Audio Recordings- Analog or Digital Storage?

Hello Group,I am in need of your help. I am looking for advice, suggestions on a new recorder to use for taping Interviews. I tryed this on my own but with all the new stuff out there, I couldn't settle on what would be best. Please, lend me your experience and knowledge.
-PS

Take it from me, when they subpoena duces tecum all your records and recordings, it's sure nice to be able to hand over a simple tape instead of your whole recorder. I say tape. This happened to me and I didn't get my recorder back for 6 weeks.
-GK

Using the best evidence rule, the original source medium - voice or video - is the best piece of evidence. However, in the age of erasable medium; digital hard drive cameras and voice recorders, the "original" is becoming a little ambiguous.

I am not an attorney and you should consult with your own before you make any decisions on what to use or how to handle your company. But here is what I did:

I have spoken to the attorneys I work with about this very issue and the response was that if you have an unedited copy of the original, and if the original is not available, then the copy becomes the "best evidence". This of course must be backed up with testimony the submitted copy is an unedited version. In this new age of erasable mediums, digital copies of source material are acceptable. The courts can easily recognize that when using the new digital medium, no one can be expected to buy new recorders once the first one is filled, and that digital copies are made for long term storage.

This is a very valid issue for the new hard drive cameras (which is why I asked the question) where the "original" is erased once you transfer it to a DVD or desk top. This is applicable to digital voice recordings as well.

The upside is I now have a stack of DVDs where I had a stack of tapes, which takes up a fraction of the space.
-MC

Good day -

-- My opinion is simple - digital.

-- Further - with Sony and Olympus using their own proprietary formats (or the Windows "WMA" format) Both Sony and Olympus are good quality recorders. Attempt to get one that has a card slot for additional memory expansion. Olympus seems to have chosen to drop all models with a card slot in favor of more built-in memory (a less than optimal solution).

-- Using any of these will give you excellent results for a recording - but you will likely have to convert it at some point for use on some other computer system (say, in court). Arizona's legislature uses the Olympus (DSS) format, and you get a software player to distribute with it. Some also permit you to convert to the WAV format during downloads to the computer. WAV files are -very- large by comparison. Then you might also need to convert that WAV file to a more usable format for wide use -likely MP3.

-- My opinion - Try to get a recorder that records directly to the MP3 format. There are a few available.

-- There are some very expensive, physically larger, ones meant for studion quality recordings. There are some that are good for desktop interview use (still a bit larger - say 4" x 6") that cost in the area of $200 or so. Then there are a couple that are smaller, similar to the other brands of handheld digital recorders commonly available.

-- I've bought one for desktop use (connect to a telephone for instance) that you can sit near and record an interview with the recorder in full view. It works very well - and you can set the "sampling rate" for high to lower quality (and smaller files sizes). Then I've bought one that looks very much like an 'older' MP3 player that is quite pocketable.

-- MP3 is considered the 'text' file of the audio world. It is able to be played on any operating system that can play audio (so can WAV) and for 'CD' quality is approximately 9% the size of a comparable WAV file. (think 1 hr on a CD to about 11 or so hours on a CD). Though lowering the sampling rate can give you very good recordings and still make very small file sizes. I have one CD with 29 hrs 45 mins on it. Makes for good use of time for both you and the attorney? adjuster? ... ?

-- Sanyo makes two that I know of. One is typical size for a handheld digital and is similar to the familiar slim microcassette-size recorder. It has 256meg of built-in memory (h o u r s of interviews) a slot for SD cards (preferable to use a card versus the built-in memory), and a built-in USB connector, for as much convenience as you can hope for. I guess that (secure) wireless transmission to the PC (from your remote location) is the next desire. The other Sanyo is the small MP3 player-looking one. Both had list prices of $300 (matching those from Sony and Olympus) when brand new. I've seen it around $200 now (a bit cheaper than Sony and Olympus - due to name recognition?). However I did buy the small MP3 player version for $66 on Overstock.com awhile back. But both record directly to MP3 and I felt that is by far the best thing you can do when moving to digital - IMHO.

-- Many times you would be faced with converting an audio file to another format - in real time. Not a good use of time at all. There are software packages that can help with some conversions, but that idea of doing any conversion in real time is not appealing.

-- When I've been asked to explain this idea of digital recording I simply use a tape analogy for them to understand it a bit more easily.

-- I begin with the idea that any recording I supply them IS 'the original recording' (as it was recorded directly to MP3 format). Compare this to the idea that you remove a tape from the recorder to the 'shelf' (for instance) - well, I remove the recording to the PC. I'd store a tape in some 'shoebox' - I store the recording in a folder on the PC. I make the argument in simple matter-of-fact terms that they are the same - but this is the original recording without the crappy sound or need to record it to the PC (in real time).

-- If not one of these - I am -still- very high on the Sony MiniDisc recorders. 45 hours or more on a single $2 disk (cheap enough to actually store). The newest ones still record to a proprietary format (but can download to WAV file, then can be converted at high speed to MP3) so you still need to explain that you did not edit the interview, just changed the format.

-- Good luck.
-BK