Anyone have a GOOD small tape recorder?

[NancyR]

DH takes a lot of classes and likes to tape them and review his notes later. We have been through soooooo many small tape recorders :mad: and are on the verge of purchasing another. Does anyone have one that they feel does a good job of recording voices from a distance (ie, the speaker or lecturer)? Any thoughts appreciated.
Nancy

[DocAgocs]

There are two good ways to do this: use a plug-in external microphone and set it up by the lecturer or near a speaker or just set the recorder on the podium, near a speaker or near the lecturer. I've been to lectures where the guy is practically buried in tape recorders! If I were investing money iin one of these things I'd spend the money on a good digital recorder. They generally have a USB line out or a USB docking station that will connect to your computer and you can download the audio, burn to CD, etc. I think that would be WELL worth the investment.

If your husband is a real dork he should look at the new version of Microsoft Office for Macs (assuming he uses a Macintoch laptop, which everyone should). :D The new Word program has this notes function that will do everything. You run a mic into the computer or sit so that the internal mic picks the audio up. You can type notes as you go and if something is interesting on the audio or you need to go back in your notes because of something, you can set an alert on that aprt of it and it links the audio clip to your notes for review later. You can use keystrokes to highlight sections that are important and Word will automatically create a cross-referenced index later on, etc. It really sounds incredible and would save tons of work.

But, back to the original question, I would go digital, first and foremost, then either set the recorder on the podium or near a speaker to catch good audio, or for the best quality run a real mic into it. Most office stores have several choices, but I bet the way to go is online for that sort of thing.