[ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu compatible digital voice recorder

[Timothy Rittman]

Hi James,

I use the Sony ICD-UX200 
http://www.sony.co.uk/product/dic-voice-and-music-recorders/icd-ux200. I 
haven't come across any compatibility issues with it. It's got good 
sound quality and, importantly, a USB port which hides away very neatly. 
When plugged in you can drag and drop sound files as if it were a normal 
USB stick. The battery life is good and it has 2Gb of memory. It's maybe 
a bit more expensive than other similar devices (around £80), but it 
seems to do the job very well. I mainly use it for writing articles and 
notes.

The main thing missing from it is a decent rewind button whilst 
recording; once it's recorded you can't re-record the last few seconds 
if you've made a mistake. It sounds like that wouldn't be too much a of 
a problem for your sort of work.

For transcription I use Express scribe software: 
http://www.nch.com.au/scribe/index.html. There is a free linux version, 
but I couldn't get it to work. However the windows version works well in 
wine. If you find a better open source alternative please let me know! 
Alternatively, the voice recorder itself has a playback function where 
you can slow down the speed for easier transcription, or you can play 
the recordings in any mp3 player (but without the ability to slow it 
down effectively in the ones I tried).

At work I've used various olympus voice recorders, which have the 
advantage of a better rewind to re-record function. However, as you say 
I'm not sure what the compatibility is like and they tend to be a lot 
more expensive. I've also tried a Philips voice recorder (I can't 
remember which one) but it was a lot more fiddly to use and didn't have 
the inbuilt USB or slow playback functions.

All the best with your work in Ethiopia, it sounds interesting.

Kind regards,

Tim


On 29/09/11 15:43, Alan Pope wrote:
> On 29 September 2011 15:24, James Morrissey<morrissey.james1 at gmail.com>  wrote:
>> I was wondering if anyone knew of a decent digital voice recorder that is
>> compatible with Ubuntu.
>>
> Any Zoom one will. They record WAV/MP3.
>
> The Zoom H1 is quite plasticy and cheap looking but has decent microphones.
>
> Al.
>