There Are No Tapes, but...

The USB Digital Recorder

The USB Digital Recorder is a thumb-drive style and size, 70mm by 20mm, here seen photographed with a Quarter Dollar for scale will record up to 20 hours of very high, broadcast quality sound track in MP3 format, location sound.  It can ride in a shirt pocket unobtrusively look like a "thumb drive" while recording important evidence.

The $22 version will record two hours on one charge done by putting it in a USB connection on an operating computer of any kind or any of the several charging devices made for cell phones or tablet computers.  Two hours is much more than enough in most cases.

A 12 hour recording version is available for $109 at "Pen Recorder Pro" (penrecorderpro.com) that also sells an extensive line of audio and video recorders that look like pens an fit nicely in a shirt breast pocket typically recording for one to two hours per charging.

Given his responsibilities, place in history and enemies, Mr. Trump would be well advised to be using these devices at all times.  The files can be downloaded with dated labels or slated by the user saying the day, date and time quickly and easily.  We would be surprised to learn that Mr. Trump does not have such a system in place as every professional security adviser has been aware of this technology for several years.

I have long-used these, or digital recorders that have been available for ten years.  They are a bit larger, about the size of a five-pack of chewing gum, 105 mm by 30 mm by 20 mm and battery powered to run 20 hours.  In most cases the two hour, smaller and easier to use, record-only device, is very adequate for an interview, investigative inquiry or tax audit as all such meetings last about an hour and the machine will run for two.

We bring all this up as Mr. Trump has artfully referred to "tape recordings" allowing him to say, "There are no tape recordings," but produce audio recordings at any time they become important if not critical.  Such is the world of Donald J. Trump, President of the United States.

Thanks to digital editing audio and video recordings are no longer conclusive evidence.  While it is not possible, "...to make the speaker say anything," as has been claimed by some audio engineers,  it is possible to make serious manipulations, as in the Zimmerman Florida killing case where NBC made it appear Zimmerman had racist inclinations, a "hanging crime" to liberals.  NBC paid four million Dollars for their manipulation, but only because an original tape of the event was available to confirm the manipulated edit.

The real value in audio recordings is that people believe what they hear and these digital recording devices not only do an excellent job of recording, but the material can be enhanced to bring up important parts, remove noise and focus on the critical parts of the spectrum.

Once again, new technology has changed an important issue with the simple fact that there are no tapes, but...

Adrian Vance