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it has great sound quality, and transferring the mp3's to my macbook was as easy as just plugging in the usb cable,no drivers or extra software required. its very easy to use and lightweight. this recorder surpassed my expectations. i was able to figure out all the functions and be up and running without reading the instructions, its a very intuitive device.
Download a podcast or an MP3 from archive.org's Live Music Archive and enjoy it on the RCA unit. Frequent backups and shorter recordings can help here.Controls are laid out quite usefully; the buttons include Record, Stop, Play, onthe top row; Forward and Reverse on the second row, and Erase, Menu on the bottom row. Some practice and experimentation are required to learn the firmware's timing windows for various long-duration keypress sense; it doesn't seem especially consistent but with practice it begins to feel 'correct' (and responsive). Or just ignore the recording capabilities and use as an inexpensive method to listen to podcasts and other MP3's on the go.The device's LCD is of the dedicated zone type -- it is pixelated only for the bottom status line, which normally shows a time-index in hours, minutes and seconds.This is also where any single-word status messages are displayed by the firmware (the program running inside the machine).Since the storage system is resident on flash, you can remove the batteries for as long as you wish, and your valuable MP3's will persist.The unit may be used as a flash drive, and does not require the batteries for that function. That's a black-box description; obviously the external mic is of a particular type -- the internal mic is fine for picking up ambient sounds in conference mode. Record your heart, beam it over to your computer, play back on a computer-based MP3 player and edit there, then beam back over to the RCA RP5036A digi voice recorder to enjoy the edited MP3 as 'music' (don't beam it to folder_a, b, c, ord). Keypad lockout disables these functions (thus it is impossible to turn it on or off while the keypad lockout is engaged).The erase button is difficult to mismanage; in fact it is difficult to erase your recordings.
System is frequently reset under a variety of conditions that causes it necessary to turn off the keypad beep function -- you'll learn where it is fast enough. The package does not include earbuds or any sort of private listening transducers; the onboard speaker is adequate or better.The LCD display of course has no alphanumeric labeling scheme to keep track of your recordings; it has the four file folder icons telling you which folder you're currently visiting, and a '7 of 9' type of counting system to track individual recordings.There is a bookmark function available; just tap the 'Record' key during playback, to mark the spot you wish to slew to with a quick tap of Forward or Reverse during playback. Some functions are not available for your 'music' MP3's, such as playing at a reduced or increased playback speed.The device will occasionally choke and refuse to respond; the problem is it isscanning the MP3 files on the flash drive and if it encounters one it cannot deal with, you're stuck -- until you go in (as if it were just the flash drive and not an MP3 player as well) and delete the offending file (you can back it up to a host computer before doing so). It has 256 MB of flash, which amounts to some 71 hours of play time in the lowest resolution mode. Unit very good against shock and vibration, allowing applications such as tossing in your panniers to go for a bike ride where you record the whole thing to chip memory.Two microphone modes are available; 'Dictate' and 'Conference'. 'music' is for your imports; the others are carefully managed by the firmware.
User interface in Windows is probably drag n' drop; just like with any other thumb (pen, flash) drive. So even if you ran out of AAA cells to power the device, you can still transfer your MP3's to and from the unit.Linux recognizes the USB flash drive as a standard thumb drive, usually as /dev/sda or perhaps /dev/sdb. Headphones can help with keeping the peace between cubicles.Construction appears solid all around; the battery cover comes off quite easily, but not accidentally. About 17 hours of hiqh quality audio can be recorded to the flash drive via the device's electronics and firmware management system. It also appears to occasionally append one file to another or replaces part of another's content. Dictation mode uses either a close-talking type microphone element or different filtering; 'Conference' mode enists a far-field pickup type of mic filtering. Expect delays and learn when you have to act quickly; when you have to bear down on the buttons, and when you must take your time and give the thing a chance to catch up with your button commands.Playback audio quality seems superlative; there are no filters available in firmware (nor on any external controls) to shape playback sound, other than gross volume (the volume control subroutine is quite good and intuitive; and the buttons are high quality momentary-contact type).So.
Haven't used dictation mode much; presumably it screens out unwanted ambient sounds.Unit is powered on by pressing the Play key once; it is powered off by pressing the Stop key once. Slewing is generally painful if you do not exploit the bookmark function, so it is worthwhile learning how to do it.Other editing features include Append and Insert; both are accessed through the Menu key.A beep tone sounds with every keypress; disabling it should be the first item in the sequential Menu system; it's deep in the menu but it is there. The unit appears quite resistant to unintentional activation or mode changes (the keypad lockout switch does the correct thing in all instances, except with regard to the backlight -- it is easy and in fact almost impossible not to activate the orange LED backlight, even with the keypad lockout switch engaged. The RCA RP5036A runs on two AAA cells; ships with a USB cable, a lapel microphone, an acceptable belt-clipped holster, two AAA cells, and the instruction sheet (this is also available online as a PDF rendered quite nicely). On the other hand, you're in great shape for dim light conditions, there.The opposite side has the three ports: Mic (framed in a red bezel), Ear(phone) in a green bezel, and a rubber gasket that reveals the USB-B port (the small triangular one on the device end of the supplied USB cable). Internally it is a USB flash drive formatted for VFAT (Windows* filesystem) with four regular folders, and a fifth labeled 'music' for your imported MP3 files.This digital voice recorder is a pocket MP3 editor and player.
On the right side are a rocker switch (+ and -) control playback volume, and a slider switch to disable the keypad. Only /dev/sda1 is used, and the root directory contains five subdirectories: folder_a, _b, _c, _d. and 'music'. Toss one in your backpack and record all the funny things people said while you were out on the streets.And for less than forty dollars, US.
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