New toy

Once upon a time I used to risk my spine and shoulder muscles by carrying around a portable tape machine called a Uher, which recorded on 20 minute spools in acceptable mono quality, and cost a couple of hundred quid.

How that I don't do that sort of thing any more, I have a gadget weighing nothing, running off two AA batteries, recording hours worth of high-class sound (the lowest setting is CD quality, if you ignore the clever compression options) on a micro-SD card with a configurable stereo pair of microphones. It costs less than half of what a Uher cost last century.

Come to think of it I still have a Uher - I wonder what I'd get for it on eBay ? I'd better dust it off and check it still works. I have a neat little set of editing block, some rather ancient sticky tape, razor blades and yellow chinagraph to go with it.

I think my clever new toy allows editing, and overdubbing and mixing - all that is after the staple in the well written manual. I'd probably do that with Audacity on a netbook, rather than have to learn a whole set of new tricks.