Portable Recorder Review: Yamaha Pocketrak 2G

US It's certainly small, but how does it perform?      14/11/08

7:49 mins

Our first in a series of reviews focussed on the Portable Audio Recorder. We tend to have a great interest in these devices due to our own use for the video work that we do, so we always jump at the chance to take a look at 'em. First up is the Yamaha Pocketrak 2G
Launched at Winter NAMM 2008, the 2G is the first personal audio recorder from Yamaha, and boy is it small, easily the smallest one we've come across.

Pros

• It's Tiny! Smallest pocket recorder available. Easy to carry around.
  
• Replaceable battery with fantastic battery life.
• Decent sound quality, quick to record on 'Auto Levels'
• Lots of features - Voice Activated recording, Music Player, Alarm, etc.
• Holds synch very well with Video, even at 44.1kHz
• Built in speaker for confidence monitoring
• Playback at 1/2speed for learning/transcribing

Cons

• It's Tiny! Small buttons are fiddly to use. Easy to lose. Anything plugged into it is likely to be heavier [cables pulled the 2G off the table more than once]
• USB 'switchblade' is a bit gimmicky – better to use standard mini-USB connector [what if you lose the USB extender and it doesn't plug in your machine?]
• Built-in mics & limiter struggle with loud music.
  
• Only records WAV at 44.1kHz
  

Summary – if you need an extremely small audio recorder, there's nothing to touch it. Andy McCreeth

Yamaha's 2G Page

Links
• The Blessing - band featured in recordings
• Rob Chapman guitar dude

Pocket Recorder Video Reviews:
• M-Audio Microtrack 2

Pricing
Available now $450, £289, €376

Web Prices:
$349 @ Zzounds.com
$349 @ Musicians Friend.com
$349 @ Music123.com
£215 @ Dolphinmusic.co.uk (UK)

Yamaha Social

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