Size matters, right? As in “My X is bigger than your X.” So the bigger a thing is the more cool it is and, if you’re male, the more macho you are. Right?
Well, how about “My X is smaller than your X”?
In Paris this morning, David Tebbutt and I were discussing how devices like voice recorders have generally got more sophisticated and smaller over the years.
Here’s proof – on the left, my portable podcasting recorder (a Packard-Bell Audio Dream MP3 recorder); on the right, David’s all-in-one tape recorder from the late 1970s (Olympus PearlCorder SD3 – no link as a Google search doesn’t produce anything useful).
Primary difference – the one on the left is digital, the one on the right is analog and records on microcassettes. And perhaps the most obvious difference as you can see, the one on the right is three times as big. It’s also significantly heavier than the one on the left even if you include its extra bits like microphone and amplifier (not in the pic).
I suppose I should feel cool and macho. But both do exactly the same thing.
But you are cool and macho. Really you are.
Also, what’s the difference in the size that matters–capacity?
I think Neville gets 71 hours in his and I get an hour at most before the tape needs turning.
Needless to say, I rarely use it but I had it with me at LesBlogs just in case I interviewed someone who talked too fast or in a difficult (for me) accent.
I think I’d rather be cool than macho, David, not both!
You’re right re 71 hours. That’s what the manual says. With a gig of memory, the voice recording produces WAV files that I guess are a certain size (you can’t change any recording settings), so if you talk continuously that would produce a sound file of about a gig that is 71 hours. For what that’s worth.
Good question on what’s the difference that matters. I suppose it is capacity, although maybe it’s the digital aspect, ie, you can do things with and to the recording that you can’t with a tape.
Hi everyone !
I have a Pearlcorder SD3 from -70:s.
It was a tech masterpiece that time and I think its a very nice machine in many ways.
I would like to give it for full service if anyone can recommend a company to do such things.
Kindly
Olavi