Topic: GMINI 220

[Chrysler]

It can record in WAV 16/44.1.

[Chrysler]

max file size for one recording file 16/44.1 = 1.98 GB = 200.55 min (3.3 hrs). Needs to be restarted manually (push stop, push start).

battery will last approx. 4 hours for continuous recording.

[jcrab66]

I bought a Gmini 220 a while back and tested it out. The first show i used it at I had noise spikes that were timed like an EKG. I tried it again and got the same thing. 29 minute show had 14 spikes, it sucks. As was discussed on a previous thread about Archos recorders, I believe the spikes come from the unit writing to the hard drive from the buffer. This unit has officially turned into a file transfer device for me. I will stick with the JB3. Too bad because the thing is super small, would of been great for stealthing the upcoming Tool tour.....

[blindman]

I have a Gmini220 and have used it to record a few shows. My experience is that it meets a very specific need and does it well. If you want 24/96 and are willing to spend for it then you should... the 220 records 16/44.1 and is the size of a pack of cigarettes. If I was going to spend $400+ just for a seperate digital encoder, the 220 would NOT be my choice of digital recorder. Here is my experience using SP-CMC-4 > SP-PREAMP > Gmini220 > WAV 16/44.1.

 The Gmini220 is no longer a production item for Archos, so sites are blowing them out for under $180 with a $50 rebate from Archos. I started field recording in the late 80's and one of our first rigs was a VHS HI-FI Stereo battery-operated recorder... I forget the weight, but I still walk leaning in the direction of the shoulder it sat on! In 1995 I left music and have spent the last 10 years with my kids and have only recently decided to get back into recording as a hobby. After taping with a couple young guys who carried their ENTIRE rig in a VHS-cassette box, i decided I wanted a nice light and easy setup... and I did not want to spend a fortune. I set out to find a balance of sound quality / weight / cost. My wife and daughter both own Gmini400's and I tested that unit and the recordings were as good if not better than the thousands of hours of analog tape on the shelves in the basement, so when I saw the price and rebate on the Gmini220 I bought one.

I have recorded several live shows and I use it almost daily in my home studio for recording myself practicing my own music. The battery, so far, lasts well beyond my needs... I don't like the usb/charger hookup, but you can get a $12 dongle to hookup a external battery source if you are a festival type taper. I have had no problems starting the recordings or stopping them and as far as a digital recorder, it sounds good enough for me.

I have made two shows I recorded publically available for you to listen to:

Los Manatees, a local band from the Philadelphia area featuring Canadian musician Will Hodgson (From Canada's "One Life"). I worked for them until my sabbatical in 1995.
<link dead>
This was my first recording, I sat at a table in the middle of the room, the mics were about 7"-8" apart in a simple stereo pair setup and were up about the 6' off the floor... I played around for a couple songs and then once I was happy, I just let them run and this is what I got. I then copied the WAV file off the Gmini220 and opened it in CD Architect, split the song breaks, adjusted the sound levels (NO EQ) and burnt to CD. Then using Grip/gogo in Linux,  I ripped to MP3's.

The National @ The Khyber on 6/1/05.
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This was a great show, but the sound in the room was horrible... The Khyber is a little box of a room with a DJ upstairs, so the ceiling thumps during the quiet moments of the show.. The vocals never sound good at The Khyber and Matt Berninger has a deep voice, so it really made for a difficult recording. The nice thing was that someone was nice enough to leave a hook in the middle of the room that made for a simple spot to hang the mics and the sound man, Terry, even lent me his milkcrate to stand on.

These are the only recordings I have that I am allowed to make available, and The National recordings may get moved in the future.

I want to add, that I leave my mics clamped over my desk and when I get a song idea or I am teaching myself a new song, I have fallen in love with teh Gmini for the simplicity at just turn it on and leave it go till I am done. Then I take it with me in the car on the way to work and listen to the recoriding through my car stereo. I have a 1/8" jack on the front of the car stereo for easily playing and mp3 player through.

So, turn your nose up to it if you think that makes you something special... but don't knock the 220 for doing exactly what it should do... be light, inexpensive and for making nice CD quality WAV recording though the analog in...

oh, and another great thing it will be good for... when I do get a CF recorder (M-Audio Flash Tracker looks nice, no?), I can have two cards and record to one while copying the last recording to the gmini through the built in CF-card reader... 20GB of storage for $130, dude that is great!

things i don't like:
* the line-in/headphone dongle
* archos has a BAD reputation on the batteries they use... but I got a replacement for my JBM20 for $25 and it has lsat for almost 2 years now... so i am hoping for something similar when the time comes.
* the ligt turns off the second you hit record... have a small light handy
* the charger has a propietary usb hookup thing... there is no regular charging port, a  $12 part is availble but i can not find an easy source yet.

later,
Michael Jones

[marqi.k]

Thanks. This was very helpful!

[udovdh]

Hi all,

in several threads i read that the GMINI 220 produces digi-noises when recording via spdif.
Do these noises also occur when recording via the analog line-in?
How long do the batteries of the GMINI 220 last when recording?

I am currently running a D-100 and since i only record 44.1 kHz i could as well replace it with some HD-based recorder (since it records 16/44.1 too) or use the GMINI 220 when i know that it will be hard stealthing...

During tests I got past three hours and found big 2GB related bugs in both filesystem and file handling.
I did not find big problems on analog but this is some time ago.

[jcrab66]

i played around with a gmini 220 for a few shows and did some testing.

 A. Yes the Gmini 220 does record 16 bit pcm at either 44.1 or 48khz.

 B. Although it has "spdif" on the funky little adapter it does not do any digi in.

C. This thing is a crap option for doing any taping. The only time I could get it to consistently record without a glitch every 19 seconds or so was at low bit rate mp3. Seems that it cant handle writing at a speed that would be required for doing just basic 16/44.1. I never had a test file that went more than 19 seconds without a spike which,  after reading some some stuff on this and other forums, seems to be related to the size of the HD buffer. I thought it may be just a bad unit that I was using so I turned it in on warranty but the second one I got did the same thing so I used it as a portable 20GB HD for a while then sold it on ebay. This thing would be a stealthers dream if it could reliably write...

[udovdh]

i played around with a gmini 220 for a few shows and did some testing.

 A. Yes the Gmini 220 does record 16 bit pcm at either 44.1 or 48khz.

 B. Although it has "spdif" on the funky little adapter it does not do any digi in.

Does your board have a CS8420 or similar? If not it's the reason why.
Some boards do have the CS chip.

There is/was an effort to build an open source firmware for the Gmini's: http://donat.org/archos/index.html
Even Rockbox: http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/GminiPort
There is a story behind the effort...
This could fix the write problems.

[jcrab66]

i played around with a gmini 220 for a few shows and did some testing.

 A. Yes the Gmini 220 does record 16 bit pcm at either 44.1 or 48khz.

 B. Although it has "spdif" on the funky little adapter it does not do any digi in.

Does your board have a CS8420 or similar? If not it's the reason why.
Some boards do have the CS chip.

There is/was an effort to build an open source firmware for the Gmini's: http://donat.org/archos/index.html
Even Rockbox: http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/GminiPort
There is a story behind the effort...
This could fix the write problems.

that may have been something to look at when i actually had one still but unfortunately now its been 6 months or so since i've had one...