Cassiopeia

To say that Chris is awesome is an understatement:  He gave me a portable digital recorder that works amazingly well, the Zoom. I hardly write reviews of any kind, but since I have began recording a lot, I’m going to hope that some of you will find this useful.

Why I love it

Incredibly user friendly interface: The most obvious buttons are right where they need to be while the more obscure (but still useful) functions are tucked away in a neat little menu.

Great look and feel: Slender, sleek, fits in my tiny palm. It even comes with a desktop stand, and a clip adaptor so you can use the device hands-free.

Great sound quality: Yes, it does look as professional as it sounds. You can adjust the mic directions for surround sound, 90 degrees, or 120 degrees. 

Easy to import files:  No hassle importing. 

It was made for musicians:  It comes with a guitar tuner, converts .wav files to mp3s, and comes with earbuds so I was set to record right away! They made it almost too easy for me!

What I Mildly Dislike About it But Don’t Mind Putting Up With

 The volume level:  It’s not as good at picking up sound as it should be. While this is a problem which can be remedied by Audacity -> Effects -> Amplify, it’s not too great for reviewing a piece on-the-spot.

Noise:  With the previous being said, I seem to pick up a little more noise than I want to. Definitely nowhere near ’studio’ quality, but it’s still amazing.

Record button: This little sucker is sort of in an odd place so you can hear me handling the device before and after I hit record. Minor issues. Maybe someone someday will point out the fact that there exists a record-delay option.

To Sum It All Up

For the price? It’s a must-have. I absolutely love it to bits and am taking it everywhere!

Here’s a vocal recording of Thelonious Monk’s Round Midnight that I made using the Zoom. There has been no edits to this vocal track so you can hear what the device is fully capable of. Enjoy!

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Hey, if you’re reading this on a Monday morning from your 9-5, chances are, you’re pretty darn grumpy.  So, here are some links to keep your Monday morning brain fresh:

• 10 Tools for Lifelong Learning provides some awesome links to free university material, language lessons, and smart youtube links. It also exposes you to culture.  I’m embarrassed to admit that this is my default location when my brain needs a break… ugh.
• Warren Buffet was also celebrated for his quick one-line humor. In the article, Warren Buffet on Sex , Warren gives us good career advice: “You want to have a passion for what you are doing. You don’t want to wait until 80 to have sex.” I will never ceased to be amazed by him. 
• And lately, because of the nature of my work, I’ve been looking at pricing models, especially of the unconventional– Amazon loses $2 for every ebook sold; the makers of Canabalt, a popular iPhone game, decides to go against the convention of selling games at $0.99 a piece in the article “The $0.99 Problem”. Pricing is always such an interesting topic to me.
• Also… Wall Outlets with built in USB ports… for only $9.95. Whoa. New Standards on Pre-Order, how you mock me so.
• Speaking of which, my most darling friend Leif Storer launched a product called Skullyboom, a portable speaker device that seems to be a big hit with the urban art folks. And speaking of Pre-orders, you can pre-order it here. (End of shameless plug)
• Oh wait. What’s that? Feeling creative now? Here’s a link for more inspiration: A Startup A Day.  Proof that there is no shortage of ideas.
• Finally, go listen to some Ella Fitzgerald.

Anyway, I think I went a little overboard on this post. Pardon. There’s a lot going on right now and these are generally the things which I’m up to. In time, I shall make this more coherent and tie the loose ends.