[linux-audio-user] (semi)professional "field" recording work, what to use?

[Wilbert Berendsen]

Hi, this is my first posting to this list; I'm a professional musician 
(organist) and avid Linux user from the Netherlands.

I want to make good quality recordings with lightweight equipment and to 
further process the recordings on my Linux desktop PC.

Currently I own a DCC recorder, but there are no DCC tapes available 
anymore.  I have some tapes, but they are starting to show problems.


So I'm in the market for some new equipment. I researched quite a lot and 
I think there are the following possiblities:

1. Minidisc recording.

consumer minidisc recorders are very compact which is good. But they 
almost never have a digital out.  Some have USB, but will not function as 
an USB-Audio device under Linux (AFAIK, all use the proprietairy NetMD 
protocol, which is partially reverse engineered, see: 
http://www.marcus-brinkmann.de/freemd.en.html).

so to use most consumer market MD recorders it looks like I have to have a 
good audio interface to record the sound from MD to my PC (and still have 
it D->A and A->D converted in the process.)

A professional MD recorder which looks very good (the HHB PORTADISC 
MDP500, see: http://www.hhb.co.uk/000/int.htm) has an USB interface that 
if I understand correctly just manifests itself as an usb audio device 
under Windows, and should thus also work with ALSA (?)

so with that recorder I could once record the sound and futher process it 
fully digitally. The price is around EUR 1600,= which is quite a lot. My 
main concern would be the availability of MD's.

2. Harddisk/flashcard/cd-rw recorders.

It seems these are very expensive now.

3. A laptop with a good (external?) audio interface (M-audio USB?)

Just Linux on it and arecord -f cd full_concert.wav :-)


My question is:  What equipment do other people use?  Would the HHB MDP500 
be a good choice?  Will MD stay for another decade?  I think it is 
important that open standards are used (I feel more confident with usb 
audio than e.g. NetMD)

thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts :)

regards,
Wilbert Berendsen

-- 
Wilbert Berendsen (http://www.xs4all.nl/~wbsoft/)
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
        -- Mahatma Gandi
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