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[wdude25]

I have a question, I have a ipod nano and was wondering, well, was interested, in doing induction recordings and I thought on one of the forums I read that you can buy a recorder for your ipod and use your ipod as the recorder for doing induction recordings? How would this all work? and what exactly would I need to buy for my Ipod Nano?

[hismattjesty]

I have never heard of this being done, but if it can be, I'd love to know as well.  Any experts on this out there?

[C33]

Oh yes indeed.

You can buy voice recorder attachments for  iPod and iPod nano. While several companies make these (just search for "iPod voice recorder" ) Griffin and Belkin in particular make ones that I've used.

You'll want to buy one that records at a good quality in stereo, and has a stereo mic input jack. The recorders also come with a built in mic (usually stereo if the recorder handles stereo, which it should) so you can make live recording without needing to buy a separate mic. The audio will be recorded onto your iPod using the iPod's built-in voice recorder interface, and will be added to your iTunes when you update your iPod. Usually voice recorder's store their files as WAV.

There are some pros and cons to using these...

PRO: You don't have to buy or tote a separate audio recorder, which is good if you're not ready to make the investment of a good recorder.
PRO: The voice recorder interface is very easy to use, it doesn't have a lot of complicated setting like some stand-alone recorders might.
CON: During more thrilling rides (Tower of Terror, Space Mountain for example, and yes I've used the iPod voice recorder on both) the voice recorder attachment can come unplugged, which ends your recording and of course makes it easier to lose.
CON: Sometimes the voice recorder attachment has difficulty connecting with the iPod (not so much physically but with the software) which can leave you frantically trying to start the recorder while the ride is about to begin (this happened to me many times).
CON: These attachments do not give you control over things like bit rate and levels that some stand-alone recorders do.

Overall, I'd say that this is a good way to go for someone who's just getting into induction recordings and wants to try it out. That's what I did. After you get more serious about it though, you will want to invest in a more professional audio recording device (as well as other things like pre-amps).

I hope that helps!

[wdude25]

Thanks C33, I was looking at voice recorders but, they have many differant kinds lol. Do you think, if at all possible, you could point a website out to me with the one you would recommend I buy? Again I have a Ipod Nano.

Quality wise, how does it come out using the Ipod? I mean, yes in general doing induction recordings can come out bad regardless what recorder you use, but saying you used your Ipod to record and there was no interfearance or anything, would the quality be the same using the Ipod recorder vers a regular recorder? If that make sense.

Let me honest and say I would be recording parade audio or show audio.

[wdude25]

Thanks C33, I was looking at voice recorders for the Ipod Nano but, they have many differant kinds lol. Do you think, if at all possible, you could point me in a direction to a website to the one you have for your Ipod Nano? Sorry do not mean to be a pain. Just rather buy one that someone else had experiance with.

Quality wise, how does it come out using the Ipod? I mean, yes in general doing induction recordings can come out bad regardless what recorder you use, but saying you used your Ipod to record and there was no interfearance or anything, would the quality be the same using the Ipod recorder vers a regular recorder? If that make sense.

Let me honest and say I would be recording parade audio or show audio. Which leads to another issue of how to get the mic to connect with a speaker since they are usualy far away and you want to keep yourself as best descreet as possible doing it haha.

[C33]

Thanks C33, I was looking at voice recorders for the Ipod Nano but, they have many differant kinds lol. Do you think, if at all possible, you could point me in a direction to a website to the one you have for your Ipod Nano? Sorry do not mean to be apain. Just rather buy one that someone else had experiance with.

I don't have a Nano, I have a 5G iPod Video. When I used my iPod I used a Belkin TuneTalk, which worked fine but see the CONS in my post above.

Quality wise, how does it come out using the Ipod? I mean, yes in general doing induction recordings can come out bad regardless what recorder you use, but saying you used your Ipod to record and there was no interfearance or anything, would the quality be the same using the Ipod recorder vers a regular recorder? If that make sense.

I used to use a Griffin iTalk, with that the quality wasn't so great. With the Belkin though it sounds fine, so which recorder you use will decide the quality. All of my induction recordings up until this past summer were made with that, so the quality was fine. In fact, the recorder I use now isn't really better quality (as far as I can tell)- it's more that it's more convenient and has better features.

Let me honest and say I would be recording parade audio or show audio. Which leads to another issue of how to get the mic to connect with a speaker since they are usualy far away and you want to keep yourself as best descreet as possible doing it haha.

Well I'm afraid that's a bit like saying we could have all the source audio we want if only WDI would give it to us... what you've just mentioned is the #1 issue with induction recordings. 90% of the time, the speaker just isn't accessible. And even when it is, you've got to deal with the quality of the speaker (bad speaker = bad sound), interference from nearby wiring and electronics (if there's a television nearby you're done for).

I'm afraid that's just something you're going to have to figure out for yourself- I can't tell you how much time I've spent looking through pictures and videos (sometimes frame by frame for the latter) looking for accessible speakers when I can't be at the park. It's a challenge, and it's what keeps us from being able to do induction recordings of 99% of the audio out there: obviously all of the audio in the parks comes from speakers, but most of them are far out of reach of guests.

It's interesting; once you start looking for speakers you'll start noticing the lengths to which Disney goes to hide them and integrate them into the landscape.

A goal of mine is to, sometime in the future (hopefully next year) do a video podcast from Disneyland which will be a full tutorial on how to do things like induction recordings, video taping and editing, what equipment to buy, even down to actually being in the parks and dealing with the conditions there.

My best advice to you is this though: get an inexpensive recorder (and iPod voice recorder is a good option as I mentioned), get an Induction Pickup (which costs $8 at your local Radio Shack) and just go down to the parks and try it. For all of us out there doing induction recordings we're just using knowledge we've gathered from getting out there and doing it; everybody has their own style and their own choice of equipment.

I hope that helps!

[wdude25]

Thats again! Yeah that does answer my question, I think. So I just need to buy a Belkin.... voice recorder? its called? or Italk?

Only question I have, for now, thats on my mind, is with that tiny length in cord of the telephone pickup, which I have seen before, how in the world will you reach any speaker with that? unless you can buy one with a extended cord or something. If the cord was long enough I am sure you could maybe come up with some kind of contraption like a small pole or something to actually be able to reach a far away speaker, but, with such a short cord I do not see any way of reaching any speaker that I am aware of. I am aware of a couple speakers at the MK at WDW but, that cord would definatly not be long enough. I am definatly not a wireing expert to be able to extend the cord myself.

I get the feeling this is one of the many major issues with doing inductions lol.

[kirky]

Just wanted to note.  I have a 4G iPod and I've gone the route of using Podzilla to do some recordings with success.  No third party devices were necessary.

I've also heard about Rockbox being used as well.

Basically, you're installing Linux on your iPod and they have enabled some of the built in functionality that was disabled by Apple.  I'm not sure if the Nano is wired to do recordings, which may necessitate an add-on to actually record.

Make sure whatever you use has a mic in jack.  Induction pickups do not work on the line in jack, they need some power in order to do their magic.

Extending the cord is trivial.  You will need:  Appropriate length of cord, I purchase 6ft 1/8" male to 1/8" male cord from the shack.  They use a shielded cable as well, which should help with interferrence.  Get a 15W soldering iron, a razor blade and a hot melt glue gun.

Open up the induction pickup with th razor blade and carefully remove the pickup.  Unsolder the wire from the induction coil and solder on your new cord cut the the length you need.

I use the hot melt glue to hold the wire in place inside the pickup as putting stress on it can cause the solder joints to break free.

Enjoy a longer cord on your pickup.

Also, like C33 said, it's trial and error.  If we could give you 100% guaranteed advice on what to do, when and where, honestly, it would already be done, and with better equipemnt than an iPod.  I mean no disrespect...  It's like...  Well, it's like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get.

The major issues are actually the interferrence in the parks and also finding a good speaker.  Many of the low laying fruit so to say have been beat up pretty bad through the years by guests, landscaping equipment, etc.

[Horizons]

I'm guessing that if you need a cord extension, the speaker if going to be way out of reach.

[wdude25]

Hmm, So you can by telephone pickups with longer cords? Makeing my own cord is way out of the question lol.

I'm still confused what recorder I need to buy. I mean aside from the brand name.

[C33]

Hmm, So you can by telephone pickups with longer cords? Makeing my own cord is way out of the question lol.

I'm still confused what recorder I need to buy. I mean aside from the brand name.

No, but you can buy the audio equvilent of an extension cord and use that if soldering isn't your thing. It isn't unnecessary though, especially for a beginner.

And if you want to record with your iPod you just need an iPod Voice Recorder attachment, with the features I've outlined above.

[wdude25]

I'm trying to find what you said, a Belkin voice recorder for Ipod Nano. Not finding it, at least not at the store I was hopeing would have it.