When talking about electronic devices those that have some form of wireless capability are almost always better, right? When speaking of the Yamaha PockeTrak W24 the answer is yes... and no.
The Yamaha PockeTrak W24 is essentially an updated version of the popular PockeTrak CX. It is identical in almost every way to the CX except for the addition of a wireless remote control. As such there isn't a whole lot to say about the unit that has not already been said in our previous review of the PockeTrak CX digital audio recorder. Instead it is perhaps more useful to compare the unit to the newer, and cheaper, PockeTrak C24 digital audio recorder, also reviewed here on MusicEdMagic. On the plus side the W24 does have the microphones arranged in an XY pattern, the generally accepted best arrangement for recording in stereo and the addition of the included USB cable and wind screen are nice touches, especially for those that will be using the recorder outdoors on the marching band field or when recording close up vocalizations.
Significant Features of the Yamaha PockeTrak W24
- Wireless remote control with 23 foot range
- Built in stereo mics in XY coincident pair pattern
- Built in 2Gig memory plus microSD slot for additional storage
- Wind screen
- USB cable
- Cubase AI5
- Metronome
- Chromatic Tuner
- Automatic level control (ALC)
- Recording levels up to 96Khz/24bit WAV or 320Kbps MP3
- Up to one hour of recording time on highest quality setting using internal memory
- Up to 13.5 hours of recording time on highest quality MP3 mode