mp3 players - recording quality

[amanfang]

I am looking to buy an mp3 player sometime soon.  I don't need video, and my price range is probably $150 or so.  Does anyone have experience with the recording quality of mp3 players?  I was looking at iRiver this morning.  Can I record myself playing in my living room and get decent quality (my only other experience would be tape recorder which is awful.)? 
Anything else I should take into consideration? 

[nicco]

If you are recording directly from the mp3 player it will be crap of course but if you are using a decent microphone it will be ok.

[amanfang]

So all I need is just a microphone to plug in to it? 

What about space?  How much space do I need?  I'm thinking I want to be able to play 10 - 20 hours worth of music. 

[prometheus]

If you are interested in recording I would look into technology specificly developed for recording.

I am not sure because I do not have an mp3 player but the quality and possibilities will probably be limited. So buy a mp3 player for its ability to listen to music. If you can record something then that's just an added plus. These things are just little extra's that impress teenagers. Just as with shooting photos on cell phones.

 

[amanfang]

Well, I want it for its music playing capabilities.  But if I can get something that records well too, I am definitely interested in it. 

[pianolearner]

Well, I want it for its music playing capabilities.  But if I can get something that records well too, I am definitely interested in it. 

Human beings are analog devices. We can't see or hear anything in digital, it must be converted to analog before we can understand it.  I don't want to go into too much technical detail but the most important part of any digital device are the A/D's (Analog to Digital) and D/A (Digital to Analog) converters. MP3 is a digital compression standard and file format.  It means Mpeg Audio layer 3, Layer 3 is one of three coding schemes (layer 1, layer 2 and layer 3) for the compression of audio signals and it is not designed to give you high quality recordings. It is a lossy compression system meaning information that is considered imperceptible or redundant is removed from the original.

[prometheus]

I think the main point is that it is not even designed to record. I mean, it can do it but I think it will be just an extra gadget. Sure, the thing about what mp3 encoding means is accurate. But I think it will also be irrelevant. It will have a crappy mike, it will not have much possibilities to edit or manupilate the recording. It will probably be focussed on recording speech, etc.


I would just record with your computer.

[musik_man]

I have a 512mb Creative player.  If you want authentic 1930's style monophonic recordings, it's the player for you.