PlayBook audio recording

We've seen threads and posts on the exceptional quality of PBs video and camera quality, but I actually didn't have much opinion on it's audio recording quality, until tonight. We went to a small venue concert tonight, a young bluegrass band, performing in a church auditorium. And of course I thought, "why not?" So I grabbed the PB as we head out the door and of course my wife pipes up "Really?!! Do you go anywhere without that thing?". I just ignore her jibes.

Anyway, we get there and get our seats, I open voice notes, and as soon as the band gets on stage I start recording and just keep the mike towards the stage. BTW, we're about 40ft from the stage. Great concert. We get home and I playback the recording and WOW! Not studio quality, but wow, great sound! Very clear, clean and good separation. You can hear each instrument well, banjo, fiddle, bass, mandolin and guitar. Vocals were great too. I played it for my daughter and she was incredulous. She accused me of trying to pass off a download as my live recording. The only negative I can come up with is it was a little bass weak, otherwise, amazing for a live recording. I am continuously being impressed with this device.

Tonight I played back the video an audio of the concert for a guy in my church that has a recording studio at home. He does recordings for local artists. He was very impressed with the audio and video quality using the OEM mikes and camera. He actually has two other popular tablets for other uses and was impressed that ANY tablet could record video and audio of that quality. Not to say if even remotely compares to dedicated recording equipment, but compared to consumer grade stuff, he said it was definitely usable for what he called raw checks and personal use.

He ended up abducting my PB for about 30min tonight, brought it back and said "That's it, gotta get one."

where is the mic/mics located on the unit?

On the edge the power button is on, each end. I was doing it while in the journal case which has cutouts for the mics. And it does record in stereo with the OEM mikes.

Nice to know, Thanks!

I also didn't know where the mics were or that it did stereo. I'll have to try it out myself.

Any chance you could post a sample clip?

Yes the micss are super sensitive and of very high quality for a tablet IMO. I tested it with my gf and she can pick up my whispers perfectly clear and rich from across the room (without much background noise, of course.) Top notch.

Here something I recorded last 4th of July. Not too bad for being outside and breezy. It was in my CaseMate Pop case, which has holes for both mics.

Arcata CA - 4th of July Festival - Blackberry Playbook - YouTube

I love the microphones too! The quality is phenomenal. I recorded a thunderstorm the other night and it sounded so crisp, and beautiful. I think the Playbook can hear better than my ears!;p

Yeah' almost too good. On that concert recording you can hear my wife and I whispering while the band is playing. Very clear and separate from the music. Very impressive.

I discovered the playbook has excellent sound recording ability when I recorded a speakerphone conversation. I placed the phone on the playbook and it recorded the conversation with great quality :cool:

I've been a happy Playbook owner since day 1, and I agree on the audio recordings being top notch. It sounds like there's some rather heavy compression and limiting going on to get the mics sounding so sensitive but it works well. Unfortunately whenever I'm in a loud environment there's a high pitched popping in the recordings, like clipping, but thankfully judging by the many Youtube videos recorded with Playbooks it seems that it's just a defect with my own unit.

And if anyone is looking for a mic recorder that records lossless (wav) instead of 128kbps AAC, search for Virtual Recorder by Andro iX on App World. Runs in the Android Player but it works.

The stereo mics and stereo speakers on the PB kill the mono mics and mono speakers found in many other tablets.

This is an awesome feature! This thing will be at many concerts this summer!:D

Did you play the recording on the Playbook itself or did you put it on the computer/av device? Just curious if the lack of bass is a result of the Playbook's speakers or the actual recording (my guess is the former).

Playback was on the PB. I need to try it with my headphones. Keep in mind this was a bluegrass concert, not a lot of thumping bass LOL. I need to experiment more.

ok, what am I missing then, since the update, my PB's video recorder records nothing other than pulsing white noise....no actual ambient sound

Originally Posted by rotorwrench

Playback was on the PB. I need to try it with my headphones. Keep in mind this was a bluegrass concert, not a lot of thumping bass LOL. I need to experiment more.

The voice notes play via HDMI as well.

[QUOTE=zephryn;7362511

And if anyone is looking for a mic recorder that records lossless (wav) instead of 128kbps AAC, search for Virtual Recorder by Andro iX on App World. Runs in the Android Player but it works.[/QUOTE]

Hey! I have the Virtual recorder too, but I have not found a way to transfer anything recorded from it to my computer. Just wondering if you have the same problem or if you know how to do that. You mentioned it records in wav format. Shouldn't they show up in the native media player? Thanks.

Look in /accounts/1000/shared/misc/android/VirtualRecorder/ for the recorded files and transfer them as you would any other file.