anyone using m-audio micro track 24/96?

buzby · Post by **buzby** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 1:16 pm

hi

anyone using the M-audio micro track 24/96 that can give some feedback on it?

im thinking of buying one for travelling - i have been up to some places in N.E Arnhem Land which is an Aboriginal land area in north Australia and intend to do more trips like this to such places around the world where i hope that, with the proper permission from indigenous people, i can take recordings/samples of them.

cheers

B3 · Post by B3 » Sat Mar 11, 2006 2:42 pm

I bought one recently ... what do you want to know? So far, I'm very impressed with the sound quality and ease of use. The MicroTrack feels small, light, and a little plasticky, but the features, ease of use, and quality are definitely there. The stereo mic that is included works amazingly well. I'm very happy I bought mine.

Check out O'Reilly's very thourough review:

http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2005/11 ... eview.html

HD1 · Post by **HD1** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 3:18 pm

hey buzby, how's iceland been treating you ? I was at one of your workshops in Galway before you left, glad to see you're still on the same track. I'm interested in documenting indigenous music song & poetry too....i carry an edirol R1 around in my bag, its got some sweet onboard effects...simple eq, full eq, noise reduction, hum remover,...some reverbs, you can play sound back at half the speed without changing the pitch etc, and it all sounds great.....I've had an maudio soundcard and it was rubbish, which has made me skeptical about their whole company and product range, so I'd advise googling the edirol r1 and reading a review to compare it with the maudio one. Just recently I picked up a nice condenser mic, and a nice buspowered ad/da to plug it into....I want to go to the basque and document what I can, carrying on the work of alan lomax in a way...I've bookmarked your website, sounds like a great project to be a part of. How does the NRPIM work ? Would they allow someone like me to participate, or do they send out their own people to do the recording ? I'll do some more reading on your website,
good luck!

ps, did you get to record anything with bjork ?

B3 · Post by B3 » Sat Mar 11, 2006 3:24 pm

and, I'm planning on travelling to Iceland on April 22nd if you want to try my MicroTrack out for yourself

jazzosapien · Post by **jazzosapien** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 4:04 pm

I want to buy the same thing.

However, there are I-Audio mp3 players with line-in recording. I am not sure about recording quality, but for $200 you get mp3 player with 2GB(i-audio U3 model for example).

Best

http://www.onebluemonkey.com/jazzosapien

HD1 · Post by **HD1** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 4:18 pm

you get what you pay for...

buzby · Post by **buzby** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 4:44 pm

hi B3

you answered a few things i was wanting to know in your reply - thanks

i have some thoughts about what the 24/96 woiuld be like in areas such as Arnhem Land (dust, sand, humidity etc) as well as places such as Greenland where i hope to be going some time soon.

I was thinking of buying a rugged laptop for recording in such areas - but something smaller would be better in some cases.

you say you are coming to Iceland on the 22nd - how long for?

this is one day after my birthday and i ´ll be going to listen to my friends band if you wanna come along - they are called Worm is Green - electronica with female vocals.

best regards

buzby · Post by **buzby** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 4:51 pm

Ropey Punter

you´re gonna have to give me your real name bro - does nt ring a bell so far - a girl from Galway and one from Dublin were just visiting me and they could nt figure out who you are.

just been reading about the new Edirol R-09 - B3 ´s recommendation of the M-AUDIO seems cool.

- mmmm - yeah - done some session work for Björk about 18 months ago - vocals for a remix of Triumph of a Heart from the Medulla album - great fun

one of the things the NRPIM is trying to do is to train Aboriginal people to use recording equipment to document dance and song repertories which are not accessable to non-aboriginal people - secret stuff

how is Galway treating you? i was there last summer

cheers

buzby · Post by **buzby** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 4:52 pm

jazzosapien

thanks for the reply - think im into spending a few extra krona to get something of very good quality

best

Sales Dude McBoob · Post by **Sales Dude McBoob** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 6:28 pm

Buzby-

I've sold a bunch of Microtracks at this point, so I've heard back from my customers. The verdict seems split. Some people are happy with it, others are not. It isn't uncommon to have a split opinion about this sort of gear.

One of the draw back for you may be battery life. The Microtrack has an internal rechargeable battery. An 8 hour charge time gives you about 3 hours of field use, then you have no choice but to charge for another 8 hours or find an AC outlet out there in the bush somehow and use it with the ac adapter. There is no other way to power it.

One customer complained that the included stereo mic craps out if the music or sound source you're recording gets too loud. I.E. the included mic has a low SPL.

The Edirol R-1 runs on AA batteries that you can pop in and pop out when they die. Another plus is the MP3 encoding on this machine sounds really nice, it's hard to tell the difference between it and WAV. Unlike the Marantz PMD660, on which the MP3 encoding sounds scratchy. The R-1 only has a mini mic input. The R-9 is too new so I haven't delt with it yet.

The Marantz 660 is one to avoid. The 670 and 671 however are very nice (except of MP3 quality), but they are both larger units.

Tascam has a new one called the HDP2. I've sold a bunch of these and so far everyone loves it. Again this is a larger recorder. Same with the Fostex FR2. Nice machine, large size.

The best stuff I've seen are the Sound Devices 722 and 744T. Price is the barrier with those.

Nargra just came out with a small recorder but it isn't that great.

My advice is to get the R-1 if you want something small. If you need XLR ins then get a larger recorder like the 670. If you want the best and can spend the $$ get the 722 or the 744T.

B3 · Post by B3 » Sun Mar 12, 2006 8:14 pm

buzby wrote:hi B3

you say you are coming to Iceland on the 22nd - how long for?

this is one day after my birthday and I´ll be going to listen to my friends band if you wanna come along - they are called Worm is Green - electronica with female vocals.

best regards

I have not finalized trip plans yet, but will do so by next week sometime. I'm working in my home studio next week with Rafaella Sigurdardottir (a friend) on some of her music, and the the trip will be to work with her more and see some of Iceland. I am planning on bringing Xiren (a Musician friend here in Denver who I remix and do some production for) along with the possibility of doing a small show. Xiren does Indie rock and I do electronica ... so were figuring out how that mixes.

Here's one of my remixes / reproductions of Xiren that is currently in progress:
"http://www.b3orion.com/music/Leave_Me_( ... p_mix).mp3"
(cut and paste without the quotes)

Anyway, I'd love to meet up to see Worm is Green. Sounds right up my alley. I'd like to hear more about your music as well. Let's talk more.

Orion - a.k.a. Bill

buzby · Post by **buzby** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 4:03 pm

mr sales dude

thanks very much for going to the trouble of writing that reply - i ´ll check out your recommendations

best regards

buzby · Post by **buzby** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 4:05 pm

hey Bill

look forward to you coming over - maybe we should be in touch via email and not on the forum ....

i´ll check out the remix soon as -

cheers

Sales Dude McBoob · Post by **Sales Dude McBoob** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 4:47 pm

buzby wrote:mr sales dude

thanks very much for going to the trouble of writing that reply - i ´ll check out your recommendations

best regards

Well what can I say? Anyone who's a friend of Bjork is a friend of mine!

I'm kidding...

I try to pitch in my two cents when someone asks about something I know really well.

I got to play with the Sound Devices 744T yesterday. It's a real piece of work. Small, robust, packed ear to ear with inputs and outputs... internal 20 gig drive + compact flash, you can record onto the drive and the card at the same time so you have two copies of everything you do. Firewire connectivity. Lot's of blinky lights... it's the cat's pajamas.

B3 · Post by B3 » Mon Mar 27, 2006 9:18 pm

buzby wrote:
look forward to you coming over - maybe we should be in touch via email and not on the forum ....

buzby ...

Finalizing trip plans this week. What is your e-mail address? I'll send you my contact info. I also have some questions for you about the music scene in Iceland.

Bill

anyone using m-audio micro track 24/96?

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