SonySoloist Recorder

The Sony Soloist Recorder is the only true audio comparative recorder available. Referring back to comparative Cassette Tape recorders (designed for language learning use), the "program" material was on the left track, while the student's voice is recorded on the right track -- both on the same tape. What made them comparative recorders is that when recording, the program track plays, while the student track records.

Soloist operates in the same manner. The left track of the file is the unaltered "program" track while the right track is the student's recorded voice. Soloist defaults to playing the audio monaurally (both tracks go to both ears), but can be set to play in stereo as well as only either the program or student track. With Soloist, you have a single file that can be reviewed with any non-proprietary audio player (such as Windows Media Player, etc). By the way, you can also save only the student's voice track (without the program material) if desired.

Other "comparative" recorders simple open/play a program file and record the student's voice to a separate file. That is like having two cassette tapes -- one for the program and one for the student voice. As you can imagine, this is a proprietary scheme. If you ever want to review the student's recording along with the program material, the original program file must still reside (and be accessible from) wherever it was when the student originally opened it and you need their proprietary player to do so.

In order to achieve this true audio comparative recording, the students must have their own copy of the program file. Whenever an audio file is opened with Soloist, Soloist automatically copies it to the local PC's temporary folder. While other manufacturers claim that this can take up to 50% of the actual file length that is simply not the case. The transfer speed is dependent on the speed of the PC, the network, and the server. A ten-minute audio file can be copied in as little as 10 seconds. Of course, if multiple students open the same file at the same time (typical when a teacher opens a file for the class), the transfer time would normally increase by the number of students that are doing so. In order to address this, we will be introducing our new file-casting feature that will result in it taking the same amount of time to copy a file for one student or for 128 students.

We also realize that there are times when recording is not necessary. As such Soloist can open audio files for "playback only" (Virtuoso, the teacher control software, can also open files for Soloist as "playback only"). When a file is opened this way, it is not copied; rather it is opened and played directly from the server (some incorrectly refer to this as "streaming"). This is what other recorders do all the time (recording to a separate file). It should be noted that the quality of sound file playback from server is subject to network bandwidth limitations. These limitations can result in dropouts during playback of the file, or delays when attempting to randomly access a position within the file, which can be objectionable for language learning applications. While the copying of the file to the local hard drive may take a few moments, it is automatic and helps to minimize the chance of such problems occurring.

Regarding MP3 audio files, other manufactures claim that Soloist cannot open an MP3 file in its native format -- this is simply false. As stated in our "Soloist Features and Specifications" document:

MPEG Audio: MPA, MP2, and MP3 MPEG encoded audio files can be opened and played. These formats are encoded (compressed) files as defined by the Moving Pictures Experts Group's MPEG 1 Layer-2 and Layer-3 Audio specification. MPA and MP2 utilize older encoding schemes, while MP3 has become the preferred method of MPEG audio encoding. MPEG audio encoding provides for high compression, resulting in much smaller file sizes than Wav files. This can substantially reduce the amount of storage space required and can reduce the amount of time to copy or upload/download the file to/from a non-local storage medium (including from network servers/PCs and the Internet). Compression amounts will vary depending on the actual audio material recorded, the "Bit Rate" selected, and other factors. Compression by more than 90% (10-to-1) can be achieved. MPEG encoding is "lossy" and causes variable degradation of sound quality, but is generally considered being of high quality.

An MPEG audio encoded file can be quickly converted into a Wav file, preparing it for randomly accessible, real-time comparative recording within a single file. The software can be configured to do this conversion automatically whenever an MPEG audio file is opened. If not configured as such, the file can be played, but comparative recording is not possible until the user converts it.

Some manufacturers claim MP3 "is the standard for audio on all systems". While it does have many advantages, we caution our customers to consider all the facts. MP3 encoding degrades sound quality. When you "rip" a CD and make MP3 files, it sounds nearly indistinguishable form the original to the untrained ear, however multiple "generations" compound the degradation to a point where it can become objectionable. For language learning applications, there are times when multiple generations are necessary. With WAV format files, sound quality is never degraded.