IHR Episode #36 (Enhanced) – Mobile Flash Recorders, NAMM Trends, Cool Tips, and a Nasty Diagnosis (IHR_2007_02_07)

Summary: [Play IHR #36 now] Shownotes Total time 41 min 04 sec. A birthday, a future Zoom H4 recorder giveaway (thanks, Samson and Zoom!), Tunecore, recording solo guitarist-singers, homemade digital patch bays, NAMM trends, Audio Technology magazine, killing star rating, and surgery soon for Derek. Zoom H4 and M-Audio MicroTrack reviews. And do you think an IHR PayPal tip jar is a good idea? If you can play Enhanced podcasts (AAC enhanced) on your iPod or PlayStation Portable, or in iTunes or QuickTime, you'll find lots of photos and links accompanying this episode. 00:00 Intros, Home Recording Network, thanks to M-Audio and Source-Elements, GoToMeeting and zZounds. 01:45 Paul turned 39 this week, and got a cool laptop case; Derek talks about the Samson Q8 dynamic mic donated to us by Samson at the NAMM Show. 03:00 Coming up - IHR will be giving away a Zoom H4 Handy Recorder (worth $300 USD) in a future episode! Listen to IHR #37 in a couple of weeks for details. 03:45 Please leave a review of IHR at the iTunes Store podcast directory for your country. (If you're at the Canadian directory, you'll see that Derek left a review, but that was way back when he was just a listener, not co-host.) 04:30 Tunecore.com is another way to get your independent music in iTunes and other online music stores, and may work out better for you if you sell a lot of music. For smaller sales, CD Baby may be a better bet. 05:30 Paul found a great way to record solo acoustic guitarist-singers with two microphones and some phase-reversal tricks, from a tip at the IHR forums. He used Apex 460 and 470 microphones. 08:15 Paul also turned an analog patch pay into a SPDIF digital patch bay with some simple RCA adapters. 11:10 Trends at NAMM: retro gear like modular synths and Rhodes pianos, high-end manufacturers moving into the home studio market, DJ equipment and techniques cross-pollinating with other stuff. 15:35 Audio Technology magazine from Australia made some pointed comments about the hassles of product authorization, dongles, serial numbers, and so on -- something Moby noted four years ago too. 17:20 Check out all our NAMM coverage and photos, plus stuff from Sonic State and Gearwire. 18:25 What do you think of us having a PayPal tip jar, like the Project Studio Network or Derek's wife's podcast Lip Gloss and Laptops? Leave a comment at our "What Do You Think?" post. 19:10 We're killing the star rating system! Finally! Yay! 21:15 AD: GoToMeeting.com 22:22 GEAR REVIEW: Derek reviews the Zoom H4 Handy Recorder. (Buy it for $300 USD from zZounds in the U.S. and IHR will get a small commission.) Check out the flip-up USB SD cards that Derek uses too. The guitar effects are apparently derived from the Zoom G2 pedal. Also take a look at the prototype Zoom H2 (coming in May for $200 USD) we saw at the NAMM Show. See Derek's Zoom H4 photos too. 30:40 GEAR REVIEW: Paul reviews the M-Audio MicroTrack 24/96 flash recorder. (Buy it for $400 USD from zZounds in the U.S. and IHR will get a small commission.) If you lose the T-mic, that costs $15 USD to replace. You can use USB to charge, but if you want the official power supply or the hardware inline -10 dB pad, those are $20 USD each. Compare the MicroTrack to the Zoom H4 and the Edirol R09. Finally, see Microphone Data for information on mics that will work with the MicroTrack (and waaaaay more info too). See Paul's photos. 37:00 EDITORIAL: Derek was diagnosed with colorectal cancer just before NAMM, and will be having surgery soon to remove it, spending a week in the hospital and about two months off work. IHR will keep going as usual, but we're not sure how long Derek will be out of commission, whether we'll bring in some guest hosts, or whether he'll provide some prerecorded segments. He's blogging about it at his blog at penmachine.com, and even appeared on Canada's CBC Radio at the end of January, discussing how he's blogging about his cancer. 41:04 END