Topic: Alesis Palmtrack, will it work?

[imsammyd]

Hey all.  I recently bought some CA-14 Cards and a Battery Box from Church.  Excited, I plugged them into the line in on my Zoom H2, only to see that it was only recording the left channel.  I did some searches and it seems that this is pretty normal for the zoom.  No idea why, but that is life isn't it?  If you happen to know why, I would love to hear it.

Now I want an inexpensive recorder that will just record.  I came across the Alesis Palmtrack on craigslist brand new. Offered the dude $50 and he said ok.  I realize it is a cheap recorder, but if I am using my CA-14's and a BB, will I get a decent recording? Any immediate issues you see with the Alesis Palmtrack?

Thanks!

[LikeASong]

It's able to record in WAV, bith in 16/24 bits and 44/48 kHz... It seems to be decently built and it's easy to use. I can't see where's the fault It might not be the best recorder around, but iRivers were pretty popular a few years back and I don't think they were much better as recorders than that Palmtrack. And for $50 I think you can't go much wrong!

[imsammyd]

Thank you!

[H₂O]

The palm track is about the farthest down on the totem pole you can go and has been sold under many different brands in the states.  It's basically the cheapest mass produced recorder out of China and I would expect only garbage from it (I have read a few reviews and it is listed as garbage from pretty much any review I have read).

IMO save your $50 and buy a better recorder like the Tascam DR-05 - or even a Sony M10

[TimeBandit]

Tascam DR-05, sometimes 50 Dollar NEW, will rule out the alesis IMHO.

[LikeASong]

The palm track is about the farthest down on the totem pole you can go and has been sold under many different brands in the states.  It's basically the cheapest mass produced recorder out of China and I would expect only garbage from it (I have read a few reviews and it is listed as garbage from pretty much any review I have read).

IMO save your $50 and buy a better recorder like the Tascam DR-05 - or even a Sony M10

Would you say it's a worse or better recorder than the iRivers?

[H₂O]

Worse - the iriver was designed to be a higher performance MP3 player recorder from the ground up - it's ten years old though

The palmtrack as Alesis calls it was designed by some company in china to be as cheap as possible but function.  The reviews I have read said the self noise of this Chinese design make it garbage.

[LikeASong]

Worse - the iriver was designed to be a higher performance MP3 player recorder from the ground up - it's ten years old though

The palmtrack as Alesis calls it was designed by some company in china to be as cheap as possible but function.  The reviews I have read said the self noise of this Chinese design make it garbage.

Thanks.

One doubt - you mean the self noise of the mics or the line-in input?

[imsammyd]

Well, I got the thing.  It sure is a piece of crap .  It has an error and won't record in 24Bit.  I checked the Alesis website and they have a firmware update to fix it, but the update fails to install.  30 minutes on hold and no help once the support guy got on the phone. I guess I am stuck at 16Bit.  Let's just hope the mics work through the line in.  So far, I am dubious.