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> Okay, so, rather than that convoluted transcontinental approach, could
> someone tell me what I need to record my own .wav files to send to my
> students? I'm going to a conference in April and would love to record
> some mini-lectures (~15 minutes long) to send them the week I will be
> gone. If you would just point me in the right direction I would
> appreciate it very much.
>
Olympus makes a line of digital voice recorders, some of which feature a
USB interface to connect to and download files to your PC. The default
format of the sound files is .wav. The quality varies based on the
model.
I have one that I use in the office to record meetings with SMEs (to
supplement my notes) and it works very well. At its highest quality it
records at 44Khz and will hold about 9 hours of sound at that level. It
will hold up to 16 hours at lesser quality.
If you do go with an Olympus model, be sure to purchase one that has the
designation "PC" at the end of the model name. Only the ones labeled
"PC" have the USB port and cable and "Digital Wave" software. They
record on internal chips, so there is not an option (or a need) to
remove a chip and have some kind of card reader to download from.
I think there are other companies that make similar devices, but I
honestly can't say how they compare to the Olympus. Perhaps others on
the list have experience using these and competing brands.
Last Thursday I took a day off and went to Daytona International
Speedway for the Gatorade Duel qualifying races. I took my Digital
Camera from home to take pictures, and I took my Digital Voice Recorder
to get sound. I was pleasantly surprised at both how rugged and how
clear the sound recordings turned out. I was listening to some of the
files over the weekend, and you can clearly hear conversations of people
next to me in the grandstands, the P.A. "play-by-play" call of the race
from the trackside loudspeakers, the roar of the pack racing around the
track, and even the noise of the wind that follows a large herd of race
cars like a wake sweeping through the grandstands. It's good to know the
Olympus recorder's microphone is sensitive enough to pick up something
as quiet as a normal conversation and rugged enough to handle the howl
of extremely loud sounds as well.
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