Welcome to Nerdy or Novice?, our brand new technology column! Here, you will not only read about the latest tech toys, you’ll also get a well-rounded perspective thanks to my co-columnist (and fiancé!), Jai! A seriously tech-savvy guy, Jai owns a computer repair business, and will dissect the technical prowess of these gadgets and games. Meanwhile, I will be providing the layman’s perspective on the user-friendly qualities of this geek gear.
Today, we’re reviewing Honestech’s Audio Recorder 2.0 Deluxe.
Jai’s Take:
I’m not new to capturing analog audio from various sources and saving it to a digital format. My Grandparents purchased a reel-to-reel tape recorder in the early 60’s and it’s still being used today. Transferring audio requires both hardware (to physically connect the device to the computer), and software (some way for the computer to interpret and manipulate this data). Honestech’s Audio Recorder 2.0 Deluxe package has both.
Honestech’s Audio Recorder 2.0 Deluxe works exactly as advertised. The “MUZ BOX”, as it’s labeled in front, is indeed USB powered so you don’t need to use an AC adapter and the USB plug accepts a standard male B-type cable (the type that plugs into most any printer) so you don’t have to carefully keep track of “that one special cable.” Also included are audio cables that will work with almost all devices you will run across. Any device that sends audio to a 3.5mm jack (standard headphones) or RCA plugs will work. The exception to this is that some very old devices, like the reel-to-reel mentioned above, use a 1/4″ jack. In the unlikely event that you’d need one, they are under $5
The hardware and software work perfectly together. The correct input device was automatically selected in the software and you are stepped through the entire process, from recording from the device, to burning the audio to a CD. You can also save the audio to mp3. Normally, I use separate programs for each of the steps: Recording, re-encoding, and burning.
Up until this point, the Audio Recorder 2.0 met my highest expectations. It does everything I had hoped for and is the easiest system that I have come across for a beginner to just jump in and start using. Let me go into a few reasons that my expectations were EXCEEDED.
Although the hardware and software play nicely with each other, they are not tied together. I was able to choose alternate audio sources in the software. Sometimes, if you have the cables handy, using the “line-in” jack on the computer is easier than plugging in an external device. What’s even better is that every audio recording package that I tried had no trouble accepting the input from the “MUZ BOX”. The part that really impressed me is that it worked perfectly without drivers under Windows XP, Windows 7, and even Ubuntu Linux 10.04! I plugged the audio capture device into my Linux box and “Audacity” immediately recognized the “MUZ BOX” audio input. Nice.
Beeb’s Take:
As a journalist, I frequently use audio recorders for conducting interviews. When I first started – back in the ancient days of the late 90s! – I used a cassette recorder, but now it’s all moved over to digital. These days, I utilize my iPhone’s SpeakEasy app instead of tape; it works great, but the one issue that I have is that there is no way to pull the audio off onto your hard drive or email it to yourself. It’s vital that I have a backup of these important files, which is where Audio Recorder 2.0 Deluxe comes in.
I tested this program out last month after I interviewed Corey Feldman during the Goonies 25th Anniversary Celebration. I needed to save a copy of the recording on my computer so that I could transcribe it, so I installed the Audio Recorder 2.0 software and hooked up the “MUZBOX”. Now, one downside to iPhones is that while they take a standard 3.5mm jack, the base of the plug is much narrower than are commonly available. But Jai is handy with a Dremel, so he actually filed the jack cover down so that it would hook up to my iPhone. I plugged it in, opened the software, and jumped straight to the “Advanced” option, as I am comfortable navigating around audio software. I queued up the interview, hit record, and had a .wav file within minutes. Couldn’t be simpler!
Now, I haven’t tried recording music with this yet because – for shame! – my record player is broken. However, this worked like a charm for backing up my important interview recordings, and I am very pleased to have a reliable system in place that I can use in the future. I will absolutely be using this program again!
That is awesome!! I actually know a couple people who would super interested in this!!! Thank you!
I love programs that work for people like me (the beginner) because I like to dabble in things, but so many softwares are made for ADVANCED users and its so hard to learn then!
Wow, sounds like I may even be able to use this, and I am a tech noob!
Wow. This looks pretty cool. I have so many tapes I would love to put on my computer (in hopes I could transfer them to my iPod or iPad). I’m going to have to check this out.
It’s great that someone thought to develop a software/program like this.
Great review!
Great review, thanks for sharing this! I enjoyed reading it! Happy Monday!
It’s amazing that everything has turned digital now…literally everything! Thiss sounds really cool..thanks for sharing!
Thanks for this thorough review about this product. I betcha I could even use this and not feel threatened by it. Thanks 🙂
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