American Audio Pocket Record SD Digital Recorder

• Portable High Quality Digital Audio Recorder
• Specially Designed For Voice & Audio Recording
• Stereo built-in condenser microphones
• Support high quality 44 KHz WAV and MP3 recording formats
• Stereo audio inputs

I agree completely with the other reviewer Siena. This device works very inconsistently and can not be relied on for any recording. I would have said cannot be relied on for "serious recording" but that should be assumed. This device simply can not be relied on for anything. You don't know when it is going to engage and work and when it is not going to engage. There's supposed to be a way to "pause" recordering but what it does is shut off the device. Because it is digital, this means you have to reboot which takes at least 12 or so seconds and by this time you have missed what you want to resume recordering. This is only one example of what's wrong with the device. It sometimes changes tracks on its own and you lose your place where you were recording. When you do get it to work, the play back volume is extremely low. You could not play it back to a group in a room because anyone more than five feet away wouldn't hear it, even if it you turn it all the way up to a setting on the device of "20." And after doing so, the device defaults to a lower volume setting of "16." You get higher volume with a handheld microcassete recorder. Unlike Siena, I found an 800 number in their instruction booklet labeled "customer support." This is anything but "support." When I said that I was having problems understanding the operation the person who answered kept on repeating to "read the instructions." I said I did, but it still seemingly did not always work. He said they were not there to teach how to operate the thing but only to "troubleshoot problems." He said they didn't have time to help with the operation, "only troubleshoot!" I said I was indeed having such problems but he kept repeating to "read the instructions we only troubleshoot." The instruction booklet is very poor. It is full of typos, is not paginated but in many places refers to other pages by page number and you don't know what the heck they are refering to. This is indeed junk. Do not buy it. It appears that this device is made in America. Figures! No wonder we're losing the trade wars.

UPDATE: I bought an Olympus VN-5200PC recorder. I recommend it. It does all of the things that the Muscians Gear recorder claims to do. And it does them easily and consistently. It has a pause button for both recordering and playback. The instructions are simple and only took me a few hours to understand and operate. The instruction booklet is easy to understand, has charts showing the menu options and explains what they do. There is a website that explains things even more fully. There's an 800 number for customer support, but I haven't had to use it. And all of this for one-third the price of the Muscians Gear recorder. The Olympus is made in China, the Muscians Gear in the U.S. As I said, no wonder we're losing the trade wars.

FURTURE UPDATE: February 27, 2010. I have to give another update. I put the American Audio recorder aside for a while since using my Olympus VN-5200PC. But then I thought, why not try it again. It's worse! The screen now reads on all folders and all files "FULL." I can't even record on it! I went thru all of the intructions to delete, but nothing works. Stay away from this product and anything else made by this company that calls itself, American Audio!

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I bought this once. It was so inconsistent in playback and sometimes

it worked and sometimes it didn't. I tried emailing the manufacturer

who has a fancy website. American Audio. Email kept getting returned.

Then I called them. It was a long distance call since they don't have

an 800 number. When a support guy answered he said he didn't know about

that product and someone who did would call me back. They never did.

Luckily I can return it to the distributor I bought it from.

Read Best Reviews of American Audio Pocket Record SD Digital Recorder Here

May 2013 update:

I just bought a second back up unit and it works just as well as the original. I strongy suspect the negative reviews may have problems caused by slower storage cards or even user error. Keep in mind that this works best with WAV files. If you want to record MP3s, I'd buy something else.

I sold my fancier Tascam unit after getting larger unit. But I am keeping this unit, as it really does a great job with the included mics. I recently recorded a vocalist backed up by a 2000 pipe organ and once again the unit performed admirably.

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I bought one of these about 5 years ago, and at the time there were not that many to choose from. I did make a recording of a 2,000 pipe organ in a large church. The CD is only sold in the gift shop, but more than 500 copies have sold with no complaints and portions were aired On a nationally syndicated radio show devoted to organ enthusiasts.

One of the benefits of this unit is that it has two built in microphones of fair quality and two additional microphones on long cords that plug in the top of the unit. It is also possible to use all four microphones at one time.

I used the two external mics that come with it for the CD material and the nice analog volume controls to adjust them.

One big CON is the terrible manual. I had a hard time switching from MP3 to WAV formats, even after trying to find out how in the manual. I FINALLY figured out the problem I was having with the WAV vs MP3 setting. The display shows the setting (MP3/WAV) of the sound file being VIEWED on the screen, not how the NEXT file will be recorded! SO, for example, if you make one recording as an MP3 and then set the next one as a WAV, the display will still show "MP3" and not change to WAV until it displays the file recorded as a WAV file. Not the best way of doing it, in my opinion.

Those who have had inconsistent results and corrupted files may have used too slow an SD card. You need at least a class 4 card to maintain the write speed. Again, today you can do better, but it sure got the job done for me. For radio news work, podcasting and even some casual music recording, the easy to adjust manual knobs and the external microphones are a real bonus. I'm debating buying a second one just for the mics!

I think you need to be a bit of an enthusiast to really enjoy this unit. If you simply want to push a button and make a recording as simply as possible then newer models from other companies may be a better bet.

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I still can't figure this machine out because of its inconsistency. I wish I had seen the other reviews. Don't buy it.

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I have read all of the other reviews. I have used mine extensively for over two years. I can't review the pause function during recording because I never pause during recordings. I have recorded symphony orchestras, church choirs and orchestras and get excellent results, on the level of the zoom H2. Mine came with exterior condenser microphones that are excellent, producing good fidelity and clarity. I self record my own music performance. I have never lost a file and the recorder has never jumped to other tracks. My advice to others is to do all of your file management of your SD card in the recorder itself. While I take the SD card out and put it in my computer to upload, and the computer window wants to "fix files", never do that with your SD card. Never delete files from your SD card using your computer. Delete all your files using the recorder.

Yes, other recorders may be better. Nothing in the $50-$100 price range compares to this product, however.