which iPods allow microphone attachment for recording?

<p>I'd appreciate it if anyone knows this info and can either post it or PM me. I talked to Apple and the new iPod Touch cannot be used for recording, but some generation of iPods can. I am hoping to find out which ones ...</p>

<p>hmmmm.....good question. I will ask my techno savvy kid and get back to you as I am pretty sure that he has friends at school that have such an animal. Way outside of my knowledge. :) </p>

<p>I think I heard something about the 2nd and 5th generation. Here is a link that might be helpful.</p>

<p>Belkin</a> : TuneTalk™ Stereo for iPod®</p>

<p>Oops! Sorry, I dont think I was supposed to put a commercial link on here. I will pm you with anymore info if it has a link. Still new to all of this stuff!</p>

<p>DD found them to very limited and you have to be very carefull. She has a Gen 5 that is suppsed to work with the recorder she ordered and it does not always work. Sometimes it is on and says it is recording but there is nothing there when she goes back. She is ready to get one of the digital recorders that have been reviewed by others on this forum.</p>

<p>NMR - D had a Belkin recording attachment that worked with both her "old" IPod video, and her "newer" IPod nano. She found it to be somewhat temperamental though, and so, before she left for college, we got her a voice recorder from Olympus. It is light weight (uses regular batteries, and does not die on her) and is easy to use with a USB cable, you may want to look into this:</p>

<p>[url=<a href="http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/product.asp?product=1272%5DVN-3100PC%5B/url"&gt;http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/product.asp?product=1272]VN-3100PC[/url&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p>

<p>Thanks, everyone. That's the problem: it gets confusing as to which "generation" ones iPod is and which ones can use the attachment. I had a long talk with an Apple specialist about this and he admitted it's sort of a mess.</p>

<p>My research told me that the Ipod is not a good format for recording. No one that I talked to - all of whom understand this better than I do - recommended relying on an Ipod for recording. They all suggested a digital recorder.</p>

<p>My understanding, unless there has been some recent tech developments, is that there are external microphone attachments presently available only for the full size "classic" IPod. None for the IVideo, ITouch, IPhone or Nano. My daughter uses a microphone on a mini boom very successfully and the advantage to using the IPod is that the file format is easy to work with using a free download of ITunes. The sound files can be uploaded to your computer, played through auxiliary speakers or headphones, burned to a CD etc. Olympus also make good high fidelity digital recorders under its Professional line, some of which are reasonably priced. The downside is that you need to use the Olympus proprietary software to down load the files and if you desire to burn them to cd's you must convert them to .wav files from the native .dss format (which the software permits you to do). I use the Olympus recorders for digital dictation and they are reliable. Also, the proprietary software has email functions built into it in case that is of interest.</p>

<p>NMR....I can't tell you which "generation" of IPOD my daughter has, other than she has had it a couple of years (though it has needed replacing a couple of times). It is not a nano. It is full size. She had a recorder attachment that went onto the IPod....it was either Belken or Griffin (I kinda remember it being Griffin). She had problems and I believe we also replaced that. My husband ALSO got her a voice recorder (not sure the name of it but it could be what MTGrlsmom mentions....the Olympus....as it wasn't too expensive). </p>

<p>HOWEVER....this thread is a bit appropo as our daughter wrote us an email a few days ago about all this. She says that the IPod attachment is crappy and always skips on the recordings. She says that the other voice recorder is not compatable with her Mac laptop. So, for her birthday request, she wants another voice recorder and says she saw something at Radio Shack for $70 but we have no idea what that was....like some recorder like she has but one that works with Macs. However, my husband looked into digital recorders and one that doesn't cost a real lot and would likely make a much better recording is the Zoom H2 which is listed on Amazon for $168. We have to talk to her about it but are considering getting that. She said that the product she has on her Ipod....she was told that it isn't even available anymore. </p>

<p>In my view, if you are going to go to the expense of a new IPod (and I think I recall your D has a relatively new IPod already) that maybe instead......keep her current IPod and get the ZoomH2 digital recorder which is in the price range of an IPod, right?</p>

<p>Wow Soozie, I just checked out that Zoom; looks pretty cool! I seem to remember that whatever Olympus device we bought, was Apple compatible, and so it may not be that style I mentioned above. On the other hand, I may be getting a phone call soon :-).</p>

<p>There are a couple of threads with recording device options on the music major forum as well.</p>

<p>Be very cautious about the MAC compatibility with the Olympus. I have the Olympus DS 4000, which until recently was close to its top of the line model, that I use for office dictation. I run Windows PC's in my office and MACs at home. In my experience, the Olympic MAC software does not work reliably even with the most recent updates installed both for the MAC operating system and the Olympus software. I ended up needing to set up a Windows partition on my MAC and run the Windows software at home to be able to use the digital recorder on my MACS. Maybe this has changed with some of the newer models but I am using Olympus' professional level machines and software and it is a persistent problem. If you are going to use a MAC with an Olympus, check it out carefully before you spend the bucks.</p>

<p>Michael, I don't know what my D has for the hand held recorder and maybe it is Olympus but she said it is not working with her Mac. That, combined with not being satisfied with her IPod attachment (we have been dealing with this stuff now for three years) is why she wants something else. I just have to ask her what she saw in the city for $70. We think this ZoomH2 thing might be better. This came up because her birthday is coming up. I think she also records music a lot (she also is a composer). I wonder if the issue she is having with the voice recorder she has now is what you are speaking about. Sounds like it.</p>

<p>PS, when this came up in the email she sent a couple days ago about a birthday wish list, I did a search and violadad, I came up with your posts on the Music Majors forum and that helped, thanks.</p>

<p>Susan, can one transfer what one records on the Zoom thingamajig (which does look cool) onto the Mac and into iTunes?</p>

<p>I think there is an issue with the Zoom working with the newest Mac operating system. Not sure if that's the H2 or H4 or both. There are several Olympus recorders that are plug and play ready for the Mac.</p>

<p>We gave S an H2 to take to college. He's recorded voice lessons using a fairly high--but not the highest--mp3 format (128?) and after he downloads the file from the H2 (card reader) he drags it into iTunes using his new MacBook pro. Does not edit it but says you can edit with garageband or other program. My DH has used both H2 and H4 and says the H2 is not only much cheaper but much easier to use. It fits in a pocket easily. Records in several different formats (mp3, aiff? I am not savvy! DH opens his files in Peak and edits to make tracks and tweak the sound). Most importantly, it's cool looking!</p>

<p>Cartera, do you have any actual hands on experience with one of the Olympus models that actually works reliably on a MAC as well as on a PC? If so, can you tell me what models? That would really solve a headache for me because now, when I work at home, I must reboot into my Windows partition to download and email dictation and then reboot into MAC to receive the drafts and review/edit in Word for MAC. It is a major pain in the butt!</p>

<p>I don't have hands on experience - this is all from just research into what other people have written and told me. The Olympus models with a D in them record in DSS and there is softward to change that to a format for Itunes - supposedly. I was researching in case D needed to download anything into her MacBook Pro. So far, she is just recording voice lessons and accompaniment and has not had a need to download it into her laptop. She doesn't want to take her laptop with her to the practice rooms anyway. </p>

<p>Neumes - I think the problem with the Zooms only comes up with the newest Mac OS.</p>

<p>What I am experiencing with the Olympus software for MAC's is that even though the software recognizes the recorder as an attached device, the dss files will not successfully download from the recorder into the Olympus software itself! I even tried setting the software to convert the files to wav files during the download process and still no fix. So it seems to be a problem endemic to the Olympus software itself without even reaching the level of what I could do to and with the file once it is downloaded. Olympus's support staff have been clueless on what is wrong. Arghhh.</p>

<p>Michael - interesting - according to what I have read on forums where people discuss such things, that is not supposed to be happening.</p>