I took my 20 Gig Hard-drive-based iRiver recorder and a Sony minidisc recorder to a Noel Hill school in August of 2004, determined to do a comparison.
I was inclined to think that it might be my last time there with a minidisc recorder because the iRiver was my new favorite toy. I liked the small size and long recording capability of the iRiver, not to mention that it allowed the selection of .wav or various levels of mp3 format for recording, plus it would transfer files via USB 2.0. Things didn't work out quite the way I'd expected, but I still got some useful insights.
I should mention that I own two different models of Sony minidisc recorder, one allows the use of compression (LP2 and LP4) to permit longer recording times at some minor expense to quality and the other older model does not. Sony also offers newer models that permit longer recording times and even a way to record and move files to a computer without going through an analog conversion. I used my Net MD MZ-NF810 which permits compression and requires analog conversion to move files to a computer, but I believe my comments here are applicable to all models mentioned.
The iRiver captures each recording as a separate file, and once captured, they can't be edited or linked on the unit. Without a computer handy one is limited to working with the resulting recordings on a file basis during the week of class. While that might not sound too bad on the surface, making multiple recordings during class creates individual files and since they don't link such that you can play them all in sequence, each must be individually selected for playback and I found that inconvenient.
Recording an entire class on a single file, I found that rapidly locating specific parts within the file became a task. There are no 'track marks' as there are with minidisc recordings, so I couldn't quickly or easily jump from one thing to another and had to use the FastForward, FastReverse to move to each portion of interest. I had of course noted the time reference for each point of interest within the file, but I still had to search out that time point for each listen.
A minidisc shines in that respect, you can mark, edit and (and if desired) rearrange your recordings on a whim and any marked point can be accessed in a few seconds. When you want to hear something again, you need only touch the track button to jump back to the start of the segment. It can also be set to loop a segment repeatedly. There may be a limit on the number of track marks you can have on a disk, but if there is I suspect it's minimum is something like 999. From a practical standpoint I consider it unlimited.
The iRiver does have an A/B function that allows you to select a desired segment for constant repeat, but that was a poor substitute for being able to mark tracks since you had to search out and select the start and stop points to be repeated for each segment to be repeated and it only remembers the most recent selection.
When using the built-in microphone to record during quieter moments, , the motor could be heard all too clearly on the recording whenever the internal disk drive spun up to move accumulated data from the buffer to the drive. No doubt that could have been avoided by using the external mike and positioning it away from the unit, but using the external mike requires one to manually set the recording gain (there is no automatic gain available for this) which required a few extra steps that I didn't want to deal with at the start of each class.
Since I used the minidisc recorder in parallel with the iRiver, I still ended up with satisfactory recordings of all events. Though I recorded everything on both, after the first day of class I used the minidisc exclusively for my review and study. After returning home and listening to the class files I'd transferred to my computer, I deleted everything I'd recorded on the iRiver. Some of it was just fine, but I'd already done preliminary editing of the material on the minidisc during the week of class and didn't want to repeat the effort again.
I've decided that while I like the iRiver for it's mp3
music playing capability, using it as a recorder for a class like Noel's isn't
any handier than having a simple cassette tape recorder, and I suspect that that might apply to
other digital hard-drive and 'chip-based' recorders too.
Having a PC handy would make it easier to work with the files created on
such devices, but a minidisc recorder gives you great file adjusting flexibility
on it's own and it's quick and easy to use.
When I'm attending a class/workshop, I want to be able to focus on the
music, the people and the event, not the technology.
Something else worth considering on the subject of recorders. Noel has become accustomed to people having minidisc recorders in his class and he automatically says "Track Mark" to cue people making minidisc recordings that he's going to change the topic or what he's playing. Adding a Track Mark on his cue saves time later trying to hunt up the spot on the recording to insert it after the fact. If you're using a minidisc recorder, with a single button push you've added the reference mark and there's no break in the recording. If you want to more precisely adjust the location of the mark later, it can easily be done.
If you're using something like my iRiver and want to flag a change, the best you can do is to stop the current recording and start a new one (but it takes a few seconds as it closes out the one file and opens a fresh one). Aside from what you may have missed capturing in those few seconds, you now have two separate files that can't be linked until they're moved to a PC and processed with appropriate sound editing software. Of course you can always leave the recorder run and just note the time, but then you deal with the problem of having to search out the spot each time you want to access it as discussed above.
Summing up, I strongly recommend a minidisc recorder for music classes and workshops, the ease with which it allows you to mark, edit, delete and rearrange class material without needing a PC or other external equipment makes it very handy.