas :-). I like the FM recording more than I expected to. Getting around in the options menu is a bit of a pain, and could have been much better with one simple change (I suspect there was a misunderstanding somewhere), but I got used to it. I'm less sanguine about the whole Mac compatibility thing. I have faith that it's possible--but I've got to admit that it's faith, not evidence.
The iFP390T will hold four hours of music, which would probably handle a house filk just fine. It might be a little scanty for a whole con. The iFP395 will hold eight hours of music, which would probably take me through a con, with care. According to other reviewers, the longest file it can record is 72 minutes, so you'll have to stop and restart recording periodically, but this can be done with one touch of a button, and I would do that anyway between songs so I could save just my favorites.
The iRiver players are more expensive than a lot of the others, so if you're a PC user, it may be worth your while to look around. Most of the reviews of iRiver's gear I've read have thought the extra money was worth it. However, there aren't that many reviews available, so I think a few people who take a personal liking to the player could affect the tone of the whole field. I include links to some of the other iRiver reviews below, for those who are interested.
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iFP380 review by Roman Shelepov http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/ifp380/
iFP395T review in Hardware Zoom http://www.hardwarezoom.com/viewcontent.jsp?ReviewID=166
iHP100 review, from when the unit first came out:
http://gear.ign.com/articles/435/435472p1.html?fromint=1
iHP120 review from CNET http://reviews.cnet.com/iRiver_iHP_120/4505-6490_7-30571493.html
ITP review of iHP100 by Simon Duddy http://www.itp.net/reviews/hardware/106475736916333.htm
"Local (Livejournal) review of a different mp3 player / recorder from a different company--the Neuros http://www.livejournal.com/users/weirdo513/162680.html
