The AUDIO APPLIANCE (AudioApp)
  ^{Design Notes: trying to make it real...}

I've been thinking about the MP3 player / voice recorder as an audio appliance. If I were designing an audio appliance, what would it contain? Well, it'd be a general-purpose storage device with maybe a Bluetooth or infrared or other wireless link to a PC — to a PC it would just look like another file storage device, another disk. So it would store any kind of files; and it would play back files in any common sound format. You'd also be able to record and encode in any of those formats. So it would contain software controls for the config­uration of those formats, as well as being able to record just voice.

So it would have, besides a built-in mike — preferably stereo mics actuallly, two mics, one on each side, for something approaching binaural sound — it would also have an input jack, either two input jacks, one for line level, one for microphone level, or it would automatically sense the level of the signal coming in and adjust itself accordingly. Its output jacks would either be two output jacks, one for line level, one for headphone level, or one jack with a switch to select the level of the output.

The file system should have a fair amount of storage, like around a gigabyte, maybe one of those new IBM 25-cent-piece-sized gigabyte drives. Lithium batteries; a docking station that would automatically rechange it when it's plugged in.

It also be nice if it could function as a walky- talky, either directly, or with the ability to squirt sound files at high speed. I wonder if this would be - no, it wouldn't be a function of Bluetooth, Bluetooth is limited to a 25-foot range — so it'd need CB-type or Family Radio Service / FRS-band capability.

It'd be nice if it was also an AM/FM/shortwave receiver; in fact, a wideband communications receiver. And a cellphone. But all that seems a bit much to put into what's essentially a recording and playback device. So it should be usable in conjunction with a tranciever like a Nortel cellphone / walky- talky device.

OK, so let's not make it too busy. Let's make it a cellphone / walky-talky / communications receiver with sound recording/storage/playback capability — the recording quality and mode to be easily selectable. All that in something the size of a cellphone with a display screen. Oh yeah, it should be a GPS receiver also.

The device you carry with it is a handheld sub-notebook computer with foldout keyboard and screen, that's also a book-reader, digital text displayer I should say, which also functions as a camcorder... This would also work in conjunction with a tiny digital portastudio. The handheld computer should also be, er some device in this system, should also be a CD/DVD player-burner.

The handheld should also run voice recognition software so it can transcribe anything that's dictated, or any words that go thru it; and it'd be nice if it had music scoring software, so it could score and notate any music going thru it. Or the music scoring functions may reside in the portastudio, which is also a MIDI controller.

AUDIO APPLIANCE:
- Bluetooth/wireless PC link (and/or FireWire) (as just
  another drive) (local storage can contain any file format)
- digital/optical I/O
- record/playback any standard audio format - configurable
- (auto-level) mic/line in - line/ear out
- built-in binaural mics (on extensible booms?)
- record overdubs/mixdowns (with linked portamixer module?)
- record off-the-air from linked radio appliance module
- (multi)track join/split/loop/copy/overlay/undo edits
- DSP: effects, modeling, complet manipulation - Vtracks
- programmable tuner; metronome; bass/drum/harmony generators

RADIO APPLIANCE:
- Bluetooth/wireless PC link (and/or FireWire) (as just
  another drive) (local storage can contain any file format) -
  digital/optical I/O
- AM/FM/SSB/CW/TV, all-mode, wide-band reception
- multistandard cellphone - CB/FRS/etc walky-talky & modem
- local record/squirt/crypto transception

Addendum to design ideas on portable audio device - it should have a mixer of course, and digital signal processing for effects, modeling, complete digital manipulation of the recorded signal, and multiple virtual tracks for storing material for mixdowns, just like the Zoom palmtop studio I read about, yup...

DESIGN: A portable digital recording studio - 10 tracks (8 input, 2 work+output) or more with 2 mono+stereo inputs (with auto-sensing for line or audio level, or optical); input also via built-in microphones; 2 input level sliders; line and audio and optical output (stereo); that records to RAMcard [SmartRAM] and disc (Zip or MD) with USB and/or FireWire I/O. Include a wideband stereo radio receiver and/or cellphone. Provide for complete editing/processing functions.

GOAL: A portable, light, low-power, flexible, easy-to-use all-in-one recording studio, playback system and broadcast-communications receiver. For recording quality sounds from any source, manipulating-editing them, storing them in any format, and playing them through an external amplifier. May also be used for general playback of recorded media.

Alternative: Storage to a generalized file disc device: streaming-compressed ZIP disc; or removable hard disc; etc. Sound track transfers are then only: Load (disc-to-RAM) and Save (RAM-to-disc). Playback is from RAM only. Sounds are stored as Piece#-Track# in .Wav format (with titles associated with #'s); but a Piece may also be Loaded/Saved in any sound format: .Voc, .Mp3, .Aiff, etc. The device is now no longer a general audio appliance, but a flexible recording studio. May be made smaller — fewer controls.

NO - all such edits and FX will be external software via USB cortrol/data link - the AudioApp will be record-playback-overdub only, with minimum processing. Otherwise it's too complex.

NO - radio will be in spearate unit — with control linkage? Omit cellphone, but add cell audiolink. Include MiniDisc — and ability to do I/O in multiple formats: ATRAC, WAV, MP3, Aiff, VOC, whatever. MIDI control link? Dunno... and might not have room for jacks anyway.

Studio Controls
• INPUT: mics; or 1,2 - Assign jack/line to track;
      Autosense line, audio, optical (mono-stereo)
  
• OUTPUT: Line, audio, optical
• I/O: USB, FireWire
  
• EQ: Bass/Mid/Treb Boost/Norm/Cut per jack on Record-Playback
  
• SPEED: 2x/1x/.5x (Double/Norm/Half) per jack on Record-Playback
  
• LEVEL: Adjustable per track on Record, per jack on Playback
  
• RECORD: Manual/Auto/Timed
  

Input: default is Mic, jack overrides. Step-thru switches select track #, overdub-mix. Compare with reel-reel controls.

MiniDisc Controls
• Go/Play, Stop, Eject, Rewind, FastFwd, TrackJog
  
• Rec.Mode: Mono, Stereo: LP1, LP2, LP3, LP4
  
• Play Mode: Normal, Random, Shuffle, 10 Secs, etc
  

Compare with controls on portable AM/FM/cassette units: basic radio functions, basic tape transport/function commands. For MD, have step-thru buttons for Rec and Play modes. If ZIP disc: commands are only Load (disc-to-RAM) and Save (RAM-to-disc), with selection of Save:Format (default: Work). (Save in non-Work format causes automatic mixdown.)

Timer Controls
• Set: Time, Date, Event
  
• Specify: Event, Action
  

To simplify, have onboard only Timer On/Off, to enable-disable all timer events. Timer events should be set-specified via software linkage.

Form Factors
• Overall Size: Small paperback book (4"x7")
  
• Input-Output Jacks: In: left edge; Out: right edge
  
• Power-Control Jacks: Along top edge
  
• Thin Dials: Also along top edge
  
• Display Panel: Upper 1/2 or 1/3 of front
  
• Sliders & Buttons: Lower front, clustered by domain
  

Dimensions per jack: mini, FireWire: ¼"   USB, pwr: ½"   (width AND margin);   thickness of AA: 1";   MiniDisc size: [find];   ZipDisc size: [find];   int. power: 2-3 AA (3-4.5 vdc);   Audio Amp: external