MOST crucial decision - please help me

[sunandoghosh]

MOST crucial decision - please please help me...!!!!!!!!!

please please read the whole post....please have patience....

WHAT I WANT:

To be able to record lectures delivered by my professor so that I can later on listen it while commuting and also make notes.

WHY I WANT:

Because our professor delivers lecture at a very very rapid pace and although it is great listening him and understanding his concepts...its so so fast that its impossible to write or make note of anything...

This creates problem because although I am able to understand everything while he teaches BUT later on I forget everything as I am unable to make any notes.

The net result is I am where I was when the classes started.

WHAT I AM THINKING:

I gave a thought to my problem very deeply and discussed with some people and the only solution that appears is TO RECORD THE ENTIRE LECTURE DAILY....so that I can make notes from it later on at my ease...

WHAT ARE THE OPTIONS:

After doing a very thorough and deep analysis on net and gathering as much information as was possible for me...I concluded that I am having the following options:

A. To record the lectures using Apple iPod along with either griffin italk or belkin voice recorder.

OR

B. To record the lectures using Nokia mobile handset using its inbuilt microphone (or attaching some external microphone)

OR

C. To record the lectures using dedicated digital voice recorders such as Olympus DM-10 and DM-20, or say Panasonic RR-US006.

OR

D. To record the lectures using a laptop which is having inbuilt microphone or attaching the laptop with external microphone.

OR

E. To record the lectures using flash based MP3 player like those of transcend etc.

OR

F. To use dictaphone (I have never before even heard that term)

WHY I AM CONFUSED:

Because

1. I do not own personally any of the devices in all options referred above and therefore unable to make a choice which one suits my needs best

AND

2. Dont know which one would be MOST suitable for purpose of recording class lectures from a reasonable distance (say 5-10 feets away) for 3-4 hours lectures.

AND

3. Dont know which device would be MOST reliable and durable

AND

4. Dont know which one provides Best Value for Money as there are extra benefits associated with each device and extra costs too.

EXAMPLE:

I have heard that

# Griffin italk or Belkin Voice recorder at times may NOT record properly always (I have just heard NOT at all sure)

# Again Apple Ipod which allows extra voice recording functionality is NOT mini or shuffle so Again I dont know whether its better to have Nokia Mobile which has so many extra features as well and would cost less than Apple ipod.

# Again if Nokia Mobile is to be purchased which particular model suits my needs best.

# Or is it that dedicated digital voice recorders are best as they have one single function of digital voice recording.

And so on........................

BOTTOM LINE:

There are so so many variables involved that I am really unable to decide. This is further complicated by the fact that I have never used such gadgets and NOt sure.

PLEASE HELP ME DECIDE..........................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PLEASE HELP ME DECIDE..........................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PLEASE HELP ME DECIDE..........................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PLEASE HELP ME DECIDE..........................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My budget is very very flexible (which means that I am ready to spend upto Indian Rs 50000 which is roughly USD $ 1000, if required).

The single most imporatnt reason I am intending to buy such a gadget is to record the class lectures daily which are normally of 3-4 hours duration and the professor and my sitting distance varies from 1 feet to 10 feets.

If i get extra features Its welcome BUT this digital voice recording feature is something which I do NOT want to be compromised.

Please suggest me out of A, B, C, D OR E what should be my ideal choice and what costs i would incur. If possible please specify the exact product number or detail or specification.

I Know I have written a very very long story and it must have tested your patience and consumed a lot of your valuable time. I genuinely and most sincerely appreciate your time and effort with me from the bottom of my heart and trust me I am really in serious trouble or else would NOT have written such a long story.

I am very anxiously awaiting the words of wisdom and valuable advice from more
knowledgebale and experienced (and most importantly helpful) members here.

I am sure that someone here will be able to help me out with his advice and suggestions.

Again I express my deepest sincerest appreciation and gratitude for reading this post and possibly replying.

Please reply in detail and advice to your best as your decision may be very very crucial and infact the whole basis on which I am going to make the purchase. So please be concerned and kind.

Thanks and best of regards

Most sincerely

Sunando Ghosh
Kolkata, India

sunandoghosh (at) rediffmail (dot) com

P.s. If u wish to add anything which i might have missed or suggest differently please feel free to do so.

[zybch]

Most people I know in the same situation would just place a dictaphone up front with the lecturer at the beginning of the lecture and collect it at the end.
However if the lecturer moves about a lot this might not be the best solution.

[porsch1909]

Ask him to speak slower would be the best option.

If you have the problem then i guess most people in the lecture theatre have the same problem too....

[herosrest]

Brush up on shorthand. :t

[genesound]

Get together with some others and buy and ask him to wear a wireless mic. Everybody that wants to tune in needs to buy a receiver and a recording machine.

Or if you're using a portable computer, you could just record it there and share the file.

[werz]

A voice activated mini tape recorder with external mic, the tapes are small and can be written on to sumarise the lectures. One hour per side. Also the cheapest alternative. Obviously batteries have to be taken into consideration.

[j.m@talk]

You got such money to waste just buy the degree :rolleyes:

[mireland]

You got such money to waste just buy the degree :rolleyes:


herbert! :D

[j.m@talk]

My uni supplied all visual learning aids .......... I dunno what goes on these days, wiv these tin pot so called centres of academic excellence :rolleyes:
http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/5ff4d8fc65.jpg

[daverme]

Get some therapy to help with decision making. There is no perfect solution - there nsver is - just pick one and go.

[porsch1909]

Get some therapy to help with decision making. There is no perfect solution - there nsver is - just pick one and go.



How un-usefull......

3 hours is way to long for lecture i think anyway. can't hold ure concentration for that long....

Most of my lecturers use powerpoint slides. then post them on the uni intranet afterwards so you dont really need to take mnay notes during the lecture.....

[mireland]

[QUOTE=porsch1909]How un-usefull......

QUOTE]

you'd know... :p

[Steve R Jones]

Tablet pc and Microsoft's One Note software would be perfect.

One Note lets you "mark" spots on the audio to play back later etc. Can also copy sections of the playback..

[europanorama]

i have just seen in television-one week ago- that somewhere people are working on a computer-solution.

[Kandar]

I had similar problems with some of my lecturers.
Personally I recorded all of my lectures onto a Sony Minidisk recorder in long play mode with its recording sensitivity turned to high and using a condenser boundary microphone to capture the sound. Boundary Microphones are omni directional (meaning that it will capture sound from any direction) and are primarily used for recording interviews. The police use them all the time.

Ideally it’s better to position the mic as close to the lecturer as is feasible but providing there are no objects between the source and the microphone that will muffle the sound, it usually works well enough even if your further back.

[genesound]

That's why a wireless mic would be great. It'd sound almost like books on tape. ;)

[G Ray88]

Welcome to Sysopt.

Quote,
(E. To record the lectures using flash based MP3 player like those of transcend etc )
A good MP3 player would work fine, my daughter used hers at collage,and she said that it worked fine. Good Luck :)

[Hola hoop]

the simple answer is "buy a dictaphone"

I understand this problem very very well and experience the same.

U cannot record lectures onto things like laptops and stuff the files are huge and u goto start encoding to shrink....what a waste of time, time you dont have when your studying. There i dont know if there is an mp3 player out there that can record 2 hours worth of lecture, let alone 3 hours

U buy a dictaphone and u write shorthand notes when u get home, then u can read notes to gain understanding and listen to tape again to fill in the smaller details and as a good refresh the morning before the exam.

Inexpensive, reliable and transferable

:D

[j.m@talk]

Take the guy hostage & make him repeat the lesson :D

[mireland]

Take the guy hostage & make him repeat the lesson :D


get back to off topic will ya?? :D

[Kandar]

Actually you could record to a laptop if you wanted without the file being so big or resorting to MP3 or other compression formats.
Since audio fidelity is of no great importance for recorded speech of this kind you can reduce the sampling frequency to 22 kHz with very little discernable loss in quality.
Telephone systems work at 11 kHz and this may be sufficient for your needs.

Since you’re using a mono microphone anyway, recording in stereo is a waste of space as all it does is prints a copy of the same sound onto both channels. This will do nothing to improve sound quality at all. You can save disk space by recording in Mono which will half the size of the recorded file instantly. A 22 kHz Mono WAV file lasting 3 hrs will consume approx - 476 Meg of disk space.

Saving the file as an MP3 will reduce this file size even further.
Soundforge can save to MP3 format on the fly in seconds and can jump to any point of the recording instantly.

[genesound]

Yeah 11KHz mono is ok for speech (response to ~ 5KHz), and with a decent wireless clip on mic and laptop it'd sound way better than any stinkin dictaphone with a room mic, and at that rate it should fit on a 256MB thumb drive without compressing it.

BTW, in case you're interested, I've been doing sound for a living since the '70's; I'm not making this up... ;)

[genesound]

You can get the bit rate way down on your computer if you use a different codec (http://www.highcriteria.com/Primer%20PC%20Audio.htm#Primer_A_wav_comp)

Windows has some of these built in. Of course sound quality goes down, but it'll still be way better if you use a good clip on mic :t

[porsch1909]

Some of these ideas seem good. i might use some....

I think it is a bit showoffy with a laptop when nobody else has one

[Kandar]

True, but If don't want to flash your laptop about then use a minidisk recorder instead. Set it to long play mode and record in mono. You can upload the recordings to your computer later if you wish. If you use the optical link then you keep the data in the digital realm and preserve the recording without the need to convert digital to analogue and back again.

I used to sit as close to the lecturer as possible and use a good quality boundary condenser microphone to capture the sound.
I found that the uni-directional features of the boundary mic allowed me to not only record the lecturer but also any questions that where asked by other students.
In my opinion, a Dictaphone is a definite no. they have a built in microphone and are intended for close usage. They often use a very low bit rate and sampling frequency and the storage capacity is not up to the job. They are intended for recording, verbal reminders or instructions for secretaries, not entire lectures.

[porsch1909]

All the lectuers at my uni have wireless mics already. so there is no problem with hearing them....

BUt is it possible to tap into the frequency they use to transmit to the speakers.....then i would need to mic!!

Or am I going to hollywood there :p

[Kandar]

It is not impossible to tap into the radio mic frequency but it is very unlikely.
Some wireless microphone systems operate on fixed frequency whist the better quality microphones allow the user to select any frequency within the operating band range.
It would be much easier to take a line from the audio output and record that.

[porsch1909]

what happened to that guys post about overkill :confused:

[genesound]

If they're already using an rf mic, find out what kind, and the frequency. Depending on what it is, you could pick it up on a scanner, but the quality will be not so great due to incompatable deviation, companding and pre-emphasis systems. But you can get a receiver only that matches the existing one. If you're lucky they're all using similar branded ones on different channels in the same range. RF mics are mostly switchable multichannel nowadays, but they have different frequency ranges. I ran an rf shop for a couple of years in Hollywood as the cheap engineer. If yas really interested, let me know.

Maybe, as Kandar sez, you can just get a "split" from the sound system. You might ask the admins about that one. There's prolly a consulting firm involved that might help.

As far as being a show off, it's all about the education. If it will really help, then do whatever it takes. If not, fagedaboudit.

[genesound]

I been finkin (smell sumpin burnin?)... the scanner idea might just work. You don't care about the fidelity all that much fer speech. It's likely to sound very... ummm.... trebley, but that should actually help wiv clarity on consonants in speech. If you record to a low bit rate codec on yas laptop, much of the higher audio freq stuff will be tossed out anyhow. Prolly sound just fine, and not use too much disk. Easy to share too.

The scanner should pick up any frequency modulated (FM) type RF mic in the same room, just tune it in. We use them on TV crews to hear stuff all the time for cues and stuff wiv a earbud. A decent one runs ~$300US or more.

The new hi-tech RF mics transmit in digital though and a scanner won't be able to decode the hash. I doubt they use those, but one never knows... Get a model number off the professors transmitter and look it up or send it to me and I'll advise. :t