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March 16, 2005

iRiver iFP-799 Recording

iriver Global Home. OK, I'm using this device to create a Podcast. It has an incredibly complicated user interface that took me a day to figure out how to make a recording. Here's the step by step

Before you begin

You need two pieces of equipment. You need a recorder and you need a microphone/headset. Here is what we use:

• iRiver iFP-799. Recommended by Adam Curry, it is a 1GB recorder that does direct encoding of MP3s from a microphone, so it basically produces the MP3 for you. Kind of cool. Note that you can't use your iPod for recording because for some strange reason, they only record in low resolution dictaphone quality sound, so that's why you need the iRiver.
• Headset/microphone. There are many choices here. Sound Professionals has a dizzing array of microphones that I read for two hours I'm such a geek. A very cool iPod choice is the Griffin Lapel Mic. This is $15 and is available late March. Is white and pins on you jacket. You can then use your nice white I-pod headset to listen and put the iRiver in your pocket :-)

Setting up the iRiver

OK, this has got to be the single most difficult piece of software I've used in a long time. Such a stark contrast with the iPod interface. Anyway, here are the instructions on how to set this player up to be a podcast creator. Hang on to your hats:

1. Install the iRiver software per the instructions and quick setup.
2. Now you have to configure the actual device. First turn the device on. Its actually not very clear how to do that (unlike the ipod, there is only one magic button and it is not label). You hit the top left most button that is label (incredibly) Play/Stop/Stereo (I'm not kidding, it is so overloaded that is what it does). The MP3 player should boot up. BTW, to turn it off, you push and hold that Play/Stop/Stereo button for 5 seconds. In this interface there are lots of places where you have to know single, double and long hold.
3. Now you need to configure the thing to handle a microphone etc. So, push down on the joystick for 5 seconds. You should now see the word GENERAL (why does this think keep changing UI layout by the way!). Do a right joystick until it says Control. Push on the joystick and you'll see the submenus. Go down about five entries with the joystick until you get to LINE-IN RECORDING MODE and press on the joystick.
4. Get your glasses out because the fonts are incredibly small (the UI appears to not allow any scrolling in dialog boxes, the fonts are literally unreadably). Right joystick to select STEREO and then press to select it. Then down joystock to bit rate. You want to set to 44.1KHz. This is the CD standard and will make it easy to copy things to a CD if you ever need to. By the way if you wait to long on your entries (about 10 seconds), then the thing actually blows you out of the control user interface and you have to hold the Joystick down and navigate back all over again, so click FAST!
5. Now joystick down to the bit rate setting and make it 128Kpbs. Should be fine for this kind of recording. Bandwidth isn't that much of a big deal anymore. When you are done with dialog, hit the PLAY/STOP button (is that unintuitive or what!)
6. Now joystick down to the LINE-IN/EXT MIC entry. Press the joystick and then right joystick to select the External Microphone option. This will make the recording loud enough to hear. Push PLAY/Stop to get out of the interface.
7. Now you need to go into record mode. To do this, you have to hold the RECORD button (its not labeled, but is the button with the big red dot on it). It is the right most button. Hold this button for 5 seconds.
8. Now you'll see four undecipherable icons that in essence say are you doing MP3, FM, Voice recording (e.g., from a tiny built in microphone) or LINE. You want to select LINE by joysticking to the right and then pressing the joystick

Eureka. You are now in the right mode. Don't change anything, now the thing is a dedicated recorder which believe me you want, unless you like doing all those instructions at the top. Here is how to record a podcast:

1. To start the recording, press the big red record button. YOu should see the time start to go. The iRiver creates a series of magic files called EXTMIC001, EXTMIC002, etc.
2. To pause the recording, push the PLAY/STOP/STEREO button (I know, I know, how strange).
3. Don't press on the red record button again, butw that closes the file and move onto another file, press the Red record button. So the instinct is to hit record to stop, but don't give in to what is intuitive and natural!
4. When the recording is finished, plug the iRiver into its USB cable (btw, the Blackberry cable is identical for those of you who don't like to carry around lots of cables).
5. Crank up the iRiver Music Manager (why do they require a separate application, I don't understand), on the iRiver, you'll see a bunch of files call EXTMIC001.REC, EXTMIC002.REC, etc. Drag and drop these over on to your computer. A dialog will pop up saying it needs to transcode the files. Say yes, (in reality, it just renames it from .REC to .MP3 since it is encoded in MP3 already). Now you are ready to pump that file up to the web for the podcast.

Good luck. Despite the (comments), the iRiver sound quality is great and it works as long as you remember not to hit random buttons but print out this guide.

Posted by rich at March 16, 2005 11:40 AM

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» Geekfishing Blog: iRiver iFP-799 Recording from Podcastplayer.org news
At last, a detailled and informative guide to recording podcasts on an iRiver MP3 player/recorder. I've been puzzling recently over how some people seem to be able to just connect a microphone to their MP3 player and record stuff, where I can't seem ... [Read More]

Tracked on March 17, 2005 01:16 PM

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