Topic: iPod HD recorder (from DAT-Heads)

[Nick Graham]

There's been a flood of posts lately asking about using the iPod as a recorder, figured this might come in handy.

http://www.macworld.com/2005/05/secrets/julygeekfactor/index.php

Brian, you wanna put this in the archive?

[Brendan]

no levels....nothing worked for me when i plugged my mics in...

[greenone]

Article also says mono only...

[Sanjay]

unless you modify a dock connector

[John Kelly]

Recording on the iPod?  Not.  Gonna.  Happen.

Not on the current iPods anyway, maybe newer models will add stuff, but I still doubt it.

[OFOTD]

Recording on the iPod?  Not.  Gonna.  Happen.

Not on the current iPods anyway, maybe newer models will add stuff, but I still doubt it.

I think this is alot closer actually than you may think.  Several people have been able to get a Linux firmware onto 3G IPods already.  It would seem to me that El Sirchek is on the right path.  It lies in the dock connector.  With the exception of the dock connector everything is there hardware wise.   The software seems right around the corner. Imagine a SPDIF in dock connector. 
 
We'll have to wait and see! 

[John Kelly]

I think this is alot closer actually than you may think.  Several people have been able to get a Linux firmware onto 3G IPods already.  It would seem to me that El Sirchek is on the right path.  It lies in the dock connector.  With the exception of the dock connector everything is there hardware wise.   The software seems right around the corner. Imagine a SPDIF in dock connector. 
 
We'll have to wait and see!

I seriously doubt it.  The market for such a device is so small that I doubt any company would ever want to create it.

But I could be wrong...

[OFOTD]

I think this is alot closer actually than you may think.  Several people have been able to get a Linux firmware onto 3G IPods already.  It would seem to me that El Sirchek is on the right path.  It lies in the dock connector.  With the exception of the dock connector everything is there hardware wise.   The software seems right around the corner. Imagine a SPDIF in dock connector. 
 
We'll have to wait and see!

I seriously doubt it.  The market for such a device is so small that I doubt any company would ever want to create it.

But I could be wrong...

I used to think that very same thing as well.   I also used to think that about my Xbox until I realized there was a whole other world out there. More of an issue of 'whynot' instead of 'why'.   I have seen discussions and screenshots of people using their 3 and 4G's as web servers and such.  If someone is going to turn their's into a friggen web server then a recorder doesn't seem to be far off or implausable.   

As far as a company making a new dock connector, i'm sure all it will take is some college kid majoring in elec. engineering to come up with something.  Hell maybe even leegeddy can conjour up something. 

[BLOODYJACK]

The firmware can be changed to make this a recorder all the hardware is there and the dock connector does have analoge in so getting analoge in would be easy. There is no digital in on the dock connector so forget spdif in.

[John Kelly]

I used to think that very same thing as well.   I also used to think that about my Xbox until I realized there was a whole other world out there. More of an issue of 'whynot' instead of 'why'.   I have seen discussions and screenshots of people using their 3 and 4G's as web servers and such.  If someone is going to turn their's into a friggen web server then a recorder doesn't seem to be far off or implausable.   

As far as a company making a new dock connector, i'm sure all it will take is some college kid majoring in elec. engineering to come up with something.  Hell maybe even leegeddy can conjour up something.

The XBox analogy is way off.  What did it take to turn the XBox into a webserver?  Simply a modchip, which is made to play pirated games anyway.  There is a much larger market for modchips than webservers, which is why they can afford to be made.

Dock connector inputs, however, are very specific to our hobby.  There are already recorders available for the people who want to use the iPod for lectures and such, so there would be little to no market there.  The taper market is so small that it makes very little sense to create a device specifically for us.  If you look at the rest of the devices we use, they're all professional devices that can be used outside of our hobby.  Even the 722/744 are marketed more towards film professionals than us.

I think you also vastly overestimate the necessary hardware required to create such an input.  If it were easy it would probably be done already.



But again, I could be way off base.  All I know is I've been hearing questions about iPod recording since 3 or 4 years ago and not once has anything come out of it.

[BLOODYJACK]

Dock connector inputs, however, are very specific to our hobby.  There are already recorders available for the people who want to use the iPod for lectures and such, so there would be little to no market there.  The taper market is so small that it makes very little sense to create a device specifically for us.  If you look at the rest of the devices we use, they're all professional devices that can be used outside of our hobby.  Even the 722/744 are marketed more towards film professionals than us.

I think you also vastly overestimate the necessary hardware required to create such an input.  If it were easy it would probably be done already.



But again, I could be way off base.  All I know is I've been hearing questions about iPod recording since 3 or 4 years ago and not once has anything come out of it.

The I-pod HAS ANALOGE LINE INPUTS on its dock connector it would only take a firmware update to make it a recorder you could hack a connector and a 3.5 stereo jack together very easily in fact that is being done already if you actualy read the link attached to this thread but I would not be suprised if an interface is not being worked on as we speak.

Most tapers use the JB3 to record and as good as it is I would hardly say it was a "professional device"

[John Kelly]

The I-pod HAS ANALOGE LINE INPUTS on its dock connector it would only take a firmware update to make it a recorder you could hack a connector and a 3.5 stereo jack together very easily in fact that is being done already if you actualy read the link attached to this thread but I would not be suprised if an interface is not being worked on as we speak.

Most tapers use the JB3 to record and as good as it is I would hardly say it was a "professional device"

I meant to mention the JB3 as an exception, as it is the only one I can think of.  But that was really just an accident anyway.

And as for analog inputs, who cares?  There are already a billion devices out there that will record an analog signal...  The deal breaker most of us are looking for is a device with a bit perfect digital input that records to digital media.  Looks like those are shipping now or soon anyway...

[BLOODYJACK]

Analoge input would be fine , because it already has the hardware to obtain 24bit 96k (bit perfect as you call it) it just needs to be turned on by apple.
The only hard disk recorder I see is the Sound Devices and its not cheap or stealthy.
There are some flash recorders on the horizon but flash will need to come down in price a 2gig will only get you 1.5 hours of 96k

[Ray76]

Analoge input would be fine , because it already has the hardware to obtain 24bit 96k (bit perfect as you call it) it just needs to be turned on by apple.
The only hard disk recorder I see is the Sound Devices and its not cheap or stealthy.
There are some flash recorders on the horizon but flash will need to come down in price a 2gig will only get you 1.5 hours of 96k

I am wary of anything that wasnt intended for audio recording(cept for the jb3). Anything that wasnt INTENDED for audio recording probably wouldnt hold my interest or have the features to set me up for sucess.like the A>D of the jb3 for example. Noone anticipated using it for recording, so the greatest detail wasnt put into making it noisless , etc. . Just cuz something will fit there doesnt mean it should. Ipod=music playback
maudio, sd 722, marantz, edirol, etc=recording. Know your role, I say. Damn these all in one boxes. When they do everything, they normally do it mediocre. I have an ipod, but I play music on it, what it was for.
bought a 722 and maudio(7 on the list!) for recording.

Ray

[BLOODYJACK]

I agree the Sound devices new hard disk recorder is the best way to go in fact the 4 channel version is even better you can have stereo from the sound board on one pair of channels and your mics on the other pair.
But if Apple ever open up the recording capabilities of the I-pod it would certainly surpass the capabilities of the JB3 and be stealthy.
Just checked after writing this the I-pod is only 16 bit bleh it can record 96k sample rate though