need help in choosing voice recorders

  • Thread starter Thread starter darbebo
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darbebo

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hi guys, i need big help. College student. Looking for a good digital/cassete player voice recorder. I've tried a friend's olympus....not that great, forgot the version.

anyhoo, looking for one that can CLEARLY hear what the professor is saying in a semi big classroom. and i don't think putting the voice recording right on the podium will make the professor like me so lets say i am 2-3 rows away from the podium. estimate around 8-15ft max away from him. which voice recorder do you think works best? cuz the one that my friend has, all i heard was the prof's mumbling even tho i was like 10 ft away from him.....and the noises around me also made it bad, so is there any recommendation for the regular lecturehall with a certain level of "noise?" and still get a good hear on the professor's lecture?

help, thx
 
hi sorry, i also was thinking about getting a pin recorder extension that would be on my jacket or something, so is there any voice recorder have a jack out for that?
 
Recommend you check out some of Sonys products. I bought a little Sony digital voice recorder with software that records the digital voice text and then you can download the file onto your computer and it prints out the text.

I found it pretty cool but have yet to really exploit the technology. When you think of it, you can voice dictate an entire book or anything really and then download it onto your computer to clean up the text. It transfers the voice to text pretty well too. has infinite applications and practicality.
 
darbebo - I have used an Olympus voice recorder for over a year now to record lectures in a lecture theatre - that's in excess of 100 hour long lectures and the results are more than adequate. However I DO place the recorder on the podium. I just ask the lecturer nicely.

Regardless of what voice recorder you are looking at (and sorry I can't give any recommendations other than the Olympus) I can't see why you couldn't do what I do and just ask. In my experience I must have asked more than 12 lecturers/doctors/professors if I may record their lectures and so far not one has refused. In fact they have all seemed quite keen.

As for the 'noise'....I run my recordings through Adobe Audition which elminates a lot of the residual noise...the only thing I'm not able to get rid of is the incessant coughing that invariably accompanies the lectures :-)

Anyway I'm sorry I can't be more help then I have bene I just wanted to jump onto this thread to let you know that recordings with the Olympus can work and to persuade you not to be so shy...lecturer's don't bite!!
If you would like a audio snippet from one of my lectures just let me kow on here and I'll send one over....don't expect it instantly though as it's exam prep time....
Best of Luck
Rob B.
 
old fashioned but it works/ accommodation

The external mikes that lool like an ice cream cone that you plug into recorder works great. If you have a hearing impairment or a learning disability, taping is a legitimate accommodation (Americans with Disabilities Act section 504) and you should go on record with your univeristy that you need and use this. Reason being that the day may come when a prof or a boss won't let you and you need to have established the need. I advocate tfor learning disabled/gifted so I know about this. Also, your university may have a equipment for this already wired into the room. You may need to reassure your prof that you are not taping in order to "help" a friend who is cutting class all the time and also that you will not sell the tapes or archive them for a frat house or such. I would suggest that you do this by letter or e-mail first. Then introduce yourself. And, always get there early to set up. And, if the prof is a good lecturer, please let him or her know. So many mumble, fail to repeat key points, and fail to use acoustical highlighting.
 
Voice Recorder w/ Voice Recog Software?

This might be a dumb question, but I use voice-recognition software like Dragon Naturally Speaking. Is there a way to dictate into any type of compact voice recorder, download it into a computer (via USB cable) and then have the voice recognition software convert it into written text?

Any thoughts??

Thanks!

Kevin
kquinley@cox.net
 
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