On my last flight, I was reading Business Week and a photo struck me. Somebody, don’t remember or even know who, was giving a comment and all the reporters weren’t holding microphones or pocket tape recorders. They were holding tiny digital recorders.
I guess it shouldn’t have surprised me, I’ve been using digital recorders for several years.
My current recorder, an Olympus WS-110 (256 MB) sells for about $125. The Olympus WS-100 (64 MB) is less than $50. There are newer, larger capacity units available, (http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/cpg_vr_digitalrecorders.asp).
What’s amazing is these recorders, not a whole lot larger than a stick of gum, can record between 6 and 60 hours of audio depending on whether you want stereo or monaural, high quality (roughly CD level) or just adequate. At the setting I use the most, high quality monaural, I get about 18 hours on my WS-110.
These recorders are handy for making quick notes to yourself before you get a chance to forget (and a whole lot safer than driving), although there are times I wish they were waterproof for those brilliant ideas that come in the shower.
I am really impressed by how well these recorders work in a meeting. I’ve sat in a conference and gotten a very useable recording of a speaker without any special microphones or other equipment.
I’ve also used them successfully in smaller meetings, just placing the inconspicuous recorder on the conference table. It makes taking notes even easier.
There is a separate microphone input, which I’ve used to record speakers at conferences I have organized by connecting the recorder to the hotel sound system. With the long recording time, I just set it up in the morning and in the evening turn it off. A free audio editor makes cutting out the dead air easy.
When its time to listen to the recordings, you can use the built in speaker or snap the battery pack (they use a single AAA battery) off to expose a full size USB connector, which plugs right into your computer. You can copy the audio file and process it virtually any way you want.
A step up from the tiny Olympus recorders is the Samson Zoom H2, (http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodID=1916). This compact unit can record onto SD cards in stereo up to 96 kHz, which is more than adequate for even low end music recording. And with 4 selectable microphones, you can point them virtually any direction, both front, both back, or one of each to make recording an interview in high quality easy. If you really want to go professional, the Samson H4n can record up to 4 channels with full size audio inputs or built in microphones.
