Freesound Forums

Does anyone have any opinions on using an iPod to record? There is a hack that apparently allows recording via the headphone jack. The ADC allows many sample rates (all the way up to 96 kHz), but I'm still not convinced it's the choice for quality recording. Nevertheless, it seems to be a 20 GB HD recorder with a very sleek exterior.

What do you think?

A friend of mine records using his iPod by way of a maxell attachment specifically designed for use with the headphone jack on the iPod... it's alright, but the overall quality of the recording isn't great... an MD will give you much better quality, but if you're just looking to record, then the answer is yes, you can...

its not worth it. really bad quality.

The newest video iPods (I just got one) support 16-bit, 44.1hz uncompressed stereo WAV recording, which is CD quality. Hooray. The previous generation iPod was 8-bit, 22,000hz mono, and sounded grainy and crackly as you'd expect.

What's not so good is that Apple has the recording software locked away, and it needs a Apple-licensed mic preamp plugged in to be able to record. And they haven't released such a device yet. I spent some good time running all over town talking to different clueless store employees. Word from the Apple forums is that the mic attachments (some of which include a jack for your own mic, hooray) are in the end stages of development and will be on the market "soon." A lot of people who bought the new iPod for the express purpose of recording are understandably miffed, myself included.

So now we wait. And one day, when they get around to it, Apple will release their little $30 preamp and I will have a 4-ounce, 30 gig digital recorder in my hot little hands.

-Mike_U

IPODS ARE A GREAT IDEA BUT A REALLY CRAPPY PRODUCT.

YOU ARE TALKING TO SOMEONE WHO'S BEEN THROUGH 3 IN 6 MONTHS.

think about it..its just a hard drive in your hands. easy to damage. in my opinion its better to get a REAL RECORDER.

yeah ipods are fragile, but as long as you keep it in a case and dont dick around with it much it should be fine. ive had mine for a while and always have it with me, and it's in perfect condition.

although, just about a month after i got it, it wouldn't turn on. then it finally turned on, but there was a thin line across the screen, which went away in a couple days...

oh yeah and hi im lee thanks for the samples here

Hello all,
this looks like a really cool site! I'm excited to see where it goes.

Other brands have audio in capabilities... I thought about getting one a while back but decided against it.

Edirol and Marantz have some cool stuff but it's getting up past $500 at that point.

The main hassle with minidisc is that you add another time consuming step in a creative process... which makes it that much less likely that you'll actually do creative work.

The Edirol and Marantz recorders use flash cards, which can be read like hard drives straight onto your computer. Very cool.

-Eric

i use the a flash card now sometimes. they are nice. like i said ipods are a great idea but shitty product.

but then again u don't want to hear my opinions on mac products period.

michaeluna
So now we wait. And one day, when they get around to it, Apple will release their little $30 preamp and I will have a 4-ounce, 30 gig digital recorder in my hot little hands.

Hey, thanks for that information. I was looking for mobile recording gear for some time now and I just got an iPod video this christmas. I didn't even think about using it for recording. What a great coincidence. Let's hope Steve makes us become even more satisfied customers pretty soon

Gero

Alternative is to get an i-River - they are set up to record from internal or external mic and they work just dandy.

http://ipod.hackaday.com/entry/1234000147025394/

Check that out!

Anyone try that one?

-Eric

its a so so idea. sometimes it works other times it doesn't.

I wouldn't do it...unless you have an extra 3 hun around to spend once u damage your ipod.

on a different note-and this isn't just for you but many others who read it.

mac is full of shit and i don't care what any of you say. example

my ipod kept going blowing up on me..i was like...what the hell? why? weeeeell after going through 2 of them i said...lets try something out. so I PURPOUSLY PUT A CORRUPTED FILE INTO MY IPOD. A FILE I DOWNLOADED FROM KAZAA LITE THAT I KNEW WAS VIRUS INFESTED FILE. (i had actually done this with all my ipods)

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELL....UNLIKE WHAT MAC PEOPLE CLAIM...MY SHIT STOPPED WORKING RIGHT THEN AND RIGHT THERE....HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

i take it back to ipod store and of cousre with no questions asked they hand me a new one..hmmmmmmmm...interesting i say (if the product was so "stable" they wouldn't so easily hand u a new one no questions asked now would they?) so they give me a new one (my 4th mind u in 6 months) I ask the tech...yo tech is it possible that if i put a bad file in there it will kill the ipod? he said nope its not possible

funny....i think he and mac are full of shit. because i personally put a bad file into my ipod..purpously did this...and wow..guess what instantly each ipod stopped working-instantly

now i know many of u (insert explicit language here) mac lovers are gonna say oh u did this to it that to it...yeah right and i'm the pope-my wife and i just had a baby i don't have extra money lying around to throw away on a new ipod.... it was a test and my test proved that mac shit goes down like pc's.

no matter what they say.

LS, for dog's sake, ... Yes, we know you had bad experience with your iPods, but millions of people have just fine experiences with them. C'mon man, don't jump at every oportunity to bash the iPod, it's really a bit flame-war-starting afaic.

What Ruud is suggesting sounds like an interesting idea. However,

1. Ruud, are you sure the ADC chips in the ipod handle 96k like they should?
2. If you have an iPod and wanna try it, cool, if you don't have an iPod you probably shouldn't consider buying an iPod for recording: linux on iPod is sketchy buisness at best. People at my work have been running Linux on iPods for a while now If you don't know a lot about computers you should DEFINITELY not attempt it. If you're a linux guru, you can do whatever the hell you like and run Apache on it for all I care.

- bram

spoken like a typical mac lover

Hehehe, I've never had a mac in my life, neither an iPod or anything made by apple!

- bram

knid
Alternative is to get an i-River - they are set up to record from internal or external mic and they work just dandy.

You're right, particularly so with the new Rockbox firmware, it has turned the iRivers into completely new machines: no glitches, real-time recording levels, operates for 9 h (formerly 4.5 h), files up to 2 Gb, and a lot other features... Amazing (for those that have not heard about Rockbox, it is an Open Code replacement for the original firmware of Archos and iRiver machines). I wish I had known the existence of Rockbox *before* purchasing my Edirol R1, anyone interested?

Alternative is to get an i-River - they are set up to record from internal or external mic and they work just dandy.

Don't you also need the cradle which has the line in option? otherwise its the internal mic only?

h

I am currently using an iRiver H320 with Rockbox software on it, it records to Wav, has Electronic Meters to avoid clipping. I just switched to the Rockbox software so I don't really have that much experience except for just playing around a bit. The record to wav and meters are a much needed improvement over the iRiver firmware. The nice thing is Rockbox is dual boot, so I can also boot into the iRiver firmware if needed.

dobroide

knid
Alternative is to get an i-River - they are set up to record from internal or external mic and they work just dandy.

You're right, particularly so with the new Rockbox firmware, it has turned the iRivers into completely new machines: no glitches, real-time recording levels, operates for 9 h (formerly 4.5 h), files up to 2 Gb, and a lot other features... Amazing (for those that have not heard about Rockbox, it is an Open Code replacement for the original firmware of Archos and iRiver machines). I wish I had known the existence of Rockbox *before* purchasing my Edirol R1, anyone interested?

Got really excited about this until I saw that they don't support the H10.

:cry:

Hey,

I thought someone might be interested in my experiment with an ipod 5g as a .wav 16bit 44.1khz recorder, using a minidisc as a preamp...

http://dalybulge.blogspot.com/

It was a cheap opportunity to record .wav & drag & drop, over my minidisc recording. The cost was nil, because I used stuff laying around my house.

Any thoughts would be grately appreciated. And if anyone else has experienced the 'right channel hiss' using rockbox, please let me know.

Many thanks

Ben.