Looking for recommendations on a digital Recorded

Marty Howard · **Posted:** Mon Jan 11, 2010 2:37 pm

So I have been playing around with different ideas for getting the sound quality better on my track videos. I have looked at wind buffers for the current Camera, getting a new Camera with a remote mic, etc, etc. A fellow racer came up with a simple idea that should work great. He just puts an inexpensive recorder in either the engine bay or trunk and captures the sound directly. The biggest problem he has at the moment is the recorder doesn’t download the sound to the PC, so he has to record the sound on the PC via the sound card.

So I am looking for a recommendation of a recorder that does the following.
1) Can download the digital file via USB
2) Record up to 2 hours of sound.
Prefer something inexpensive and I can easily get it at best buys or the like.

Jason Tower · **Joined:** Wed Jun 11, 2008 3:31 pm **Posts:** 1173

i just got an aiptek a-hd+ for about $120, it doesn't have an external mic jack but several of their other models do. you can also hack the a-hd by soldering in a mic jack yourself.

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/sh ... ?t=1036795

TomFreeman · **Posted:** Mon Jan 11, 2010 6:14 pm

You really do want an external mic...

I haven't shot video in a couple of years, but I had good sound in my old Miata videos. My camera does have an eternal mic jack, and I hooked up a $30 tie-clip mic from Radio Shack and ran the mic up underneath the dash. No wind noise, plenty of engine noise, and I could hear conversation between my instructor and I.

The only loser is that you have to keep a spare button cell battery around, as it goes through them quickly...and especially quickly when you forget to turn the mic off between sessions.

Marty Howard · **Posted:** Tue Jan 12, 2010 10:21 am

I already have a good HD Digital camera, it just doesn't have a remote mic.

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Tue Jan 12, 2010 11:07 am

Marty Howard wrote:

So I have been playing around with different ideas for getting the sound quality better on my track videos.

I've had trouble with this too. I actually stopped doing track videos because the sound quality was so bad. The remote mic idea is a good one, but most cameras I've seen don't have a jack for that.

Two years back my MIL got us a little Samsung all digital camcorder for X-mas. It has a 16GB internal memory and uses HCSD cards too. I decided to give it a try in our Lemons car and it worked great. The sound and video quality was excellent.

Having thought my problem was solved,I tried getting some video from my car at VIR a short time later. Same problem...wind noise sucked.

The next Lemons race I used the camera again and the quality and sound was excellent...hmmm.

I finally determined (at least in my case) that having all the windows out (except the winshield) was a good thing as far as sound on a video was concerned. The best I can determine is the wind entering my street car hits the rear window and swirls around making the sound terrible on the video.

Jason Tower · **Joined:** Wed Jun 11, 2008 3:31 pm **Posts:** 1173

a small piece of strategically placed foam can help abate wind noise in many situations. that's what i'm likely to do on my camera, probably won't stop it completely but hopefully enough to let the engine be heard.

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Tue Jan 12, 2010 12:15 pm

Jason Tower wrote:

a small piece of strategically placed foam can help abate wind noise in many situations. that's what i'm likely to do on my camera, probably won't stop it completely but hopefully enough to let the engine be heard.

I should probably try that in my car. I would have thought the wind coming in thru the side windows was the cause of the noise in my mic, but as stated above that wasn't the case.

Marty Howard · **Posted:** Tue Jan 12, 2010 2:54 pm

I tried the foam, and even covered the mic opening with tape. It was a bit better, but still loud.

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Tue Jan 12, 2010 4:16 pm

Marty Howard wrote:

I tried the foam, and even covered the mic opening with tape. It was a bit better, but still loud.

Same here. The foam had zero help in my case.

Marty Howard · **Posted:** Tue Jan 12, 2010 4:52 pm

The guy on the FFRC forum said he placed a digital sound recorder in his trunk or engine bay. Then he started his camera, and before heading out did an engine rev and a finger wave so he could sync the two in MS movie maker later.

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Looking for recommendations on a digital Recorded

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