Recording Modes for PUMA II Digital Recorders

What is the correct “Recording Mode” for your PUMA II Police Special Digital Recorder?

To help answer that questions we meet with an Audio/Video Forensics lab, and it has come to our attention that some departments are choosing the ”LP” mode for everyday use. This mode will infact give you the largest number of hours of recording time and battery life, it will not and cannot give you the quality of evidence that the PUMA II is capable of producing. In other words, there may come a time when your Forensics Dept. informs you that even though you thought you recorded that confession in that noisy busy situation, your recording quality was so low that filtering for clarity is just not possible.

In order to understand the difference in recording modes and their effect on the end result, it is important to have a basic understanding of SAMPLE RATE. Sample rate is defined as follows;

The sampling rate, sample rate, or sampling frequency defines the number of samples per second (or per other unit) taken from a continuous signal to make a discrete signal

The greater your sample rate is, the higher quality your recording will be. Optimal quality is VERY important to You and your Forensics Team.

When viewing the following chart, please keep in mind that higher numbers are better for you.

Sampling frequency
HQ mode : 44.1 khz ……… CD quality Recommended
SP mode : 22.0 khz
LP mode : 8.0 khz ……… Very Minimum

Recording Time
HQ mode : 17 hours
SP mode : 33 hours
LP mode : 66 hours

Alkaline Battery Life
HQ mode : Approx. 24 hours
SP mode : Approx. 28 hours
LP mode : Approx. 32 hours

As you can see, when recording in HQ mode vs. LP mode the available hours and of recording and battery life is significantly reduced. However, when choosing a “Recording mode”, you should ask the following question

Why am I recording?
If your answer is… to better protect myself / the dept; this interview will be important evidence, etc. Then you should at least consider recording in HQ or at least SP. If you download your recordings at the end of EVERY shift, decreased recording time will never be a problem.

Please keep this in mind…. "If it’s important enough to record, it’s certainly important enough to record well ", it just might make your case.