This post has beenUpdatedwith a link to the Sony Digital Voice Editor Software.
WE USE SEVERAL flavours of the
Sony Digital Voice Recorder
in our college classrooms at Tipperary Institute. For three years, the small devices served as dictaphones from student seats. Two students have grown confident in their use so they position the discrete recorders up front or at the lecturer's position. If asked, I snap my 6" Sony ECM-MS957 microphone into student recorders because sound quality improves immensely. The biggest shift in use of digital recordings has happened up front--we now use the IC recorders to play pre-recorded tracks over classroom sound systems. This has piqued interest from some unexpected corners of the internet.
The main lecture hall has cabling that normally connects to line-out ports on the installed desktop or into laptop sound cards. I discovered those 3.5 mm leads also snap into my €260 Sony ICD-MX20. I can play student samples, Open Mic Sessions, podcast selections and music. Without booting up a computer, I can quickly toggle between voice recordings made during telephone calls to Irish creative developers, industry professionals and podcasters. This is a big deal for me since it's all possible through colour-coded Memory Stick Duo cards. The only downside is the cards can go missing under a stack of papers on a desk if I'm not careful. The upside is that I can keep a fortnight of lecture material and support interviews on each 256 MB thumbnail-sized card. This storage practise has radically reduced the number of bookshelf acres needed to support my multimedia lecturing. Goodbye, CDs and mini discs! Hello, memory cards!
Note to the cautious: I still keep CDs in my archives. It's always good to back up stuff in more than one medium. My essential audible notes also live on CDs stored in spindles in a cool, dark space under the stairs.
Disclosure: I like Sony kit and have paid for it myself. It's not part of any sponsorship deal. Version 2.0 of Sony's Digital Voice Editor Software can work with the ICD-P Series recorders.
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WE USE SEVERAL flavours of the Sony Digital Voice Recorder in our college classrooms at Tipperary Institute. For three years, the small devices served as dictaphones from student seats. Two students have grown confident in their use so they position the discrete recorders up front or at the lecturer's position. If asked, I snap my 6" Sony ECM-MS957 microphone into student recorders because sound quality improves immensely. The biggest shift in use of digital recordings has happened up front--we now use the IC recorders to play pre-recorded tracks over classroom sound systems. This has piqued interest from some unexpected corners of the internet.