Does it pick up sound clearly from several feet away? I hope to use a recorder to record lectures in class
84686
I tried recording from about 12 feet away and it did pick up the sound, but it was at low volume and I recorded in a quiet room. I suspect that in a lecture it would pick up lots of background noise. For your requirement I think you'd be better with a dedicated voice recorder, and perhaps one with a directional microphone.
1824655
My experience has been very good. We've used it for a guest dance teacher on the floor with music playing and only her voice is coming through. We set the microphone about 2" to the side of the mouth and it seems to only pick up the voice. We have the gain set very low.
1873124
I have used this mic for recording interviews and it works very well. I've placed it on a desk or table several feet away and it has no problem picking up the conversation.
457916
Hey there, Actually it does and the sound quality is surprising. The volume is easily controlled with the remote. Your class will love it.
150112
Using normal voice - Sounds good at one foot, can hear reasonably well recorded from 5 feet away, harder but can still hear recorded from 10 feet away.
458852
I think it has a pretty clear sound. I didn't detect much background noise, if any.
1776559
Hello,If your computer has "MICROPHONE INPUT" and recording software MAYBE okay to use. However just want to remind you that the sound produce maybe very low and sometimes unable to hear. Hope this helpThank you
1932620
I think if you are close enough it would be. I suspect that it would do well if you have no difficulty at all hearing the lecturer clearly - meaning not a ton of background noise and a fairly clear lecturer's voice. I've used it for interviews where the interviewee was about six feet away and it is crystal clear.
458848
I did a 2 hour interveiw with this recorder and it was very clear. I also transfered it to my computer and it still sounded perfect. No background noise. I've used others I could not say the same for.
1819806
Yes it has a voice recorder. The microphone is on the top and pretty sensitive, so you won't have any problems picking up your voice or a recording of a class.
799701
Yes. It is not as loud or good quality as if you were recording someone talking directly, but it is clearly audible.
1820573
Depends upon the speaker. I used this for two interviews. The first was in a room with the recorder on a nearby table. The second was a phone interview with the phone set to speakerphone. In both cases the pickup was better than expected and it seemed to hear as well as I could. If you can hear the lecture well enough, I suspect it will do fine.
2209497
The voice recorder is easy to use. You use the menu button or the scroll wheel to navigate to the 'voice' area. Then you just press record (on the side of the device). I liked the set up better than the items from creative labs. It was much easier to access. The sound quality seems pretty good, when listening to the recording from headphones. I was about 6ft away from my test subject, and I could hear everything nicely. If you are using it in a lecture hall, I would recommend putting it as close to the instructor as possible. I don't think an external mic is possible, but I could be wrong. There is only an input for headphones. I bought it for recording speech samples in people, and I think it'll do that quite well. It sounded much clearer than my tape recorder and was easier than the digital recorder I borrowed from someone.
321227
Actually, from what I've gotten out of mine so far it almost sounds better in medium sized rooms. The speaker size and shape directs the sound in a fairly linear way, and doesn't spread very well at short distances, but if you're more than about 5 feet away from them, you should be fine.
202951
From my experience with any kind of Mic, trying to record clear sound at a concert is damn near impossible. I've occasionally used the Mic to record movies played in class that were louder than the lecture overall and it still came out Crystal clear. I'm not sure of the quality with concert music though. Definitely use that black puffy protector that the product comes in. It'll filter out some of the noise. Sorry that I'm not much help.
390037
I haven't tried recording music, so I don't know. May try later, when it's not late. I only got it to create audio books of rare books and periodicals I have access to at a college library.FOLLOW UP: I put the unit up to my home stereo speakers. They were not at a deafening volume, but loud enough you wouldn't want to be sleeping in a room nearby. No distortions. I held the recorder right up against the speakers. It captured pretty good tone differences too, depending on which tweeters/cones I held it to.
1820570
I think it would, just sit in the front row to guarantee better recordings, and don't touch it or shuffle papers nearby or those sounds will be MUCH louder than your prof's voice.About the people who bought ones that failed.... it sounds like getting a "good" one is sort of a luck-of-the-draw. Maybe buy 2? They're really cheap. Mine has recorded over 10 hours, still going strong... be gentle with it maybe?