sond recording

does any 1 know a very good sound recorder that's:
-under $70
-has a long pick-up distance
-gets good quality
[EDIT] -uses AA batteries or AAA instead of charging the whole recorder
-and can link to your computer

dang it i misspelled sound..(where's the edit title button?)

Never actually used one, but any built-in sound recorder in an mp3 player?

the positive thng about mp3 players with voice recorders is: there ain't no moving parts like motors and things that would result in device noise in tape or disc based devices. Unfort. most of these lowcost players have ultracheap mics built in. They are also very grip-noisy, the slightest touch of the device will result in loud noise. They usually also don't allow to realtime encode to MP3 (mostly due to license costs), but use a crappy low-bit/rate WAV format. (to allow 10 hours recording on 1 GB) So you should at least select the best recording quality if there are any options.

Personally I prefer my video dv camera with an external mic. But that's a little more than 70$

who are you stalking?

lol

You need any mp3 player that can record .wav and has a mic input then buy a battery powered condencer like this one http://www.dv247.com/invt/2700/ this will give you a good range and high quality.

the only draw back that this kind of mic is very sensitive and will pick up anything around you so just getting the sound you want and nothing else can be a problem.

if you want to record a sound outside where theres alot of background noise, use a dynamic mic. i would still buy a seperate one because the built in mics in mp3 players are so poor.

Pete

who are you stalking?
[/quote]
lol nvm about built in mics.

what's a good head-microphone ( u know, those things that look like earphones in backwards) ?

Hmmm... I can give you no pickup distance and the worst quality ever...

Plug some headphones into the microphone slot on your computer :D

Audacity? (Mac, Linux, windows)
http://download-audacity.org/?gclid=CIeisOny444CFQESEgodblEJPQ

(EDIT)
OH! Sorry, i re-read it an see you are looking for hardware... :)

You should be able to buy a long range directional mic from somewhere like maplin.co.uk or RS

yay my recorder came in today! the quality is horriable unless u point the mic directly at it, so i AM gonna get a directional mic (ty for tip D4NM4N ) or whatever that mic that looks like head phone thingy. can any 1 specify a model plz , thankz!

ps Audicity rules!!!!!!!!!

I'm using a Zoom H4 and it has worked incredibly. I had bought a cheap recorder before, and seriously I didn't enjoy it at all. The H4 gave me a lot of clarity so I'm also using it for voice dictation and command with Dragon Naturally Speaking.

Some of the H4 features:
It uses AA batteries.
Takes SD memory cards.
It can do 24 bit 96Khz wav files, mp3s and a few more freqs.
USB, External Mics are allowed, can be used as a mixer, head phone and line out jacks.
It can play your mp3s.

I use the H4 and a combination of Sony Vegas to edit and export sounds. Audacity works just as good.

Here's a few samples in different formats, the clarity is awesome!
http://www.alldevs.com/downloads/test.wma (toilet flush)
http://www.alldevs.com/downloads/test.mp3 (shot)
http://www.alldevs.com/downloads/toilet_flush.wav (16 bit, 44Khz)

Here's the main page:
http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/products/index.html

You can get a good deal at Amazon right now:
Amazon H4

There's a smaller version called the H2, but I'm not sure about the differences.
Zoom H2

Hope that helps a bit, and dang it I sound like a sales man! But the MIC is good to go.

ty soo much xmlspy!! ps is dragon speak better than microsoft voice speech engine 5.0? ,or is it that most people by the mic that the guys of dragon speak sell?

I don't know about MS Speech Engine 5, last time I tried MS voice recognition stuff it didn't work too good. Dragon isn't perfect, but it can become very accurate, you have to triain the software to do what you want. A good MIC is key when it comes to voice recognition and a good headset will do. But I want to go without wires and I'm using the H4 to do that. It can capture my voice from a distance.

Problems with present VR:
Spellilng can be mixed (it, fit, meet, eat, meat)
Background noise (computers, cars, other people)
Websites need to be simpler
When you play music or video the software doesn't remove this from the MIC, so it gets mixed with your commands and the software cannot understand you.
Requires a lot of hardware. I tried with an Athlon 64 3400 and it didn't do too good. However with two processors it seems to handle it better.

Eventually voice recognition might get to the point of being smart enough, but it's just beginning and it will take a few years until it truly becomes useful. You can combine it with a tablet pc and that is very impressive.

Someday VR may become more like this:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=G_FS2TiK3AI