Gmini 400

[PRR]

Has anybody yet seen a Archos Gmini 400?

It is another MP3 player, plus a color screen that will show movies. Internal 20GB hard drive and USB2 port. $350. Except for the movie-screen (which PCMag says works well for a 2" display and quite well when adapted to a TV set) it is just another iPod, yawn.

Except: it records. Yes, many pocket-packs record, but mostly to MP3 and many only to RAM-card. 128K MP3 is a fine playback format, but not my preference for mastering fine music on location, and I need hours of recording time.

This records to WAV, 44KHz. I assume this is 16-bit stereo(???), and thus "as good as CD-R". Except it is smaller than a CDR4U, and should hold 30 hours of 44KHz-WAV. A music school's hell-week in a pocket!

For live recording obviously it needs an analog source: mikes and preamps or mixer, and for many gigs a protective limiter would be wise. Fitting all that in the other pocket might be tight.

I can also see a use: a musician keeps this with him, with adapters, and asks to leave it plugged into the board at all studio sessions. It would take days to fill it, and it can be dumped via USB2 pretty fast through a PC to a 120GB $95 hard drive, and backed-up on 5GB data DVDs. Then if the artist dies at the peak of her career, the heirs can mine hundreds of hours of sessions for tribute albums.

 

[Mbira]

I've got the gmini 120. I got it about a year and a half ago for $200. It has a 20 gig hard drive and built in mic. The mic has NO headroom. I need to put it 100' away to not clip recording my big-band rehersals. Granted, that is a lot of volume, but still. I do think it's great for small practice sessions. It also has an adaptor for a line input record where you could use a little battery powered preamp. I have my whole CD collection on there (in wav format) and still have a ton of room for recording, data storage, etc. It's pretty cool that you can just plug in the usb and it is recognised as another drive letter. You can just drag-and-drop stuff onto it. I think the screen on the more expensive models is a waste as I'd never use that feature. I think it's pretty cool. One thing is that the 120 can't record to wav.-I think that is a feature that I can get, but I havn't checked.

Joel

 

[edanderson]

i've been longing and looking for a HDD based player that would also record in WAV format. the creative labs nomad jukebox 3, a portable cd player sized unit has been out for a few years and does that. more recently the iRiver iHP-1x0 series and neuros audio "digital audio computer" also have come out with similar functions.

for a more unwieldy and expensive solution, there is also the iPaq recording unit offered by core sound, the PDAudio. it offers 24 bit input, but requires external converters, and an iPaq PDA and storage device to act as a host.

so far, nothing hits all the right points for me. but it continues to get closer.

ed

 

[Mbira]

Well that's cool. I went to the archos site to see if there were any updates, and I got the new firmware, and I can now record from the mic to wav. it is only 22.0 kHz though.

Joel

 

[PRR]

> creative labs nomad jukebox 3

Thanks for the tip. Big, though smaller than any CD recorder. Seems to be discontinued, but can be found hear and there new and used around $200. Can't find a detailed spec or manual: it records WAV, but at 44KHz?

Anybody used one of these iPod-like toys as a recorder?

 

[Mbira]

This records to WAV, 44KHz. I assume this is 16-bit stereo(???

Are you trying to record to a line level or mic level? I'd call the people at archos. They're very helpful because the documentation is NOT complete. When I bought my unit, I thought it recorded to wav but it didn't. Now the upgrade does. I wouldn't count on the specs even on their website. Notice the gmini still doean't advertise that you can play back wav files, but you can.

If you're mastering, then I assume you are going in line level. The gmini has a spidf input.

Anybody used one of these iPod-like toys as a recorder?

Yes, as I said, it has very little headroom-more like a line input than a mic input.
Joel

 

[edanderson]

creative's documentation is terrible and hard to find on their website. here's the nomad jukebox 3 manual, for what its worth:

http://files.americas.creative.com/manualdn/Manuals/2437/NJB3.pdf

also, from their knowledgebase:

Recording sample rates can be 48Khz, 44.1KHz, 32KHz, 24KHz, 22.05KHz, 16KHz, 12KHz and 11KHz at 16 bit.

there is a digitally implemented level control. analog and optical line in via minijack. the metering is minimal.

the iriver ihp series doesn't have any metering at all, and has some inane limitation where it stops recording when the wav filesize reaches 700mb or so.

the neuros audio unit is probably the best of the lot, but still not quite ready for my tastes. has okay metering, analog line in but no digital in. minimally flaky. about $250 for the 20gb model new.

http://www.neurosaudio.com

ed

 

[PRR]

> the neuros audio unit is probably the best of the lot, but still not quite ready

Unless I've slipped a bead on my abacus, that only does 8-bit WAV files. Or is it just mono? Either way, it isn't CD quality.....

Interesting that the software is open-source... if it has a 16-bit DAC, I could probably do something amusing.

 

[edanderson]

if you're calculating the bitrate from the assertion in the manual that it only requires 5mb/min at 44khz, that is calculated for recording with the integrated mic, which is mono. recording from the line in is stereo, 16bit, at 8/44/48kHz, and takes 10mb/min @ 44kHz as you'd expect.

edit: this is information from multiple neuros owners, rather than the company. i can only vouch for it insofar as several concert tapers have reported this information consistently to me.

and yes, the open source firmware does make it more appealing. to be clear, i don't own one, but if i were to buy now, this would be my choice.

ed