It will be really great if you always have digital voice recorders with you, especially if your occupation is a reporter, a sort of legal affairs secretary, or even if you are a student working on an investigative research. Digital voice recorders are portable and handy for use whenever and wherever you are.
Digital Voice Recorders Vs. Tape Recorders
The counterpart of digital voice recorders in the analog department is the tape recorders. Both types of recorder
s have the primary purpose of recording audio, voice, or sound bytes. So, what’s the difference? Basically, it’s with the memory device used. With tape recorders, of course, you use the classic, conventional cassette tape. On the other hand, if they’re digital voice recorders, then the memory device used is either a memory card, memory stick, or a built-in memory that can be accessed by means of USB connection.
Personally, I think digital voice recorders are better than tape recorders. Why? For the following reasons:
* Digital voice recorders are usually more portable and require less baggage clutter. That’s because, for one, the memory device used in digital voice recorders are considerably smaller compared to the cassette tapes used in tape recorders. That said, it means that digital voice recorders warrant just a compact body design because it doesn’t have to accomodate such a huge tape deck as tape recorders do. In fact, there are some digital voice recorders built to fit inside your pockets. That’s real convenience!
* Digital voice recorders are easily “edit-able”–meaning, you can edit the audio bytes you’ve recorded right away. That’s because the memory devices in digital voice recorders are designed for computer usage. And, since technology is now defined by computers, that’s surely a big plus. As for cassette tape recorders, these gadgets will require you to dub the contents of the tape to the computer before you’d even be able to use them.
Tips On Choosing Among Digital Voice Recorders
But before you consider shelling out hard-earned money for one of those handy and techy digital voice recorders, here are some tips to guide you through:
* Check out the features. Good digital voice recorders have play back, fast forward, cue, and voice activate options.
* Try recording and observe the audio quality. Is the sound byte still audible? In other words, are the words in the audio file still “digestible”? Just like digital cameras, which have pixellation problems, you may run through problems with digital voice recorders that have poor mic and speakers quality and reception ability.
* Ask if your choice digital voice recorder has a USB cord/connection along with it. Good digital voice recorders always do; the substandards don’t.
