Today I graduated from Northampton Community College with my Associate of Arts degree in journalism. Now while all that may be exciting — just like my acceptance to Temple University so I can continue studying journalism this fall — the really exciting part came when I opened my Edirol R-09.
Yes, my ultra-geek tendencies took over and I spent the past hour or so setting up my new tech toy and part of my mobile journalism kit. So far I’ve been dictating into it with different settings like low or high mic gain, input level and one where I peaked the levels and got definite distortion so I could see how much effort it would take.
As far as the recorder goes it’s easy to use. In fact the thing kicks the crap out of the old Olympus WS-300M I was using before — and with an expandable SD slot it’ll take much more time to fill it up.
The quality was good, definitely what I would expect from a high quality product recommended from several journalists. I haven’t gotten much on the quality of the recording at a distance although I definitely heard my mother from across the room on the first recording I made.
My only current complaint is the battery door; it feels flimsy and I didn’t like the way it was closing with the batteries inside the unit. It’s tough to explain but the door looks like it’s under too much stress from the batteries pushing up on the contact springs.
I plan on updating my thoughts on the R-09 as I get more experience with it, possibly with some recordings if I can find something interesting to record while interning at The Morning Call.
Now if I could just figure out how to hold the recorder while interviewing a subject while simultaneously writing descriptive notes at the same time … maybe I should invest in attaching a third arm?
Test on uploading Soundslides | Jared Silfies says:
[...] a series of posts by journalism Professor Mindy McAdams. Once I figure out how to get audio with my sweet Edirol R-09, I’ll be adding audio and creating better stories (I [...]
September 25th, 2008 at 11:28 pm