Voice Recording Question

[Shalimar]

I am thinking of cancelling my iPod order and getting a Zen instead. Reason? My trusty (NOT!) mp3 player/flash drive/recorder died on me out of the blue, and Zen has everything I need (the voice recording function ) I hate that I need to get a new earphone just to record with an iPod.

Before I actually put in an order - I have a question: I want to record my lectures. During classes, we have breaks in between. Is Zen able to pause a recording session, and then resuming the recording (saving the entire sessuin into a single file)?

[CrowdAds]

[mattcro]

Yes, you can pause during recording, then resume recording to the same file after a break. You can also split recordings (while recording) so that one continuous session is split across several files. You can't do anything else with the player while it's paused in record mode.

The recorded files (ADPCM WAV format) are named by date and time so you can tell when you recorded them (assuming the Zen's clock is correct!), which is handy for lectures etc.

The recordings are fairly clear, but my Zen introduces a pronounced whine in recordings, and the mic isn't especially sensitive. Make sure you keep the Zen off desks etc (or in a skin/case) or it will pick up all the thumps and bumps.

[Shalimar]

Oh, the naming of the files sounds great! I always forget to upload the files onto my laptop, and by the time I get around to it, I have quite a few of them saved it gets confusing figuring out which one belongs to which class.

Anyway, just to be sure before I put my order in, the Zen we are talking about is this? I am thinking of getting either the 4GB or 8GB

[mattcro]

That's the Zen I'm talking about. I have the 16GB one since I like to have most of my music permanently on it.

An hour of recording on the Zen takes around 30MB. If you're mainly going to be using it for recording lectures etc, you might be better off with a dedicated recorder/dictation type device.
I don't have any experience with those but I suspect they have better sensitivity and less noise pickup.

[Shalimar]

Heeeeee...just made my purchase - the 8GB one!

I will be using it for recording lectures, storing mp3s, and some videos (as I am fast running out of space in my external hard disk).

Thanks for your input - very much appreciated!

[mattcro]

No problem! I rarely use the Zen to record, so post some feedback here when you've used it for a bit.