Last updated 12 April 2008 (minor update 17 Nov 08)
How quickly technology moves on! "Solid-state" digital recorders are no longer a novelty and there's a rapidly growing range to choose from. Mini-disc recorders are out of production and the survivors are dying out, while finding blank mini-discs is something of a chore. In any case the new digital recorders are more robust and easier to integrate with your digital editing. So what do you need? Read on!
“Solid-state” recorders
"Solid-state" just means these machines record directly onto a removable memory card, and they have become the firm favourites for radio. The memory card is usually a “Compact Flash” (CF) or "Secure Digital" (SD) card as widely used in digital cameras, which is great news as memory capacity continues to rise exponentially while prices plummet. And no moving parts means little to go wrong.
There are still some digital recorders that record onto a hard-disk drive but that was really an interim step on the journey from magnetic tape to solid-state, they are not as robust and I wouldn't recommend them unless you need an enormous recording capacity for some reason.
Even if you have a mini-disc recorder that still works, the BBC is discouraging us from using them because they “compress” the audio – it doesn’t make any audible difference, at least for speech, but it CAN theoretically create “digital artefacts” when combined with the BBC’s VCS Digital Playout System. Click here for the “Mini-Disc recorders” page (but I’m no longer bothering to keep it up to date). If you’re still using your MD recorder ... ... then get into the habit of using it just once – for the recording. Never dub edited material back onto mini-disc. You should be able to edit in say Pro Tools or Cool Edit (Adobe Audition) then burn your edited material to CD – that way there’s no loss of quality, no compression AND it’s easier for the producer or studio manager to import your audio straight into their digital editing program. Also if you work inside Broadcasting House in London be aware that they aimed to remove all mini-disc players from studios and workshops from January 2006 (though you can probably still plug in your portable MD recorder with a bit of nous, and the right leads). Incidentally if you want to persevere with MD recorders for a while yet there is still a ready supply of good ones on eBay (as consumers swap to iPod and similar MP3 players). Likewise there are going to be perfectly good blank mini-discs around for a good few years from specialist suppliers.
So if you are going to make the switch, what is the choice? ... go to the "choosing digital recorders" page