My Video Problems

rogs · Joined: 03 Apr 2007 Posts: 50 Location: Bournemouth UK

XtremeMac MicroMemo iPod Nano recording interface

A far as I know virtually all iPods have the capacity to record in stereo, at CD quality. It’s just that Apple, in their infinite wisdom, decided to inhibit the feature. There have been one or two devices that can record at so called 'voice quality', and I believe the guys who understand the Linux thing have found workarounds to enable the recording function.

Now it is possible to to buy a plug in device which allows you to record onto your iPod Nano, at CD quality.

The XtremeMac Micromemo is marketed as a voice recorder, and is supplied with a table top microphone ready to plug in and record meetings, lectures etc.

In addition though, it also has a line input, which allows connection to a line level source, such as an audio mixer output, or camcorder headphone socket, and allows that audio to be captured, in stereo, at full CD quality.

It was that feature alone that tempted me to try one. Here’s what I found:

Overall impressions:

The brochure photos flatter a little – I have a silver iPod, so I bought a silver Micromemo --- does it match? ---- no! – it’s a different ‘silver’ finish.
Not important, but not a great start.

The unit plugs into the docking port and headphone jack of the iPod, and fits quite well. The body shape matches the iPod pretty well, and if it was the same colour, would look as if it was part of the unit.

Just plugging in automatically switches the iPod to ‘voice memo’ mode, ready to record. With the supplied mic plugged in, I pressed the centre iPod control, and tried a test recording.

Unfortunately there is no way to monitor your recording, which is a bit of a pain (although widely noted on the web reviews, so not unexpected.)

Press the centre button to stop recording, follow the iPod onscreen instructions to save, and then play back , listening to your recording on the internal speaker.

First big problem – the internal ‘loudspeaker’ is in breach of the Trade Descriptions Act, in my opinion. No way could it be called a ‘loud’ anything!!! Holding the unit right up to your ear, and you will hear your recording, at quite good quality it must be said, but at a tiny volume. Clearly an iPod doesn’t have a loudspeaker amplifier, and I don’t believe this unit does either –I think they take the iPod phone output, and put it straight into a tiny loudspeaker. Total waste of time!

You need to unplug the unit, to connect the iPod USB docking cable, and your recordings will appear in your ‘voice memo’ folder in iTunes.

Playing back the recording made with the internal microphone shows two weak points. You cannot adjust the input levels, and the mic preamp seems to be set with very low gain –certainly no danger of overloading. In addition, as is usual with cheap ‘voice recorders’ the mic preamp is quite noisy – OK you can hear everything , and the quality seems good, but the noise level, particularly if you need to increase the volume in post, is way too high. Worse, for example, than my Olympus WS200S.
To be fair, no specific claims for high quality are made for mic recording, and in that respect it does what it says on the tin!

Next to try the line input. Second big problem – the side mounted input jack socket is very fussy about which jack plugs it will accept. The supplied mic one, obviously, and gold ‘Neutrik ‘ 3.5mm jack plugs seem to work OK. Good luck with anything else. The first 3 connecting leads I tried all refused to record anything. And of course, as you cannot monitor the recordings, you don’t know it hasn’t recorded until you’re finished. Not good.

Having said that, connecting a lead fitted with Neutrik jacks seemed to work fine – as long as you make sure they are pushed completely home!

So far then, not a very good start. But now comes the bit that makes it all worthwhile.

The line input facility is really very good indeed –especially for a unit costing only £30!

The frequency response is within 1dB from 20Hz to 16kHz, and then rolls off to -9dB at 20KHz. (Measured with a 32bit 96kHz ultra-low distortion swept sinewave).

The noise floor is below -82dB across the whole range, and an astonishing -90dB below 10kHz

The THD is not bad – below 0.5% at full scale, and below 0.1% for -30dB inputs.

Now these figures are not truly ‘pro’ audio, but they are miles better than all the previous ‘voice recorders,’ below the £250 mark.

Providing you have a suitable input source, you can make a CD quality recording with this device, which would be good enough to broadcast, in my opinion.

44.1kHz, 16 bit, stereo, uncompressed PCM, with a dynamic range in excess of 80dB, and a usable frequency response up to 20kHz, for £30, plus the cost of your iPod -
Quite remarkable!

In summary then –

The good? --- the line input facility

The bad? --- the internal loudspeaker, the ‘fussy’ input jack, the mic preamp.

The ugly? --- the colour doesn’t quite match the iPod !

Am I sorry I bought it? --- no, the line input alone is worth the money!

Would I use it instead of the Olympus WS200S for remote video micing?-

no, too 'fragile', and too noisy in mic mode, in my opinion.

XtremeMac Micromemo