Sony ICD-UX570 Digital Voice Recorder, ICDUX570BLK, usb

I was looking for something that could kill two birds with one stone: 1) allow me to create an audio journal which I could easily import to my MacBook and burn onto CD; and 2) play MP3s. The audio journal thing is admittedly a quirky little project of mine, as I would have given anything if my grandfather had left behind a shoebox of cassettes with his voice and thoughts, etc., and I'm arrogant enough to hope that someone will one day wish the same of me. The MP3 capabilities are also excellent with the use of the onboard software EQ.The interface might not be the most intuitive, but it doesn't take long to learn your way around within the menus. And with one of the menu items being the ability to reset the features to default, don't be afraid to experiment thinking you might somehow lock yourself into a setting you can't undo.For simple voice recording of one's thoughts, poems, dreams, and chronicling of life-events and oddities (one person, one MIC), I find that turning every setting/filter off and setting the MIC Sensitivity to LOW works best for an updated, modern version of talking into a microcassette recorder (no need to even set the range to FOCUS). For setting the device on a table and recording a gathering of friends or whatnot, turn all settings and filters off, set the range to WIDE and the MIC Sensitivity to medium and voila! You can even save these two settings (or any other custom recording settings) under MyScene1 and MyScene2. I actually advise against using the "AUTO" settings as this tends to record hot and loud at first and drop off in volume after a few seconds of recording due to the unit attempting to self-correct it's recording levels. For excellent, crisp playback of either of these scenarios through headphones, set the five Custom EQ sliders to the following (from left to right): +2, -1, +1, +1, +3. This is also the setting I use for 99.9% of my music MP3 playback.Another neat (and HANDY!) feature is that, if you are unsure of your MIC Sensitivity, before you actually begin recording, you can press and hold the record button rather than just pressing it. This puts the recording into pause mode right out of the gate but still displays the L and R level monitors. This is how..... well, maybe I'll get a ding against me for even bringing this up, but I'm about to be REAL with ya: You know how YouTube music doesn't allow you to export your downloads as MP3s? Well, by running an aux cable from my phone or MacBook headphone port into the MIC jack of this Sony unit, you can play a few seconds of a song with the above method to see what volume level to set your phone or computer at, pause the song and back it up to the beginning, hit Record on the Sony and Play on the player. Moral gray area? Probably, but the laws of physics as pertains to electronics says it CAN be done.Something I've seen often mentioned in reviews for this and other Sony recorder units is this supposed inability to rename a folder or file anything other than the broad and boring names Sony has pre-destined. While this may be true on the unit itself, it is NOT the case once you plug the device into a computer. Just right-click on the folder or file and give it any name you want... even "Crispy Bellowing Wobble-Mallows" if you're so inclined. Back over on the unit, even longer titles will slow-scroll across the screen (once, then you have to re-highlight it to see it do this nifty little trick again).Voice-activated recording is also present and accounted for, so if you want to know if you're talking in your sleep, have at it (and with 22-hour battery life at even the highest sound-quality settings, no worries!).Startup from off to recording is negligible... if you've used the unit within 4 hours, just slide the power switch down and press Record. If it's been OVER 4 hours since the last time, well... you're just going to have to wait 1.2 entire seconds. And if your screen cuts off (which it will after 30 seconds [and this amount of time is menu-adjustable]) don't panic about messing up your recording session by pressing a button to re-light the screen... just press "BACK" and your screen reappears with the current function uninterrupted.Unfortunately, it's true what others have said about not being able to adjust the screen brightness, so if you're using this in the pitch-black of a moonless night, you're gonna blind yourself... no way around it. The good news is you have a makeshift flashlight for just such a pitch-dark moonless night... BONUS! What you CAN do, however, is switch off the unit's use of its red/green indicator light (so if you want to lie and assure someone they're NOT being recorded, this gives you a leg up in that endeavor, you mischievous miscreant!).The 4gb of onboard memory should be plenty for most, granting 5 hours of the top-tier quality recording and 40 hours of the highest MP3 quality.. Just add a memory card for extra space (64gb or higher allows for 7.3 million years of recording time... which is just ungodly and, really, WHY?). When you plug the unit into a computer via USB, you will see two separate drives for the onboard memory and the memory card. And now you can open the REC_FILE folder of either drive, pic a folder and drag-and-drop your MP3s (or move things around from folder to folder if you don't want to take the time to do it on-unit). This also starts the charging process (and 3 minutes of charging grants 1 hour of recording battery time... 3 hours to charge from bone-dry to full).I haven't tested the "record a live band or rehearsal" capabilities, so I would be making it all up if I tried to review that particular aspect of this thing. I have no reason to believe that this device would fail at that endeavor though, given the sheer number of tweakable MIC and filter settings at your disposal.As for carrying the thing around.... I understand (from YouTube reviewers) that this gadget once came packaged with a nifty little neoprene sleeve. At the time of this review, new units are no longer shipping with such. As for me, I just slip it down into a leather pouch (felt-lined) made to hold three fountain pens (I think Pelikan made this pouch, and I just folded the two dividers backwards, and, with their tendency to want to move back forward, this just added to the snugness), and there she sits, all snug as a bug and felt-protected, and I stash it in a back pocket or jacket pocket (please do not sit on the Sony ICD-UX570... please just don't! I haven't yet but I highly advise against it).So anyway, that's my review of the Sony iPod Modern Tapeless Microcassette Recorder. I've had my say...... now buy this thing and have yours!

Bought it for recording interviews for my thesis. The most important feature for me was that it is quite easy to use and transfers the recordings to the computer seamlessly. The recording quality is good, the battery life is long, and it has decent storage space, which was more than enough for all my 30 interviews (approx 45 minutes each). Overall a good recorder that served me well in my research.

if I could design the perfect little pocket recorder, it would probably look (and act) a lot like this one.pros:> very good mic quality (considering the size)> good size, weight and form factor - very pocketable> ability to save/load recorder settings to quickly tune for different scenes & environments> stereo 44.1KHz/16bit linear PCM recording> switchable mic/line levels on external input> switchable noise & low cut filters (while recording!)> OLED display is gorgeous> UI is distinctly Sony (very intuitive) - you may recognize some of the icons from the PS3 :p> almost no delay when seeking time or between track marks, even when the recording is stored on the SD card> seems to read MicroSDXC cards with no issues. popped in a 512GB Samsung Evo, which gives me 807 hours (or a little over 33 days) of recording memory (at 44.1/16 stereo!).> quick boot times (<2s) - seems to utilize some kind of sleep mode, as boot up takes noticeably longer after not using it for more than hew hours (overnight, for example)> realtime speed control during playback is very fun (paulstretch, anyone?)cons:> short battery life when recording - not terrible, but definitely best suited for short/medium length recordings. this is somewhat offset by the quick charge times.> USB 2.0 (seriously?)i can't really think of any other cons worth mentioning here. for the price, this little thing really is a gem. also, props to Sony for finally paying aesthetic to the design & aesthetic of a portable audio recorder. almost reminds me of the original iPod nano.... almost x3

This is a very compact recorder. It fits in the pocket without bulging. It comes with two modes : voice and music. I've used it for voice overs for my Youtube channel and found the quality to be decent. It can record in 16 bitif you set it to its highest setting. This allows for the best audio. However, when trying to set gain, you can't fine-tune it like the Zoom recorders since you only have low, medium and high for both voice and music modes. The menu can be bit tricky to use as well. I think what would make this a great kit for for mototvlogging is being able to attach the recorder to a suction cup to reduce vibration and having the record being held in place. However, it advertised as a recorder, so for that purpose, it does a great job at capture audio