I’d love to have me brains picked, as there’s little I enjoy more than talking about audio. In fact, I’ve found that the best way for me to while away the time crammed into a jet on the way somewhere is to be editing and otherwise post-producing audio on my laptop. Keeps me focused and the time speeds by, though I am often wrung out by the time I deplane.

I haven’t used the MicroTrack myself, but I have read here and there that the Edirol just noses it out on audio quality, while the MicroTrack is truly pocket-sized and wins on that count. Either would have probably been fine for my purposes at the Faculty Academy, as I was using the line-in and not the microphone preamp.

By the way, do check out Giant Squid microphones. They run on “plug-in power” (which the Edirol external mic jack supplies when it’s on the “condenser” setting) and they sound amazing. Best of all, they cost about 50.00 apiece are are just a little bigger than the eraser on the head of a pencil. Lots of testimonials and examples on the website. They’re perfect for clipping to someone’s shirt or blouse, after which you can slip the recorder into a pocket or whatever. That’s how I captured my audio at the UCEA conference. Piece of cake, and the Edirol limiter does a good job of avoiding distortion.

Now for advanced microphone training, just step right this way…. After all I’ve learned from you, I owe you, oh, about fifty free lessons of your choice. For starters.

I did toss my little iAudio on a chair and have some audio, though it will not be as cleans as yours, I am sute. Just need some time to edit, and some days until I am home on a faster connection to upload.

I would like t pick your brains soon on portable audio equipment as I am very much an audio nOOb. Is the Edirol really great? A collegue has also raved about the M-Audio MicroTrack…. both look portable but would do a bit more quality wise (and record as MP3 files) than the little toy iAudio. And I need to go to microphone school.

PS- Of all irony, we presented yesterday in the “Gardner Auditorium”, so in a way, you were there ;-)

First, thanks for blogging this so comprehensively. I’m pea-green with envy, but a little less frantic that I missed it–just mournful. The blog helps me feel/suss/grok the “what” and the “how” and the “vibe,” and that helps a lot.

You guys really need to capture the audio at these sessions, somehow. I had real good luck at the Faculty Academy with a Sound Projects C3 mic on figure-8 setting. Levels are all over the place as presenters walk around, but the audio is very quiet and clean. We fed the mic into a Mackie mixer and the output then went into an Edirol R-1. Soon I’ll have some podcasts up from FA and you can judge for yourself.

That’s a long winded way of selfishly begging for more. Y’all rock.

Cheers ….Don