Voice Recorder Recommendations?

[Lfribble]

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Anyone know which recorders might be the best for picking up the prof's voice from the middle of a large lecture hall?

 

[DeLaughterDO]

The scribe service, or the taped lectures (if available - they usually tape from the mic connected to the PA system). Don't waste your money on a voice recorder.

jd

 

[emeddo]

See if your school makes a recording, that is the best way. If they don't you could see if they will hookup an FM transmitter to their speaker systems (these are relatively inexpensive). Our school does this so that people with laptops can plug in and make their own recordings with their walkmans into the mic jack (this is in addition to the automatic noteservice). When I do my own recordings they are crystal clear as the FM feed comes right from the mic output from the professor. If you take notes with Microsoft OneNote (no tablet needed), it will even sync up the lecture with your typing, highlighting as you follow along through the powerpoint, then when you review your notes, just click on the typing/highlighting and it brings up the audio at the point in time you made it.

 

[Amy B]

I used my Dell laptop recorder that came with my laptop. All I did was add a long stemed microphone and it picked up perfectly.

 

[Dr JPH]

I used my Dell laptop recorder that came with my laptop. All I did was add a long stemed microphone and it picked up perfectly.

Suuuure...we all know the real reason you had your laptop open the whole time.

www.myspace.com/medstudentamyb

 

[mshheaddoc]

I used my Dell laptop recorder that came with my laptop. All I did was add a long stemed microphone and it picked up perfectly.

Had you looked into any other types of microphones? Were there distance restrictions? I don't want to sit there with a bulky microphone on the little desk space I already have. But after looking for a mic to improve my mp3 players recording abilities, it seems like a good idea to find a decent mic.

Voice recorders that I've found have varied. Some have high quality records and only last like 1.5 hours, other you can record for a little bit longer than that for lower quality (which for lectures are fine).

Everyone raves about Ipods. Yet, Ipods have issues with longer recording times from what I can gather ... its an IPOD glitch and I don't want to take the chance with recording glitches of missing a couple of minutes of lecture. With my luck it would be the part I really needed to re-listen to. I think if you have a good MP3 player already with space, getting an external mic is the easiest way to go but where do you get one of them? The voice recorders all seem so expensive or so limited for "all day" recordings.

 

[Amy B]

The mic I got was just a standard one from Office Max. I think it cost 20$. I did sit in front but I lent my mic out to others around teh room and it worked everywhere. It doesnt take up too much space and it is adjustable so you can change the direction it points. The PA system in our class was good. It had speakers all around the classroom so you could hear anywhere you sat. I think that helped pick up all that is said.

That being said. The only class that I really used the recordings in Pharm. The prof talked so fast I had to record it and play it back numerous times to take notes. I also tape the OMM lectures because there were things he tested on that werent in the power points. Other than that it would have taken too much time for me to play the other lectures back.

Oh I did give people in my class the recordings on their memory sticks. A bunch of them made them into CDs and listened to them while driving, so that is a good use.

 

[nlax30]

If you already have your laptop out you could just get a decent external mic for it and record using any audio recorder on the computer.

I use OneNote to take notes and annotate powerpoint slides and it's got a builtin audio recorder that is synced up with the typed notes. So during a lecture I can just hit record to start recording the audio and then type what other notes I want and when I go back to look at the notes it will jump to that part of the audio recording that occurred when I typed those notes.

 

[FutureDocDO]

speakers are placed on the ceiling through the lecture halls. you don't need a great microphone. Any microphone will work.

 

[MossPoh]

My macbook mic built in works great....I used to use just the word recording thing on it..but the files were so huge and I didn't dig converting and compressing it. (This is for undergrad) You may not need an external mic..test out your computer to find out.

 

[theraball]

Belkin microphone for iPod Video hard disk models. I've recorded over 3 hours at a time, with plenty of juice left over. Later you can copy the WAV files to your computer and convert to MP3 or burn an audio CD as needed. The iPod records to WAV files at about 2 megs/minute, or 120 megs per hour. I will say, the system is a bit finicky and sometimes it's hard to get it to work--I had to reboot the iPod which can take 2-3 minutes.

I used to take extensive notes and then make my own recordings, in my own words, and thus trim a 2 hour lecture down to 20 minutes of concentrated info. Then I can replay it while jogging, driving, sleeping, having sex, etc. However I don't know how much time I'll have for such projects once medical school starts. 😕