New gadget records for two weeks... where do I leave this?

[stuffedpanda99]

Hey,
I just got my hands on a small voice recorder (about the size of a roll of dimes) that can record for two weeks straight. It even has an activation mode where it will skip over long silences and only record sounds that are above a certain volume -- so it could even sit somewhere for a little more than two weeks. much can happen in two weeks.
The settings on it are such that increasing the compression of the audio can make it record for a longer period of time... the best quality setting is just short of a day... a little below the middle quality is the two week mark.

It's the one mentioned in this thread... in the 4th post down.

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1482

Anyways... any ideas on what I can do with this thing? You all seem a lot more creative than me. Where would you leave it or send it for the possibility of getting the best sounds? What would you do with it?

All I have to do is put it somewhere and then return for it much later -- obviously somewhere where it wouldn't simply get swiped... it was sorta expensive.

.. Thanks!

[yeppie]

Hey stuffedpanda!
I know there are a few members who are interested in this kind of equipment (see the mentioned discussion), so those will be very interested in learning more about the device. Did you do some test recordings that you might consider uploading here? What are your experiences on quality of the recordings and ease of use? Where did you buy? ...
Thanks for your information.
yeppie

[stuffedpanda99]

Hi Yeppie,
Test recordings ----- I've only done a few. Right now I'm testing the two week ability of it. I think I'm at 1.5 weeks right now, so a few more days and I'll download and test what the recording is like.
I'll upload some experiments I did when I retrieve it, but they'll only show the sound it can pick up in different situations... it probably hasn't heard any sex yet.

I bought it here:
http://www.ts-market.com/products/?acti ... 3&prodId=2

The site is frustrating to navigate. There's different models -- I bought the B26 model ----
Be careful what area of the site you buy it from... one of the ordering pages I got sent to had it listed as something like 300 dollars more than the other ordering page I was sent to later.
Once you order they E-mail you and ask your method of payment and what color you want.

Pros:
Aside from the tiny usb port and the little blinking light (which could be painted over or covered up) it looks like a fairly generic keychain.

No display. When you turn it on the little light on the one end flashes in certain combos to tell you how much memory remains and how much battery power you have left. -- translated via the manual

Cons:
The first thing you want to do when you buy it is take the metal chain off the key-chain end of it. If you move the recorder around at all when the chain is attached that's all the recorder can hear (due to it being metal)

The blinking light would have to be covered up somehow if you plan on leaving it somewhere. It blinks every ten seconds or so to tell you it's still recording.

The button to turn off/on sticks out , but it's on the same side as the microphone... so it would prevent you from pressing one end against a surface (like a wall) without the chance of it hitting the button and turning off. -- but there's better devices for that wall stuff anyways.


The printed words "edic mini b26" are on the opposite side to the microphone/button/light end. -- could be painted over.


Tests:

1.Under a coat next to me on a noisy train recording college kids behind me. I could barely hear what they were saying with my own ears. When I downloaded the file to the computer and turned up the volume there was still a lot of background noise, but I could hear more than what I did in person.

2. Placed in a backpack in a restaurant - noise was more muffled. Stuff I could hear with my own ears was much harder to tell specific words on the recording. Walking around with the backpack actually turned it off at one point somehow... I assume the button got pressed.

3. Left in bedroom during day -- bunch of room-mates came home all at once and turned on the tv. I just left it on a big table in my room -- it seemed to pick up roughly the same amount of noise I would hear normally from that place with the door closed.

But I'll upload some samples later when I retrieve it from my current test.

I ordered it back when I still lived in a more active room-mate house... If I wandered downstairs to the kitchen after midnight on a friday it would be odd not to hear someone having sex. That's the last thing I would hear from the current room-mates -- so I request ideas on what I can do with this. How would you use it?

Thankyou!

[stuffedpanda99]

I have a short test recording that will give you a good idea of what it's able to pick up... although it's not sex... For some reason it's not letting me attach it to this thread. Where can I put it?

Bad news though... I currently have some tech problems with the recorder so I wouldn't try buying one until I can sort it out and see if there's a fix.

[yeppie]

Thanks a lot for the valuable information!
Can you tell which kind of technical problems your device has?

You should be able to attach a file to your message here, do you see the file attachment box when writing a message? The denial could be related to the file type. Which kind of file type did you try to attach?

[stuffedpanda99]

Hi,
Right now it's refusing to record. The button turns it on, but then it won't respond to further presses. Pressing it more should stop/start recording if it worked. I'm hoping the company has a fix for it.

I was trying to upload an MP3.

[futheas]

Now you can attach an mp3 file. I restricted this to avoid having sounds spread anywhere on the forum.

[stuffedpanda]

Thanks furtheas!

I corrected the issue that was causing the voice recorder to not record.
After my week-long recording test the battery that came with it was dead. That was all. I replaced the battery with a new lithium one and it works fine now.

I attached a recording I made in public. (it's not sex although might be of interest to anyone who wants to see what it's able to pick up) I just put the recorder on the seat. This way you can hear what it's able to pick up of voices about 10 feet way with quite loud ambient noise of the train.

The strength of the recorder I think is the length of time it can record -- although I was able to hear more of the conversations in the recording than I was able to hear with my ears while there in person.

[yeppie]

Thanks for this valued information. The quality of the recording is surprisingly good!

[yeppie]

Searching for Edic Tiny on Ebay brought up a few (3 or so) merchants for these devices. Still expensive but distinctly cheaper than at TS-Market.

[stuffedpanda]

That's awesome. Are you going to get one?

[yeppie]

2

[stuffedpanda]

2!? That is great!

Any creative ideas on what you would do with them? I guess it would change the hotel game a bit if you could leave them somewhere but obviously have safe retreival afterward?

[yeppie]

Well, someone came up with the idea of leaving it in a hotelroom and come back after a week or so to listen what happened. But as I'm not interested in illegal activities, I have to refuse this. I own a small collection of technical devices which I bought during several years, driven by curiosity. I will probably play around with the recorders for a while, maybe record a concert or two and might sell one of them later on Ebay.

[stuffedpanda]

That's understandable.

Are you going to post some of your own tests? There's a lot of different settings to play with in the firmware and combinations of those too. The edic is my first voice recorder so it would be interesting to hear what someone else (that has had a lot of experience with audio recorders) can get out of it.