Community of Sexsoundlovers

Hi all - since my old minidisc player finally gave up on me earlier on, i'm in the process of replacing it. I wondered if anybody here had any ideas of a suitable bit of gear?
In an ideal world, the gear would need to be/have the following:

Be fairly small (easy to carry around or hide,)
Have an inbuilt mic that isn't too bad (always useful just in case)
Have an input for an external mic stereo preferably (its not just used for audiovoyeurism)
Be able to encode at different bitrates from superduper squashed to lossless preferably (depending on what i'm recording and how long i need it running for)
Have a decent battery life (for those overnight recordings)
Be able to transfer the catches off easily to computer (PC or Mac will do I have both)
Last but by no means least... not cost an arm and a leg LOL!

Its asking a lot i know, and i'm fairly sure i won't find anything that meets all the cryteria, but if anyones got any pointers it'd be much appreciated.
sc0tt-uk

hi Scott,
that´s a hard job for small devices.
i don´t have a special gear im mind which does all of that but you should look for mp3 players (and recorders) from Cowon iAudio, iRiver and Creative. one of these might come close to what you are seeking.
if you need a good website, i only have a german one to offer Rolling Eyes
http://www.mp3-player.de/index.php
but someone else might want to translate that - or mention a british site. i suppose the angel saxons do have mp3 technology?
yeppie

I second Yeppie on the MP3 players. Most all nowdays are $50 (US) or so and do all the things you mentioned (except maybe the adjustable bitrate.. not sure on that one).

Just check ebay or your local electronics store... I think there you should find a suitable bargain for your needs.

My latest "investment" was a $40-60 MP3 player from creative:

512mb Creative MICRO (I think thats the name)
- Runs on 1 AAA
- About the size of a 9v
- Records up to 22hrs on a single battery
- Has external input and built-in mic
(have not checked into adjustable bitrate.. but i think it was an option).

I bought a Sanyo DMP-M1200 through eBay a few weeks ago for $77.94. It has good specs, including 192kbps/44.1khz recording and an external mic jack. I also picked up two mics (a cardioid mono mic and an omnidirectional vono mic) from Gaint Squid Audio Lab. Somebody here recommended Gaint Squid Audio Lab.

So far the results have been disappointing: the Sanyo runs batteries down very quickly. Last week, I lost the tail end of one session when my partner was extermely loud the second time she came from me going down on her. Additionally, the mics don't pick up the sounds very well.

I have another opportunuty tomorrow. I'm going to try using my camcorder shotgun mic. It has an internal battery, so hopefully everything will work. I really want to have something to post.

Mike

I think that may just be cardiod mics in general. The ones I have are not bad... but the internal mic on my MP3 player/recorder is actually better without the mics than with (I guess this type of mic is designed more for concealment than quality).

The microphones you see here are the 'cardiod' type:
http://www.yeppie.org/ssl-forum/viewtopic.php?t=222

As for differences with microphones... normally we dont discuss things that can be commonly googled, unless someone has a very unique expereince with that equipment (ie... i just used my headphones as a microphone and they can hear through 10 feet of concrete, etc).

Mike,

I'm wondering if the Sanyo provides phantom power. I believe the Giant Squid microphones require battery power/phantom power to work. Without it, your sound levels would be so low as to be unusable.

RP: "Cardioid" comes from the same root as the English word "cardiac." The pickup pattern of the microphone is basically a heart shape. If drawn into a circle, the microphone would pick up sound between about 210 degrees and 150 degrees, with the back of the mic capsule nulling out a lot of the sound. Mics like these are used for live performance, because the "dead" spot in the pattern can be orientated toward the (loud) monitor speakers used by musicians without causing feedback (screeching!)

Used for voyeur recording, pointing the live part of the pattern toward the hotel room window would put the dead part of the pattern to the street, for instance. This can be of benefit.

"Cardioid" does not have anything to do with whether or not the microphone uses electrical power to help it do its job. It's simply the pickup pattern of the transducer capsule of the microphone.

Mark: Regarding Google... I just don't have the time to sift through five hundred results (mostly commercial) to find this kind of information, and I'm glad when I read it on forums like this, instead.

Amen.