Anyone using an iPod to record lectures?

[ImaJerseyGirl]

Hey everyone,

I'm a long-time mac user, but still new to this whole iPod thing. I've had one for about 4 months now and I'm just now tapping into what it can do. I've never recorded lectures before, and I was wondering have you had any luck using the adapters available for iPod to record lectures?
If the sound quality is really just intended for spoken word and up close recording, I'd record myself and play it back when I commute. (I'll spend more time thinking about how funny I sound though!)

Oh, I did find some neat but quirky GRE vocab builders in iTunes for those of you who will be suffering through the exam (with me) in the coming months.

Thank you!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[No Imagination]

Are you using an IPod Classic, or the IPod touch?

The Classics have some really nice addons (usually made from Griffin), and they produce some really good quality recordings (as long as you put the recorder on the profs. desk), and i've done if for years now.

Now I have an IPod Touch (2nd generation), and something they don't really advertises, but these second generation actually have dual Audio in/out. In other words, the port that you plug your headphones in, you can also plug in a Mic, or a dual headphone/min.

Problem with these, they are not powered (well, obviously they are powered SLIGHTLY, but not enough to offer much use to a powered mic). So far the results (for me) is so/so.

Hope I helped

 

[aggiegolf]

I actually bought a new tape recorder that allows me to record everything in mp3 format and download it onto itunes. I add it to my ipod and listen to them when I can. If my car had a CD player I would burn it on CDs and listen in the car but my car is a 97 honda civic with a tape player .

 

[lenmaca]

I actually bought a new tape recorder that allows me to record everything in mp3 format and download it onto itunes. I add it to my ipod and listen to them when I can. If my car had a CD player I would burn it on CDs and listen in the car but my car is a 97 honda civic with a tape player .

What brand/model recorder do you use?

 

[ImaJerseyGirl]

Thanks NoImagination- you did help!
I have a 16G iPod Nano, there were some things on amazon that go into the headphone jack, I'm just wondering if I'll end up paying $40 for a junky piece of plastic...
If the professor is on a sound system in the room does it still need to be next to them?

aggiegolf- there are tape cassette adapters that have a cord that plugs into a head phone jack of your iPod/CD player. Been using it for years in my 97 Ford pickup and as long as the volume is up to about 80-90% on the device, it have fairly good sound quality. All the way up and the speakers crackle. Its a theft target though because if you have the wire hanging out of the dash, you can guess there's something expensive hiding in the glove box or something.

 

[No Imagination]

Thanks NoImagination- you did help!
I have a 16G iPod Nano, there were some things on amazon that go into the headphone jack, I'm just wondering if I'll end up paying $40 for a junky piece of plastic...
If the professor is on a sound system in the room does it still need to be next to them?

I dont know about the nano's. The PA system might result in poor quality sound recordings.

On an up note, If you get into a situation where you end up having a good quality recording, you can connect your IPOD to the Audio In line of your computer, then have a dictation program like Dragon Naturally Speaking, automatically transcribe everything for you. I did this for about a year when I started grad school, and it helped a lot.

 

[aspiringDVM]

What's the lowest/ cheapest form of iPod that can record stuff? Do you have to buy extra gizmos or softwear? I've never had an iPod, but I've been kicking around the idea for awhile and would definitely want one that could record, just for lectures, etc. Would the $40 kind from WalMart do the trick?

 

[JustCats]

I do have a mic for my iPod, but I prefer to use my Olympus digital recorder because of the power issue--recording directly onto the iPod really drains the battery. I then transfer the mp3 file to my laptop and finally to my iPod. I listen to lectures over and over again in the car.

 

[CookieBear]

Sansa (Sandisk people) make some good MP3 players (with mic's to record) as well. There's the new Sansa Clip which can also record, but it doesn't have room for addt'l memory (but you can get 2 GB with it already), and there's also the Sansa Fuze - another nice player.

I have an older Sansa, an e250. I can record if I want to. I've just been forgetting to try.

CNET.com has an MP3 buying guide. It asks you a series of questions - of what's important to you - and then it gives you a list of players and reviews of them, pro's, con's, etc.

 

[Pandacinny]

I have an Olympus digital recorder, too, that I used all through undergrad. It was really nice. Didn't have an MP3 player at the time, so I would just play the recordings from my computer. Now I have an Ipod Touch and am looking forward to trading the recordings over during vet school so that I can re-listen to things while I drive or cook dinner or whatever.

 

[sunnex3]

if you're looking for a cheap option, i use a sony digital voice recorder (doesn't transfer mp3 to computer) it stores all the lectures directly on there (and the one i have has like 120 hours memory on it, so it lasts a while) you can plug in your earphones and just listen - plus it's super light, so it's easy to carry around. and you can delete lectures once you don't need them anymore.

i've been using it for my gen chem class + review sessions, anything else i need recorded, and it's worked out really well. it's only about $40-$50, so it was a really good choice for me...

 

[VetUBet]

I have a 2nd generation iPod nano and recently bought one of the iTalk Pros by Griffin for $39. They have a newer version out which can run from $60-80 depending where you get it, but I decided to go with the cheaper version and it works great!! All you do is plug it into your iPod, the iPod will recognize it and then you can hit record. I record on low quality and it sounds great. What I really like is that after your done recording, you can immediately listen to it on your iPod! So I always liked to record my lecture, then on my commute home, listen to the lecture through my iPod. Real simple. Real easy. Real nifty for all college students!

 

[JKIM02]

For those of you in vet school? Do you still use recorders in class? If so I would like to buy a new (and more expensive ) one that is compatible with mac. I only have an old school mini ipod that you cannot buy those recorder things for. The one I have now that my brother ever so graciously let me have is kind of possessed and likes to start beeping randomly in class unless I take out the battery which resets the date/time setting. Frustrating yes...

 

[ImaJerseyGirl]

Good point with the iPod battery- I didn't even think of that. Mine lasts me about 2-3 days worth of listening which is driving + study time. I feel like a piece of me dies when the battery finishes in the middle of my drive!

I will look into the sony and olympus and the conversion on the computer... or just listening off the device itself. It's still tempting with the iPod though, its already in my bag and it's one less thing to loose that way.

 

[Pandacinny]

Ugh, I hate when that happens, too! The worst is when you're listening to an audio book and you get to this awesome part and you really want to know what happens next and then your Ipod just dies.

 

[redsteven]

Hey everyone,

I'm a long-time mac user, but still new to this whole iPod thing. I've had one for about 4 months now and I'm just now tapping into what it can do. I've never recorded lectures before, and I was wondering have you had any luck using the adapters available for iPod to record lectures?
If the sound quality is really just intended for spoken word and up close recording, I'd record myself and play it back when I commute. (I'll spend more time thinking about how funny I sound though!)

Oh, I did find some neat but quirky GRE vocab builders in iTunes for those of you who will be suffering through the exam (with me) in the coming months.

Thank you!

What model of computer are you using right now? Any Apple laptop made in the recent past (and pretty distant past too lol) is going to have a microphone built into it.

That means you can use Microsoft Word's notebook view to record lectures while taking notes on your computer (that's what i do). This only works in the "Notebook View" however, which is only available in Word 2004 or Word 2008.

I currently use Microsoft Word 2008 when I want to record lectures and take notes simultaneously.

I'm considering switching to Pear Note though (but haven't had a chance to try it out yet)


As a matter of fact, if you just want to record audio and not take notes, u could easily do that with the computer too (using free software). But if you're not using the computers for nots, it's prob not worth bringing it just to use as a recorder.

 

[ImaJerseyGirl]

What model of computer are you using right now? Any Apple laptop made in the recent past (and pretty distant past too lol) is going to have a microphone built into it.

That means you can use Microsoft Word's notebook view to record lectures while taking notes on your computer (that's what i do). This only works in the "Notebook View" however, which is only available in Word 2004 or Word 2008.

I currently use Microsoft Word 2008 when I want to record lectures and take notes simultaneously.

I'm considering switching to Pear Note though (but haven't had a chance to try it out yet)


As a matter of fact, if you just want to record audio and not take notes, u could easily do that with the computer too (using free software). But if you're not using the computers for nots, it's prob not worth bringing it just to use as a recorder.

Holy hell! I never knew this existed!!! I'm in economics right now, I've been taking notes on my mac for only a few weeks now (just started- still getting over the ol' pen and paper). And I found the record button (big lecture hall, prof on sound system). WOW!

My 05 iBookG4 has Work 04 (workhorse), 09 MacBook has Word08 (and stays at home).

How cool is mac!?

 

[redsteven]

Holy hell! I never knew this existed!!! I'm in economics right now, I've been taking notes on my mac for only a few weeks now (just started- still getting over the ol' pen and paper). And I found the record button (big lecture hall, prof on sound system). WOW!

My 05 iBookG4 has Work 04 (workhorse), 09 MacBook has Word08 (and stays at home).

How cool is mac!?

One suggestion. If you're using Word to take audio notes, you might not want to put EVERYthing into 1 file. After a few weeks it'll start getting pretty big (because of the audio notes), and then it takes forever to save. It's not fun when you have to wait 10+ seconds to wait for your document to save lol.

So instead, you could give each new topic in a class it's own file.



My first laptop was an iBook G4. Alas, we are no longer together... but I will always remember it fondly.

 

[ImaJerseyGirl]

Thanks redsteven! I showed my Dad when I got home (a long time windows user, just converted), he thought it was great! Now I'm sure all the versions of Office Word do that, but still, I never knew that secret!
Now I'm wondering if that can be exported to an mp3 or iTunes, the sound quality really wasn't all that bad.

 

[redsteven]

Thanks redsteven! I showed my Dad when I got home (a long time windows user, just converted), he thought it was great! Now I'm sure all the versions of Office Word do that, but still, I never knew that secret!
Now I'm wondering if that can be exported to an mp3 or iTunes, the sound quality really wasn't all that bad.

Actually, Word for Windows does not have the capability, but Microsoft OneNote 2003 and OneNote 2007 (Windows-only) does.

And yes, you can export the audio by going to the "Tools" menu --> Audio Notes --> Export Audio

This will export it as an mp4 (yes, that's a 4, not a 3).

iTunes can play mp4, but if you wanted to put it on an iPod you'd probably have to convert it to another format using iTunes.

 

[VetUBet]

So as I was following this thread I noticed now that you seem interested in recording directly into your computer. I have a iBookG4 and last year I found this cool program (for Macs only) called "Notebook" by Circus Ponies. It's $30 for the student edition and it is the best investment I have made for school. The note capabilities it has is so flexible, easy to organize and reorganize, and you can record your lectures and it has a button to export it into iTunes! What I like too is that it keeps an index of every word you enter. So lets say you're in virology and you wanted to find out where in your notes your professor mentioned the rabies virus throughout the quarter. Well you can go to the index and it will give you the pages where that is found, so thus it's easy to search your notes. Also, they have highlighting capabilities so I would highlight vocab terms in pink and then go to the index and it would have all pink highlighted terms right there which allows me instant access to my very own vocab study guide. I could go on and on but you might want to check it out! They have videos on their website so you can see the possibilities before you buy and $30 is super cheap I think for what it can do! Any questions you can pm me! Hope that helps!

 

[redsteven]

So as I was following this thread I noticed now that you seem interested in recording directly into your computer. I have a iBookG4 and last year I found this cool program (for Macs only) called "Notebook" by Circus Ponies. It's $30 for the student edition and it is the best investment I have made for school. The note capabilities it has is so flexible, easy to organize and reorganize, and you can record your lectures and it has a button to export it into iTunes! What I like too is that it keeps an index of every word you enter. So lets say you're in virology and you wanted to find out where in your notes your professor mentioned the rabies virus throughout the quarter. Well you can go to the index and it will give you the pages where that is found, so thus it's easy to search your notes. Also, they have highlighting capabilities so I would highlight vocab terms in pink and then go to the index and it would have all pink highlighted terms right there which allows me instant access to my very own vocab study guide. I could go on and on but you might want to check it out! They have videos on their website so you can see the possibilities before you buy and $30 is super cheap I think for what it can do! Any questions you can pm me! Hope that helps!

I've heard a lot about Circus Ponies' Notebook in the past but have never actually used it.

Does it allow you to record audio through it as well?

 

[david594]

Good point with the iPod battery- I didn't even think of that. Mine lasts me about 2-3 days worth of listening which is driving + study time. I feel like a piece of me dies when the battery finishes in the middle of my drive!

This is the biggest benefit of the car adapter for the ipod. Make sure you have one that will recharge it too and you are almost guaranteed to never have a dead ipod.

Whenever you hop in the car just plug it in.

 

[Magvitum]

if you're looking for a cheap option, i use a sony digital voice recorder (doesn't transfer mp3 to computer) it stores all the lectures directly on there (and the one i have has like 120 hours memory on it, so it lasts a while) you can plug in your earphones and just listen - plus it's super light, so it's easy to carry around. and you can delete lectures once you don't need them anymore.

i've been using it for my gen chem class + review sessions, anything else i need recorded, and it's worked out really well. it's only about $40-$50, so it was a really good choice for me...

Hi can you or any other who successfully record lectures with digital recorders, what brand and model you have? I need something that will record from about 5-10 feet. I want something simple but that I can understand when I play it back. Thanks

 

[VetUBet]

I've heard a lot about Circus Ponies' Notebook in the past but have never actually used it.

Does it allow you to record audio through it as well?

It actually records it very well as long as your computer is in the front of the class. My husband said you can always buy an external microphone which would get better reception. The way it records is line by line. So I always like to take notes in outline form and then it records what the professor said during the time I stayed in each line.It comes in handy when I jot down something and then forget what the heck my professor was saying at that time. i can click on that line and it will play back exactly what my professor said at that exact moment in time. Saves time in trying to find through the lecture on your own!

 

[redsteven]

It actually records it very well as long as your computer is in the front of the class. My husband said you can always buy an external microphone which would get better reception. The way it records is line by line. So I always like to take notes in outline form and then it records what the professor said during the time I stayed in each line.It comes in handy when I jot down something and then forget what the heck my professor was saying at that time. i can click on that line and it will play back exactly what my professor said at that exact moment in time. Saves time in trying to find through the lecture on your own!

Alright. I'm gonna have to give it a try then, because I'm really thinking of ditching Word for writing notes in class. It has the same recording function, but it's still clunky enough and has enough bugs that it can be trying on your patience.

And looking at the Circus Ponies website, I should've tried it long ago.

 

[efab]

anyone use it for plumbs or 5 minute consult or sm. animal int. med?