Testing audio

Mindy McAdam’s post on what gear journalism students should have reminded me that I still hadn’t tested the iTalk Pro I picked up just before Christmas.

So I did. I plugged the thing in, recorded a few seconds of TV sound and then talked into my iPod for a minute or so. After the iPod downloaded the file (automatically, into a playlist called voice memo in iTunes), I used Amadeus Pro to convert the file to an MP3 at 48kpbs. Oddly, the original recording is a wav file, not aiff.

Impressions: Overall sound quality when I spoke into the thing is good. Recording of ambient sound was disappointing: the level is low and there is a noticeable hiss. You can’t monitor the recording through the iPod headphones. And to firmly plug the iTalk Pro in, I had to remove my video iPod from its leather case, leaving it unprotected.

I haven’t tested it yet with an external microphone but, I suspect, for anything other than dictation, voice-over, narration, etc., a good quality mic will be required.

Overall, I like the potential, if I can figure out how to get higher quality ambient sound recordings without the hiss. It’s easier to operate than the older iRiver I’ve been using, which I quite like despite its clunky interface and control. And the idea of having one less device to carry around (by combining video iPod and recorder) is nice.

The sound file just below is the result of my test. It’s unedited and I haven’t thrown any of Amadeus Pro’s audio enhancing filters at it yet.

Before you press “play,” a warning. The first bit of the recording, the TV soundtrack, is barely audible. Resist the urge to crank the volume, particularly if you’re wearing headphones, because my narration comes in at normal volume. And excuse the couple of sniffles in there: I’m at the tail end of a nasty cold.

This would have been posted last night if I had figured out how to embed the audio file in this post. But, after trying four different WordPress plugins, none of which worked as advertised, I gave up and wrote stole some code. Sheesh: the internet still ain’t easy.

UPDATE: I finally got the Audio Player WordPress plug-in working. Turns out the instructions for uploading the plug-in files are wrong.

TAGS: AUDIO, RECORDING, iPOD, iTALK