Audio Recording limits

[Plaristor]

The Fuze was advertised as being able to record audio reasonably well. I've learned that it records in .wav - a pretty hefty format.

Suppose that I left a fully charged Fuze recording audio for a long time. What would be the limiting factor in how much audio I could record - the battery life, or drive space?

(I was hoping to record some 2-3 hour lectures with this device. If I can't do that, then I've still got a pretty sweet media player, all things considered...)

[CrowdAds]

[skip252]

As a recorder the Fuze is pretty good at quick notes but I haven't had much luck with it for more than that. the few times I've tried it for more than that it locked up after about a half hour or so and worse yet didn't save the recording. It may work better with Rockbox but I've never tried.

The other thing is that the mic on the Sansa and just about any DAP is really poor at picking up anything that's more than a few feet away. Unless you can persuade the lecturer to place it on the podium or somehow keep it close to them I wouldn't count on getting a fully audible recording.

For audio playback it's tough to find a better bang for the buck player than the Fuze. For recording lectures I'd look for a dedicated recorder.

[lestatar]

+1 with skip. For relatively short bursts of recording, the Fuze works fine, within a normal conversational distance, with the discussion taking place at normal speaking volumes.

My mom also used her Fuze to record music from her Chinese opera classes - very low tech, she placed the Fuze a couple of feet away from the speaker source. I was surprised that the results were quite listenable. But again, for relatively short bursts, maximum length of songs around 10-20 minutes.

No idea on the space and skip252's experiences are possible. Extended duration recording is, IMO, definitely not one of the basic intended functions for the Fuze.

For class lectures, etc, for sure a dedicated recorder would be best, both in terms of reliability and for quality - this is the main functions of dedicated devices.

Plus they are pretty cheap. Some folks have mentioned some suggestions here on other threads. Do a search of the site or maybe folks will chime in again here.

And indeed, the Fuze is quite a great player out of the box but becomes exceptional IMO with the addition of Rockbox. Though, caveat emptor! Rockbox is not for everyone - some exercise of brain muscle is required, but the barrier to Rockbox entry is really not very high.

[JK98]

"The Fuze was advertised as being able to record audio reasonably well"

Who said that???? It records audio, but doesn't do it well. It works especially poorly if the speaker is more than around 5 feet away. Get a decent recorder if you want to record lectures. Trying to record using an mp3 player is like trying to hammer with a plyers. Use a hammer when you want to hammer, and use a recorder when you want to record. The Fuze has a very low quality built in mic and no mic jack. The recording feature on the Fuze is meant for someone to hold the player near their mouth and talk into it, not to record lectures from a distance.