Hi,
I've hunted high and low for a more appropriate forum to ask about this, but to no avail - so here goes...

I'm in need of a good solution for recording live sets - that is - just 2 channels. For the past few months I've been using an aging laptop to which I've attached an Edirol UA-1A USB soundcard and an external firewire hard drive. I must say, this solution works extremely well, and I've completed 14 hours of recording before with not a single skip (to my knowledge). My only problem with this solution is that because of the dimensions of the hardware, it is too big to be left sitting alone, and too off-set to fit into a rack. I should also mention that I've coupled this with a Behringer compressor in order to keep the levels perfect. This gives me no problems, though it means that currently I'm running the whole setup out of a suitcase as it's the closest fit to housing it that I can find!
So back to the point; I've looked around, and from what I can see, proper hard disk recorders are well out of my price range. I really don't want to spend a lot, so I've been looking briefly at these MP3 recorders about - however I'm not a fan of any kind of lossy compression as the sets are always edited and burnt onto CDs, thus CD quality is required. The irritating part is that, even the MP3 recorders such as the Archos Jukebox (which is quite expensive due to the extra clutter with it) are seemingly only capable of recording into MP3 format, and at low bitrates too.

Does anyone here have any suggestions as to other portable equipment, preferably capable of using a HD to store uncompressed audio, which isn't aimed at the high end professional user? Either that, or a good idea as to how to transport a laptop, firewire caddy and a compressor and keep them set up in a relatively small area..


Chris.

No ideas on this one?

What about any *good* portable mp3 recorders... which will be 'transparent' (ie not limited to encoding at 128kbit)...

IIRC, the Creative Jukebox can record uncompressed wav. I don't know however how high is the recording quality.

Cheers, I've dug up some info on it, however can anybody shed any light as to the quality of the DAC, perhaps the components used or a sample of recording from a good source?

I use the creative Jukebox3 which is built around the creative audigy is it not!?!? I use it with a preamp and make binaural recordings.. to listen to what it can do just make your way to my post it should be in my signature below...

I believe its not supposed to be the best thing ever but it really is VERY good... it can record to mp3 of various rates but also to uncompressed waves... I do it at 48khz waves and then later i MPC or APE it up for the site... it really does sound great.. I've made in-line recordings too and they are good... dont bother with its gain settings tho as its software, leave it at 0 and use a preamp or a PC program to normalise recordings later...

Importantly its cheap.. you can get the 20gig jukebox3 it has 2 battery slots so you get real impressive battery life in playback and recording, compared to anything else that struggles to have the equivelant of 1 of the jukebox's batteries...

I've just upgraded mine to 60gig... which was painless (luckily) cost me £150... and its now perfect (mostly use it for playback)

All good basically.. and at a great price..

For higher quality manufacturers are struggling to get to market

this one is promising

http://www.core-sound.com/HighResRecorderNews.html

but i believe its in at like $1000 which is FAR FAR away from hobby jukebox3's $250 price... phillips are releasing one aren't they?! that was in the news here a while ago i am sure.. not sure if it can't ONLY record to mp3 tho

Unless you want serious professional kit go for the JB3.. you wont regret it

That Core Sound device is actually only $200, but you'll need a pda and an external analog-digital-converter as well and some serious compact memory (multiple CF memory cards / microdrives?) to get started with it.

Recording live sets? In this case you'll need an external power source for your mics as well.. Core Sound is going to release a mic preamp / power source / adc as well, see the page you linked to for details..

Hmm, bit off from what I need... since I just use analogue line outputs as my recording source. (At the moment, this is fed through a compressor and into my laptop).

The Jukebox idea seems good though... would save my carting around my laptop - is it possible to, say, buy a 6gig version and shove a larger disk in there? Or are they being clever about it and using different dimensions/drive formats?

buy the jukebox3 as i believe it has higher quality components in it... I am sure as i said that its basically a soundblaster audigy... then again the first DAP maybe...

the jukebox3 is better at recording though.. and 20gig is cheap... it also supports firewire so you transfer your tunes back easier.. much quicker...

anyways most laptops have crap sound... creative and other manufacturers sell usb devices to get cleaner output and recording... you will NOT be dissapointed with a jukebox3 and can be compared favourably next to a laptop, size and sound quality wise...

sorry... I remember the core disc thing being discussed as about $1000 all in... for the whole thing... its beyond me to be honest and i am very happy with the jukebox3

upgrading drives is possible tho i think on the old jukeboxes u have to preformat it or buy them preformatted... seriously there is no reason to NOT get the JB3 over the DAPs... they aren't recommended to be upgraded but i just did mine.. i was very careful, and no damage was caused... its now 60gig, and as the drive is a newer generation it has better shock tolerances...

best site for info on the thing is

http://www.nomadness.net

That's cool.. will take a look into it.
PS: I'm using a Roland USB soundcard with my laptop, not the onboard one (which was awful needless to say).

As far as I know concert tapers have generally mixed feelings about the quality of the Nomad Jukebox's adcs.. maybe try to rent one somewhere, to take it for a test drive and see whether you're content with its quality.