1) It only goes to half speed. Not slow enough for doing jazz. Especially
since jazz players use alot of chromatic approach notes which are very
difficult to get accurately if you can't basically hear the note
as an isolated note.
2) The note grabber didnt work at all.
>The units I have heard of are: Ibanez Digital Rock and Play (I have owned and
>disliked the analogue version of this), Riff Tech Riffmaster, Akai U-40, the
>Digital Slo-Mo, and some computer programs (it's not practical to drag my
>computer around to all the places I like to transcribe or teach).
>
>I want to make the right decision the first time, my budget isn't big enough
>to buy them and discard the ones I don't like.
>
>My needs in a unit are:
>
>Portability (I like to transcribe on vacations as well)
>
>Option of using Batteries (the Akai didn't have this)
>
>Relatively free of extra pops, clicks, and buzzes (as free as current
>technology allows, I know there will be some unavoidable noises)
>
>Ease and speed of use, intuitiveness of controls (the less manual reading the
>better, I'm dyslexic)
>
>Since I want to make the right choice once, the price is less important than
>the quality.
>
>Thank you all in advance for any help you can give me.
>
The RiffMaster wins hands down for almost everyone except perhaps
someone doing professional transcriptions for books.
People doing professional transcriptions probably will want to own
several devices. That's what I do. Sometimes there may be a very
troublesome measure and you may have to use a bunch of devices
until you can finally figure it out. Of course for the average
user they could just skip that measure.
Digital Slo Mo is better in some ways but in 95% of situations it
won't make any difference. Digital SLo Mo also costs over $400
dollars. Riffmaster is more self contained than
digital slo mo.
Here is why:
1) discussion list members can get it for $150 . This means you can
order them for your students at that price which is what I have been doing.
2) it goes to 1/4 speed and has a fair amount of nice features.
3) is affordable for students. Then you and your students are using
the same unit. I'm trying to switch myself so that I can be experienced
in the same unit my students have.
4) Is self contained though I recommend making yourself a cutoff switch.
This can be done by turning down a volume switch but then the unit
is not self contained. It's volume switch is not sufficent for that purpose.
Proably you need $4 worth of parts to make that switch.
5) Will run on 9v battery or 9v transformer.
6) They will give you 2 or 3 weeks (I foget which one) to try it and
if you don't like it you can return it.
7) Allows stereo in with L/R switch.
As far as sound quality, it's decent.
All the digital ones sound wierd. It's something that you have to
get used to. The sound breaks up sometimes and you have to get
used to hearing beyond that. It drives some people nuts like my teacher
Don who has perfect pitch but it drove me nuts the first year I used
it too.
Probably some of the computer programs will generate a much better
quality sound but they run for an hour on a small song whereas these
devices are instantaneos.
The digital slo mo has other features including the following:
1) memory can be addeded for saving solos up to 4 minutes. This
can be useful because if you are doing a long solo and want to go
back and check/re-check you can just leave the device on for weeks
at a time with the whole solo in the memory.
2) sound quality is probably a bit better. I think they use higher
resolution and sampling frequency.
3) you can numerically set regions as opposed to riffmaster which
requires you use your ear/press buttons.
4) goes down to 1/6 speed and does have a note grabber function
that works.
5) has pitch adjust.
6) Has some other new features that I havent used yet. I bought
the unit last summer and havent used all the new features. Mostly
I like the longer memory than the older unit.
reed
>
Reed Kotler
reed@justjazz.com
http://www.justjazz.com