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Voice recorder hardware
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Posted by Jack Crawford
Mar 5, 2012 at 12:11 AM
A question for those using voice recorders as part of their PIM process.
What hardware are you using / would you recommend? A dedicated voice recorder, mobile phone, some other device?
Thanks in advance
Jack
Posted by Dr Andus
Mar 5, 2012 at 12:22 AM
Jack Crawford wrote:
>A question for those using voice recorders as part of their PIM process.
>
>What
>hardware are you using / would you recommend? A dedicated voice recorder, mobile
>phone, some other device?
>
>Thanks in advance
>
>Jack
I imagine it’s got to be a smartphone these days (or an iPod Touch), simply for the matter of convenience, so one only has to carry around one device. I have an iPod Touch with me all the time, so I only use my (otherwise highly capable) Olympus WS-331M for professional interviews.
Posted by Dr Andus
Mar 5, 2012 at 12:25 AM
By they way, I only use recordings when I’m out and about and I need to capture a thought and I’m too lazy to start typing it up. Then I just listen to the recording when I go home, record the main idea in writing in the appropriate desktop software, and delete the recording.
Dr Andus wrote:
>Jack Crawford wrote:
>>A question for those using voice recorders as part of their PIM
>process.
>>
>>What
>>hardware are you using / would you recommend? A dedicated voice
>recorder, mobile
>>phone, some other device?
>>
>>Thanks in advance
>>
>>Jack
>
>I
>imagine it’s got to be a smartphone these days (or an iPod Touch), simply for the matter
>of convenience, so one only has to carry around one device. I have an iPod Touch with me
>all the time, so I only use my (otherwise highly capable) Olympus WS-331M for
>professional interviews.
Posted by Gary Carson
Mar 5, 2012 at 04:18 PM
“I only use recordings when I?m out and about and I need to capture a thought and I?m too lazy to start typing it up. Then I just listen to the recording when I go home, record the main idea in writing in the appropriate desktop software, and delete the recording.”
This may sound strange and primitive, but for the kind of use you’ve described, I’d highly recommend getting the Olympus J500 microcassette recorder.
The big advantage to using microcassette recorders, besides their cheapness compared to digital recorders, is that they have nice big speakers with plenty of volume so you can play back your recordings in noisy environments (checkout lines, restaurants, bathrooms with running water, heavy traffic, etc) and actually hear them.
Most digital voice recorders don’t have a lot of volume. Linear PCM recorders (designed primarily for recording high-fidelity stereo) usually have tiny speakers that are only there so you can verify that you’re picking up a signal and a lot of these recorders don’t have any speakers at all. They’re much better recorders, of course, but not particularly suited to casual note-taking. Professional-grade recorders like the Olympus DS5000 have better playback and lots of security and editing features (insert/append/overwrite), but they’re designed primarily for dictation/transcription and they’re very expensive ($400-500+). Consumer-grade recorders like the ones you find in Wal Mart or Staples are difficult to hear without headphones and a lot of them don’t even have the limiting editing (append, overwrite) capabilities of a microcassette recorder.
The J500 is the best microcassette recorder I’ve found so far and it only costs around $40-50 ($43 on Amazon). It has a dual speaker/microphone jack so you can use a headset microphone while you’re driving if you want to. The microphone is surprisingly sensitive (mike sensitivity can be adjusted with the volume dial), but I haven’t tested it in situations like meetings or big lecture halls. Playback is very clear at 2.4 cm/s and almost entirely free of background motor noise (a big problem with microcassette recorders). Speaker volume is fantastic. In fact, it’s so loud at maximum that I usually keep it turned most of the way down. The J500 is a little smaller than the Olympus S713 (another nice recorder) and a little easier to operate with one hand. And the J500 actually has an index mark feature that lets you insert an audible tone into your recording to mark a position. When you go back through the tape with playback review, you hear these beeping tones. It actually works pretty well and this is the only microcassette recorder with this feature I’ve found so far.
If you don’t need to transcribe recordings, I think this is the way to go. If you want to save the recordings, just keep the tapes. There is a way to transfer them to your computer, though. You need one of those male-to-male cables that lets you connect the speaker jack on the recorder to the microphone jack on your computer, then you just hit play on the recorder and re-record it on your computer (using something like Audacity, for instance).
Posted by Gary Carson
Mar 5, 2012 at 04:20 PM
Oh yeah, Dr. Andus is right. If you’re already carrying around a smartphone with recording capabilities and you just need to record casual notes, that’s probably the best solution of all.