Most Song Meter recorders support all currently available SD cards from major brands.
Brand
We have found SanDisk cards to be the most reliable with all Song Meters. PNY and Kingston cards also work well.
Regardless of the brand you use, ensure that it is from a reliable electronics seller. Counterfeit cards are commonly sold on platforms with many third-party sellers and are more likely to malfunction than genuine cards.
Speed Class
Currently, all new SD cards produced by major brands are fast enough to be used with a Song Meter. Faster cards may allow you to back up your data to a computer more quickly, but the Song Meter itself does not benefit from a faster card. In fact, a faster card may drain the Song Meter's batteries more quickly (see "Power Consumption," below).
If you plan to use older SD cards, make sure it has a speed class marking that matches at least one of the following:
- C4, C6, or C10
- Any "U" speed class
- Any "V" speed class
Capacity: SDHC, SDXC, and SDUC
SD and microSD cards with a capacity between 4 GB and 32 GB are classified as "SDHC", while cards between 64 GB and 2 TB are classified as "SDXC."
Our oldest Song Meter recorders, the Song Meter SM1, SM2, SM2+, SM2Bat, and SM2Bat+, only support SDHC cards. Using SDXC cards with these recorders can result in missing audio.
All of our more recent Song Meters support both SDHC and SDXC cards.
SDUC is an even larger standard for cards between 4 TB and 128 TB in capacity, likely to release in 2025. At this time, Song Meter recorders do not support SDUC cards.
| Song Meter Model | Supports SDHC | Supports SDXC | Supports SDUC |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mini 2, Mini Bat 2, and Micro 2 | Yes | Yes | No |
| Mini 1, Mini Bat 1, and Micro 1 | Yes | Yes | No |
| SM4, SM4BAT FS, and SM4BAT ZC | Yes | Yes | No |
| SM3 and SM3BAT | Yes | Yes | No |
| SMZC | Yes | Yes | No |
| SM2, SM2BAT, SM2+, and SM2BAT+ | Yes | No | No |
| SM1 | Yes | No | No |
Power Consumption
Individual SD cards vary in how much power they consume, which in turn affects how long a Song Meter can last on a set of batteries. In general, larger cards and faster cards tend to consume more power than smaller and slower cards.
If you wish to prioritize extending your Song Meter's battery life over other considerations, we recommend looking for the slowest cards available from major brands, with only as much card space as you need.
Full-Size SD Cards vs. microSD Cards
The Song Meter Micro and Micro 2 are the only Song Meters specifically designed to use microSD cards.
Song Meters designed for full-size SD cards can use microSD cards inside a micro-to-full-size SD adapter. However, using the adapter creates an additional point of failure between the recorder and the card. Wide fluctuations in temperature or jostling the recorder might momentarily break the connection to the SD card which could cause card corruption and data loss. This is more likely when using a microSD card inside an adapter than with a full-size SD card.
When possible, we recommend using full-size SD cards with Song Meters other than the Song Meter Micro and Micro 2.