Digital Voice Recorders on attractions?

[David]

I'm thinking about buying a digital voice recorder for our upcoming trip so I could recirds general sounds and favorite attractions then download them and maybe make a CD. (A bit unusal probably, but I can get my Disney fix in the car if I like.) Have any of you ever done this and want to offer some advice on how it turned out?

25 days out and I'm about to go nuts.

 

[sarabi]

I did this back before the voice recorders were digital (it was a tape recorder with a mic). I can only imagine digital would turn out better.

The key is to find the speakers and put the recorder right next to the speakers. I found a speaker in the flowerbed outside of Spaceship Earth (flowerbeds are great places Disney puts hidden speakers) and set my recorder there and left it for like an hour to record the area music. I'm pretty sure in this day and age, they would confiscate the recorder given it's a suspicious electronic device left alone and also recording the music is probably not entirely legal.

The "do right" side of me says don't do it, it's probably not legal, but the side of me that has already done it says it'll turn out great if you find the speakers.

I also used it as a digital diary and recording my own thoughts as I walked around the parks or at the end of the day, which is a good memory.

 

[One Lil Spark]

Though I haven't tried this method myself, I'd think that the recordings would contain a large amount of 'ambient sound'. Unless you went on an attraction that everyone around you was as quiet as a mouse, you'll need to prepare yourself for the recording to contain talking, laughing, etc.

Honestly though, I have some mp3s that have the excess noise in them, and sometimes I find that more realistic because it's like I'm really there!

 

[David]

I don't think I'll mind the "extra input" from other guests. In fact on rides like ToT that may make it even more fun. I'm not expecting it to be studio quality, and I've got plenty of video with other sounds. This will just be easier to carry and not have to worry about a picture and still get the sounds of the parks.

 

[donniedisney]

You should save your money and go to mousebits.com

There's tons of WDW audio you can download.

 

[David]

I've looked at mousebits and have an account there---but to be honest have jsut never take the time to navigate through the instructions and downloaded anything from there. Maybe it's just me, but it looks like it can be a little while to get the hang of it.

 

[Horizonstta]

I record audio all of the time. The quality of what you get will depend on the equipment you are using as well as the amount of ambient noise as described above. You can find lots of live recordings on the internet, some good, some awful.

 

[dreamfinder]

Most of the major audio has already been recorded by fans using a handful of methods. You can do it yourself again, but there is some great quality stuff available if you look around. I have done it (used a MiniDisc recorder) and the quality will vary greatly based on the source. If you just use one of those that is meant for you to record quick memos for youself, the quality will be pretty bad. Those mics are usually stereo, and are meant for a close range audio source. If you get an actual mic (or set of mics for true stereo), and record into some recording device, the sound can be pretty decent. You will def. pick up alot of ambient noise, but it sounds like that may be what you want. Most of the cleanest "unreleased" audio comes from induction recording which gets the feed straight from the speaker. And of course the best audio gets liberated by employees who "lose" their rehearsal cd's, or have access to jack in directly to the feed somewhere.
Is it possible? Definately. Can you get good results? If you have decent equipment yup. Is it worth it? Hard to say. I have recorded probably 40-50 hrs of audio between 4 trips to WDW and DL. From that I relelased about 4 hrs into the wild. Maybe 2 hrs of that that I haven't seen show up from other sources. So I'm glad that I snagged some audio for histories sake, but would be it be worth buying a recording rig just for this? I don't think so. If you already have it, then definitely give it a shot.

 

[David]

I was looking at an Olympus OLM DS30. It appears to be rather basic, and I don't think it has an outlet for mic, but even if it does, I don't know whether I would use the mic. My DW would walk away from me if I were walking around with the recorder and the mic. Although if it were small enough.......

EDIT--Just checked again and it DOES have an external mic included. Just might work!

 

[dreamfinder]

External mics don't need to be obtrusive. You can use lapel type mics that work pretty well, are fairly stealthy, and you can just clip em on your lapel or backpack straps and no one will really notice.

 

[Horizonstta]

Most of the major audio has already been recorded by fans using a handful of methods.

Not really. There is a LOT more to go. Slowly, but I don't think "most" of the audio has been captured yet, at least by my definition of what "major" audio is.

Most of the cleanest "unreleased" audio comes from induction recording which gets the feed straight from the speaker. And of course the best audio gets liberated by employees who "lose" their rehearsal cd's, or have access to jack in directly to the feed somewhere.

Most of the audio that is mistaken for "source" does come from induction recordings and other means. In fact, if one does it right, it's difficult to tell the difference, other than the fact that it's a mono, opposed to stereo, recording. I, personally, am not a fan of live recordings, unless I need a reference recording for something. But I have heard a lot of live recordings that are well done. In fact, you can find a nice set of mics that run less than $50 that produce a quality recording. Your best friend, in recording audio, is a device that lets you set the input level as you record.

 

[maelstrom]

I have a digital voice recorder. It picks up EVERYTHING, so all of my recordings include vocals from people around me and random noises of everything going on around me.