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A voice recorder for school?

I

isthisonetaken

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 29, 2006
123
0
Hi all,

I want to get a voice recorder for recording my lectures. Can someone recommend a good quality Mac compatible recorder? I don't need fancy features like a radio or mp3 playback, as I have an iPod. I just need something that can hold a lot of good quality recordings. Thanks in advance for the help!
 
Good Idea

I use an Olympus VN-960PC at work and it has not let me down, up to 16 hours top quality recording.

No idea if it is mac compatible as I'm at home and work is all IBM types, clue may be in model name however.
 
i know Microsoft Office 2004 has a recording feature built in to it's note-taking template (when you open Word and get the "project manager" select "Word Notebook". i'm not sure about the quality, though, as it relies on your Mac's internal microphone and so may depend on where you sit in relation to your professor.
 
Thanks for the help thus far guys. The office thing won't work for me, because I won't be taking my iBook with me to class. Some of my profs don't want laptops in the class. I just need a voice recorder. The guy next to me in Chemistry uses an olympus too, but I don't know if it is mac compatible. Everything I've read on them online say they are pc linkable, but no word of mac compatibility. Any more thoughts guys?
 
Is that iPod G5? There are recording solutions with little microphones for G5. $40-50. Those Olympus recorders look nice. Probably just show up as a USB drive on a Mac.
 
I can tell you that the Olympus ds-330 is OS X compatable (although I am still working at getting it all sorted)
 
I use an Olympus DM-20 works fine with the mac, as demostrated by this picture
DM-20Systemchart.jpg
 
I'm a reporter, so I use my voice recorder a LOT.

I've been using the same Olympus DS-330 since 2004. We're talking thousands of interviews. My model holds 2.5 hours. I think the new 330s hold significantly more. I have used the Olympus software (which I use to listen to the interviews and catalog them for later retreival) on a G4 iMac, G4 Powerbook and Intel MacBook. I'd say it's Mac compatible.
 
I have an Olympus DS-330, works great. HOWEVER, don't space out in a two-hour lecture, thinking, "Hey, I recorded it so I'm good to go! I'll just listen to it at home." Right, you never will. It's like, you just spent two hours in class, and now you have to spend another two hours listening to the same lecture again. Then everything seems hopeless and you just fail your classes. Yep.

I'm joking about the last part, but I am serious about the first part!
 
Sorry to revive an old thread, but I am considering getting someone an Olympus voice recorder as a gift. I've looked at the models, but I wonder about file formats.

He wants to be able to upload his lectures to his iPod. How many steps will he have to go through to get the files into a format his iPod can deal with? What I've read seems often to be contradictory. They all seem to record in DSS, which I understand is industry standard for voice recordings, so what does he do then? Convert them to .wav, then import them into iTunes? .wma is a no-go, and he doesn't want a recorder for his iPod.

He needs to have at least 2 hours of recording time with good sound. I'm willing to get him a nice one with bells and whistles, so if anyone has one of the top-drawer models and wants to make a concrete recommendation, that'd be great.
 
Another vote for just using an iPod. Why get a dedicated recorder when the iPod will store your vids, tunes, files, photos, contacts, calendars and still be happy to record your lectures?
 
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