Every now and then I come across a new piece of technology and I usually end up wanting to buy one. Over the last few months I’ve been looking at portable sound recorders to use in school and for band rehearsals. Recently the band got one on loan when we needed to make a quick recording of some new tracks. The sound recorder in question is the Sanyo Xacti which unlike it’s counterparts by other manufacturers is actually a very small and handy size.
The Sanyo Xacti records in MP3 (up to 320kbps) and WAV through the built in stereo microphone and stores everything on a Micro SD card. You can also use the line-in input to record through an external microphone and use headphones or built in speaker to preview the recordings. The package also includes rechargeable battery, USB cable, earphones and manual.
A portable recorder that's easy on the eye
When you first get this gadget out the box it sort of resembles an iPod Nano in terms of it’s size and it’s sleek touchscreen interface is impressive. Once I turned it on it took me about 5-10 minutes to work out most of it’s functions which is always a good sign. The ‘record’ and ‘stop’ buttons are just underneath the screen and clearly marked. To the left of this is a ‘scenes’ button which is similar to ones you get on modern compact digital cameras at the moment. In this section there are several preset settings designed to best capture different scenarios. These scenes include ‘Interview’, ‘Meeting/Lecture’, ‘Music’, ‘Headphone’, ‘Portable’ and ‘Compo’. Not entirely sure what the last three are but I’m sure the manual will provide examples of what they are useful for – it should do, it’s almost as thick as the Ploughmans I’m eating.
If you look a bit further and you’ll find additional options for your sound recording. You can adjust the mic sensitivity between ‘high’ and ‘low’, set an EQ, enable a peak limiter as well as various other options. With these various options at your disposal it’s best to experiment to find the right combination for you. I’ve made three recordings and put them below. The success of the recordings vary but I imagine I need to work out how best to use this gadget for it to reach it’s potential. The acoustic guitar recording seems to work best as it captures the tone with good clarity. The piano recording also works but could be improved upon with better microphone placement (my fault) as well as some EQ adjustment on the device itself. The final recording is a band in a rehearsal room. This works the least well because the loudness causes the recording to clip. With only two microphone sensitivity options this is probably the downside of the device. There are other options you can play with but they aren’t that easy to find without consulting the manual. In this situation you either just keep experimenting which could lose you time or switch on the peak limiter which could result in a nasty compressed sound. I have to admit I haven’t tried the peak limiter option yet but I’m pretty sure that would be the case given other sound recorders I’ve tried. What would be handy but appears to be missing is some sort of visual clue as to whether your recording will clip – something like a strip you get with recording software that allows you to ‘sound check’ without having to make endless test recordings.
All in all it honestly depends on what you want to get out of this device. For me, it’s a great tool to monitor musical progress and to be an aid to memory when writing new material. The device is easily good enough for this and depending on how well you get used to this device you could use it to share recordings with friends and fans or online.
Acoustic Guitar Recording (Sensitivity High, Peak Limiter Off)
[audio:http://www.mattkeil.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/sanyoxactiguitar.mp3|titles=Sanyo Xacti Guitar Recording]Piano Recording (Sensitivity Low, Peak Limiter Off)
[audio:http://www.mattkeil.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/sanyoxactipiano.mp3|titles=Sanyo Xacti Piano Recording]Rock Band Rehearsal Recording (Sensitivity Low, Peak Limiter Off)
[audio:http://www.mattkeil.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/sanyoxactiband.mp3|titles=Sanyo Xacti Band Recording]Pros:
- Great design and easily portable
- Easy to use and start recording straight away
- The ‘Scenes’ are great for casual use
- Good selection of advanced options
Cons:
- The cover flap for the memory card and USB input is a bit flimsy
- A visual monitoring strip would be helpful to see if the recording will clip or distort before you actually recording something
- More microphone sensitivity options would be welcome
Find out more about this sound recorder on Sanyo’s Website
Get the Sanyo Xacti ICR-XPS01 digital recorder for £199 from Amazon
Matt Keil 
Hi Rob,
As a complete newbie to portable recording (or any recording for 45 years) I’m after something similar to this, to record outdoor / wildlife ambient sounds.
I’ve been advised that normal Dictaphone &Voice recorders won’t give me the quality of recording that I’m after.
In your opinion, would this item suit my purpose ? If not, can you recommend something that might please ?
Bear in mind that, as a disabled pensioner, my budget is limited.
PS: Nice write-up.
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It really depends on what your end purpose is. The Sanyo is really good, but there are no ‘buttons’ on it as such, it also most a touch-screen type interface which can be a bit fiddly. In my school we use the Zoom H1 Handy Recorders which are robust and a bit more user-friendly (You can’t go wrong with a giant ‘record’ button on the front!). Click the link below to look at it on Amazon. At £77 I reckon this is fantastic value for money.
Zoom H1 Handy Recorder
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I too have this *excellent* device, but the user interface was really hard to navigate at first, at least until I began to divine the thought processes of the designers. Initially I thought that I couldn’t manually adjust the recording levels and only had the opiton of choosing the recording “scenes” and the mic sensitivity. Turns out that there’s two “scenes” that permit level adjustment, and only if you make sure ALC (auto level control) is turned off. They are Music and I think (don’t have it with me) Component Line In. Then the left and right arrows are enabled to change the levels, displayed as a number in the bottom right corner from 1 to 30. I also have a Zoom H2 which works well but eats batteries and isn’t nearly as concealable for covert concert recording. I’ll probably get rid of it, don’t see myself ever needing to record surround sound.
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