I have been meaning to buy a new audio recorder. I’ve never been one to tape my interviews, mainly because I don’t have the time to go back through and transcribe. And I haven’t had much chance or reason to use audio for any projects I’ve done. But I want to.

I used to have the Griffin iTalk for my iPod 4G. Well, I still have it, but as I have a broken 4G and a shiny Video iPod that it doesn’t work on, it’s no good to me. Although it certainly wasn’t CD-quality sound, it was effective for the few projects I used it on. It was also pretty good quality compared to most of the audio recorders I could have afforded. And since, as I said, I didn’t use it often, I wasn’t going to lay down too much money. I think I got the iTalk on eBay for about $30. Granted it had a much higher starting cost (the $300 I paid for the iPod), but because I already owned the iPod, the $30 was cheaper than the $100+ I’d have to shell out for another piece of equipment I’d have to carry.

Considering I already carry my cell phone, digital camera and iPod everywhere, (and my MacBook at least half the time) adding another bit of equipment isn’t really appealing. That (and the fact that my only job was Stater editor which paid enough to barely cover my bills and between that and classes left no time for other work) was part of the reason I held off on buying a digital recorder for myself. We bought some for the Stater, an Olympus model I can’t remember which right now, and of course I had access to those. So I didn’t have a reason to need one.

Now, as I’m starting to earn a little money and thinking about things I want/need, the audio recorder is back on my list. But I still have the same stipulations: I don’t really want to add to the gear I already lug around or spend more than $100, and it has to record decent quality sound.

I’m coming back to the iPod recorder model. I’ve heard good things about the Belkin TuneTalk. I already own an iPod. I can add an extral mic to it, if I wish. I don’t have to worry about Mac compatibility. It only costs about $70, or on eBay about $40. My only hesitation is that it’s black, and I have a white iPod and MacBook. But I guess if you have to sacrifice something, aesthetics should be among the first to go.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 3rd, 2007 at 12:15 pm and is filed under Multimedia, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.