Choosing your digital voice recorder

Why move from analog to digital voice recorder?

Before anything else, you need to be convinced to go digital and not stay with your analog voice recorder. Voice recorders using digital technology offer you a wide array of benefits! Let us look at some of them.

- Digital voice recorders are handy and portable and can record high quality sound.

- You can record for almost unlimited hours with memory cards or in-built USB memory.

- You can do editing, archiving and organising in a digital voice recorder.

- You can use remote office secretarial services to send emails of voice records.

- You can use digital date stamping.

- Other benefits include optimum playback, high compression rate, FM radio and variable speed playback.

It now makes sense to switch doesn’t it? But what should you look at?

Consider digital voice recorders with the best sound quality

Since digital voice recorders are all about sound, it is but natural that you should choose a model that is essentially a miniature recording studio. You should look at multi-track stereo technology and high fidelity directional microphones so that you can record in concert hall type sound quality.

You may also look at digital voice recorders with triple microphones so that you can record simulated 3D sound. The other features to consider are voice-over capability and in-built editing.

Consider digital voice recorders with the highest recording hours

Some of the digital voice recorders boast of more 1,000 hours of recording time. But keep in mind that high quality recording means lesser hours of recording. If you also want transcription service with an automatic voice recognition software, you cannot compromise on the sound quality. The storage space required will be more and the hours will diminish. To get the best recording time, you should also look to improve the memory capacity because this has a direct bearing on the number of recording hours possible.

Digital voice recorders with transcription facility

For you to be able to transcribe the recorded voice files, a software application will be required. Some of the digital voice recorders have in-built transcription software and you may want to consider these models. You can, however, also use other transcription software like Dragon Naturally Speaking. For manual transcriptions, you will also require headphones and a foot pedal. All these are additional accessories that you may have to invest in.

Increase memory for more hours of recording

The memory capacity of digital voice recorders can be increased with memory cards or USB. For instance, if your digital voice recorder has 256MB memory, it can record up to 70 hours of audio and if the memory is 512MB, the recording hours possible are up to 140 and so on. Thanks to the external storage devices, you can increase the memory of digital video cards to GBs and this is when you stop worrying about not capturing an important piece of recording.

Some additional features to consider

Also consider some of the other features mentioned below.

- Backlight for you to operate when it is dark

- Earphones for you to listen to your recordings on the move

- OS Compliance with your PC or laptop for easy transfer of files

- MP3 conversion or MP3 digital voice recorders

- Multitrack recording for creating layers of sounds – voice, guitar, drums and keyboard and so on

Top digital voice recorders for each use

Among the most convenient digital voice recorders are those with in-built USB. These recorders not only offer you more space for recording, but also make it highly convenient for you to transfer voice data to your PC or laptop.

The top digital voice recorders with USB are:

- Philips LFH-3210 (photo 1)

- Lightinthebox 8G MP3 Digital Voice Recorder

- Diamond GC1000 USB 2.0 1080i HD Game Console Video Capture Device

- Sony ICD-PX440

- Dictaphone PowerMic II Handheld USB Dictation Microphone Without Scanner

Otherwise, you can choose from those digital voice recorders that use memory cards. The memory available could be lower than those with USB, but if your purpose is served, you can always opt for these devices.

The bestselling memory card digital recorders are:

- Olympus VN-722PC

- Sony 4GB PX Series MP3 Digital Voice IC Recorder (photo 2)

- Sony PCM-M10, Konexx 100 Telephone Recorder

- Waterwood Telephone Recording Adapter For Digital Voice Recorder Phone Line Recorder Adapter

There are specific digital voice recorders with transcription features. You can easily choose from the models:

- Philips LFH-7177

- Dictaphone 2740 Standard Cassette Transcription Transcriber Machine

- Olympus E 102 Stereo Transcription Headset

- Philips 9750 Digital Desktop Transcription System

- Sanyo Black Digital Transcription Kit (photo 3)