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smooshy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 26, 2005
18
0
Hi everyone,
I got a new ibook last week, and I'm loving it so far.. taking me a while to figure out a few things though.

I keep hearing about the built-in mic and how you can voice record straight to the hard drive. How do you do this? I can't seem to find a utility to do this. Also, if I were recording a lecture at school, is the mic good enough quality to pick it up? Will using it kill the battery really fast? Also, if the ibook goes to sleep because I don't touch it for a couple of minutes, will the mic stop recording?

Thanks for your help!
 

iEdd

macrumors 68000
Aug 8, 2005
1,956
4
You can use many apps, I like Audacity, which is free across platforms :)
 

WillMak

macrumors 6502a
Jul 29, 2005
957
0
smooshy said:
Hi everyone,
I got a new ibook last week, and I'm loving it so far.. taking me a while to figure out a few things though.

I keep hearing about the built-in mic and how you can voice record straight to the hard drive. How do you do this? I can't seem to find a utility to do this. Also, if I were recording a lecture at school, is the mic good enough quality to pick it up? Will using it kill the battery really fast? Also, if the ibook goes to sleep because I don't touch it for a couple of minutes, will the mic stop recording?

Thanks for your help!

use garage band.
 

.:*Robot Boy*:.

macrumors 6502
Jan 21, 2005
373
0
New Zealand
I'm not sure what the mic in the iBook is like, but the mic in my PowerBook is useless! The source material is always obscured by internal noises like the fan, key presses, the hard drive, etc :mad:

As far as recording, use Garageband or Audacity. Your iBook shouldn't go to sleep while recording. Your battery life will take a hit (not sure how big though) due to the fact that the audio has to be constantly written to disk.
 

Xeem

macrumors 6502a
Feb 2, 2005
908
15
Minnesota

Eluon

macrumors regular
Apr 14, 2005
216
0
Spring, Texas
i use my internal mic on my ibook to record lectures in my word documents. i then export them to itunes and put them on my ipod. i tell myself it'll make me smarter. but really, i just do it cuz i can.
 

Lainee

macrumors newbie
Sep 27, 2005
1
0
Sydney, Australia
.:*Robot Boy*:. said:
I'm not sure what the mic in the iBook is like, but the mic in my PowerBook is useless! The source material is always obscured by internal noises like the fan, key presses, the hard drive, etc :mad:

Is that the case with all the PowerBooks? Are the iBooks better for recording? Does anyone know?

Because I really want to be able to record lectures and I'm still hovering between the 12" iBook and 12" PowerBook, but if the iBook records better due to mic positioning or something that definately tips the balance for me.
 

TheMonarch

macrumors 65816
May 6, 2005
1,467
1
Bay Area
I books have the mic on the right side of the screen (See that little hole? on the bezel?) Which I guess makes it slightly better because its in a quieter place... I don't really care much though. I've only used mine to voice over in FC.
 

.:*Robot Boy*:.

macrumors 6502
Jan 21, 2005
373
0
New Zealand
Lainee said:
Is that the case with all the PowerBooks? Are the iBooks better for recording? Does anyone know?

Because I really want to be able to record lectures and I'm still hovering between the 12" iBook and 12" PowerBook, but if the iBook records better due to mic positioning or something that definately tips the balance for me.

I would guess that the iBooks are a lot better for recording due to the fact that the mic is in the screen. The mic in the PowerBooks is inside the PowerBook under the left-hand speaker grill, which is why it picks up so much internal noise.
 

smooshy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 26, 2005
18
0
Eluon said:
i use my internal mic on my ibook to record lectures in my word documents. i then export them to itunes and put them on my ipod. i tell myself it'll make me smarter. but really, i just do it cuz i can.

That would be great, to record straight into word.. how do you do it though? sorry if this is a silly question, but I've tried and I can't figure it out...
 

ftaok

macrumors 603
Jan 23, 2002
6,485
1,571
East Coast
smooshy said:
That would be great, to record straight into word.. how do you do it though? sorry if this is a silly question, but I've tried and I can't figure it out...
It's a new feature on Word 2004.
 

smooshy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 26, 2005
18
0
ftaok said:
It's a new feature on Word 2004.

Thanks for the cryptic response :rolleyes:

I finally figured it out after a while of trying.. how do I export the file from Word to iTunes?
 
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