Natural Science Forum / Physics / Acoustics / October 2005

I use the Bruel & Kjaer 7820 Evaluator (computer software) and a Bruel &
Kjaer 2260 real time analyser to log directly onto a laptop computer by
way of a 24bit soundcard. This produces wavefiles equiv. to about 4.5GB /
24 hours. Fantastic sound quality. I configure the meter to log 1 min
Leq, LCeq, L10, L90, and I also get a third octave spectrum for every
minute logged. Great new technology! I have performed about twenty
monitoring jobs in the last year using this. I was worried about
temperature extremes due to having to have a laptop in a box, but have
had only good results. The range of temperatures I have used this with is
between -20C & 25C (45C in the box!) .

Peter Davis
Faszer Farquharson & Associates Ltd.

I used the older generation a lot when I was doing live
recording (as opposed to acoustic measuremt.)  From what I
read at alt.audio.minidisc and at http://www.minidisc.org 
Hi-MD appears to be a very good relacement for the DAT.  Its
future is in serious doubt at the moment, however.  Sony is
doing some product thinning and word is that MD won't
survive the cut.  No one knows for sure but the above link
is a good place to follow developments.

Bob

I have a friend with a Hi-MD... there is only one hitch with it:
Because Sony is so paranoid about copy-protection, they only allow you
"one" chance to upload your recordings to the computer. So, if there
happens to be any problem with the upload, you are SOL. Also, this
software only works with PC. Otherwise, he likes it a lot. He
recommends the one with the better backlight if you are going to be
messing with it in the dark.

Sony also has a new Flash based recorder thats coming out soon. Its got
more pro audio appeal with larger display etc, but its also about 4x
larger than the Hi-MD stuff.  I just saw it at AES last week.
Otherwise, check out the M Audio Micro Track 24/96. Looks like more
features and inputs than the Hi_MD stuff, and it uses Compact Flash
which comes up to 4GB these days. And works with Mac or PC directly.

Good luck,
k