Digital vs Analog Voice Recorder

Archived from groups: rec.audio.tech (More info?)

"Pred02" wrote...
> I am now a graduate student and need to undertake a couple of
> qualitative interviews (8-10) this summer. Each interview should last
> about 1 hour to 2 hours. Some of the interviews will be done in a
> foreign language, and some in English. I will need to transcripe the
> conversations, and then [if in foreign language] translate them to
> English.
>
> For this purpose, I need to purchase a voice recorder to tape the
> interviews. Now, given the fact that I will be only doing research
> this
> summer, I probably won't be using the tape recorder much thereafter.
> And given the fact that some of the interviews will be in a foreign
> language, I think that the auto-transcription software is not of much
> use (and I heard that it's not very functional because it needs to
> adapt to voices).
>
> My question is, is it worth getting a digital voice recorder (the
> likes
> of Olympus DS-330), or an old-school analog minitape one is fine? I am
> interested in voice-quality, etc. I would like to spend not much on
> it,
> however, analogue ones can be found for about 30 USD, where as the
> digital ones for about twice as much or little more.
>
> In addition, please include a recommendation of the analogue/digital
> model, becuase I need to make a decision and purchase ASAP.

If it is just for one-time use, yeah, analog is likely the
most cost effective. However, remember that the low-
priced devices may be less reliable, particularly analog
ones that rely on moving parts, etc.

Consider also: if you are doing these interviews where
you have a portable computer available, you can record
on the computer at little or no additional cost.