Sony Intros $399 Portable Audio Recorder

Sony is expanding its line of portable professional audio recorders with the new PCM-M10, a palm-sized compact unit. The new recorder is designed to be the perfect musician’s tool for composing music or recording practice sessions and performances – even for use as a personal music player. The recorder joins Sony’s PCM-D1 and PCM-D50 models to form a comprehensive family of flexible and rugged portable field recorders for every professional sound application, including live sound, house of worship, theatrical and broadcast journalism. However, some have criticized the product because it lacks XLR inputs, a decision probably made to keep costs down and have consumers favor their higher-end equipment. This thing sure makes me miss my Minidisc recorder(s).

“The PCM-M10 is ideal for budget-conscious professionals who still need high quality sound capabilities,” said Karl Kussmaul, senior product manager for professional audio at Sony Electronics. “Musicians will especially love its range of user-friendly features that can help inspire them to new levels of creativity.”

The PCM-M10 is designed to faithfully capture even the most subtle nuances of live performances and events with full linear PCM. It shares several features and design elements with the PCM-D1 and PCM-D50, including the same rugged construction and cool design. The new recorder is 96 kHz/24-bit capable with electret condenser stereo microphones, 4 GB of internal flash memory and a microSD/Memory Stick Micro (M2) Slot. Key features of the PCM-M10 recorder include a built-in speaker, cross-memory recording, digital pitch control, digital limiter, low-cut filter, track mark functions, a 5second pre-recording buffer and A-B repeat capability. The PCM-M10 comes supplied with Sound Forge Audio Studio Recorder Edition software.

The new recorder includes a USB high-speed port for simple uploading and downloading of native .WAV or .MP3 format recorded files to and from Windows PC or Macintosh computers. The M10 offers durable metal construction and long battery life using conventional AA alkaline batteries. The PCM-M10 portable recorder is planned to be available in October, at a suggested list price of $399. Nice price!