M-Audio MicroTrack 24/96 Digital Recorder

If you're interested in making pro-quality recordi ...

Posted Mar 15, 2006 - If you're interested in making pro-quality recordings at a remote location at a reasonable price, this is a very good unit. It has a number of recording options, 16 or 24-bit, sampling rates, wav or mp3, etc., and has balanced inputs for pro audio device outputs, as well as mini-stereo, digital, and mic inputs if that serves your application as well. The USB 2.0 interface with a PC is quick and easy. However, the unit is a little sensitive to the input levels, and you must be careful not to feed it too hot of a signal or you'll get clipping and an overdriven sound. There are switches on the side to change between line and mic level balanced inputs along with a recording level adjustment, but it's very important to keep an eye on the input level. The unit's interface (buttons and toggles) is a little cumbersome, and while it has the ability to play back audio, that's certainly not a strength. There's no ability to edit sound files at the remote location, so if you were thinking of using this unit in a news gathering application, that's probably not wise. One final note...use your PC to format the CF cards. The unit's internal formatter is not reliable. Overall, as a field recorder, it is very versatile and does its job well at a reasonable price. I would recommend it highly to record on location at a pro audio level. Other applications (such as news reporting) might be served better with more expensive units, such as the Marantz PMD671 and Edirol R-4. On the other hand, I prefer this unit to the PMD670 (Marantz) or Edirol R-1 or R-09.

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Battery self-destructed in less than a year!

Posted Dec 27, 2006 - The battery life on my MicroTrack has always been poor, but now it won't record even 10 minutes. Note that the battery is not user-replaceable. As I've had it less than a year, I thought, "This is resolvable; warranty is most likely a year." Well, no. The battery is on a separate warranty of 90 days. I must ship the MicroTrack to California and pay $75 + shipping. This is my last M-Audio product.

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Actually Purchased & Tested Microtrack 24/96

Posted Feb 16, 2006 - I did purchase one of these machines & did a test recording with it. Was able to record the whole concert with no problems. Thinking about buying it & keeping it this time, but not using it as a main deck until I'm confident that everything will be fine. I paid $329 ($357 w/tax)& wouldn't pay much more than that. A 2GB Compact Flash card will run you $100 from a local computer supply store. I was using a Denecke AD-20 on the front end.

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Beware of short recording time!

Posted Oct 8, 2005 - Presumably you are interested in this gadget because you want a simple way to record high-quality, digital sound and transfer it to your computer, MP3 player, etc. Well this works but forget about capturing high quality sound longer than 12 minutes on a $110 1GB CompactFlash card [not included]. (MP3 format; Sample rate: 44.1; Bits: 192. Your "mileage" may vary.) If you want to record an hour-long event, you must either buy five 1GB cards and swap them out between songs, or pay a fortune for more CompactFlash memory (~$200 for 4GB, ~$540 for 6GB). And if you're ready to spend that kind of money, why not buy the Core Sound PDAudio-CF instead?

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Works well enough

Posted Nov 30, 2006 - The MicroTrack is fairly easy to operate, and records with good sound quality. I wish it had a strap or cover or something, as the surface is a hard, smooth plastic which is easy to drop. The ergonomics are a little off, as I can't reach the main function control button and the record button with the same hand without fumbling, but I have smaller-sized hands. It does take a long time to boot up, and the manual is fairly unhelpful. Nevertheless, it does what it's supposed to do--record sound--with reasonably high quality, in a portable format.

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Microtrack - not all perfect

Posted May 9, 2006 - I was very excited about the MicroTrack (MT) when I bought it. I followed the instructions to downlad the latest firmware update and was on my way. After recording a whole concert (about 90 minutes) my computer would not recognize the files as WAV files...my recording was lost. After trying several different combinations of bit rates and sample rates without any success I emailed M-Audio and they got back to me pretty quickly and told me to update my firmware. It seems they put out a newer update right after I downloaded mine. It seems to work OK now that I have downloaded the latest firmware, except that with my condenser mics I had to use the High mic setting with the level booster in order to get enough sound. I transferred the file to my computer fine this time but it would not play back on the machine itself. I still need to bug M-Audio about this before I would give the MT a rave review.

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Microtrack Review

Posted Mar 31, 2006 - Good battery life, clear recording, works well in phantom power mode with condensor mics, very portable and convenient, easy to transfer to computer. Recording levels are low even when they are set as high as they can go. There is a 27db boost, but everything clips when that is turned on, even if you turn the record levels to their lowest and the mic level to low.

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Great Little Recorder!

Posted Feb 22, 2006 - The MicroTrack recorder is a surprisingly good little machine. At first I was not pleased with it because it is plastic and felt cheap. However, it records great sound! Also, it is very small and portable which means I can take it almost anywhere. The controls are very easy to operate and although it does not have XLR plugs it does have 1/4" plugs which means I can use a high quality microphone with it. All in all I am very pleased to get such good sound for such little money.

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