Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Record Time: Audio Notes v1.0 Reviewed
Posted by Anjuan Simmons in "SOFTWARE" @ 08:00 AM
Playback
When playing back an audio file, the application displays the name of the file, quality settings, and a counter that shows the elapsed time. The counter cannot be changed to show how much time is left in the recording.
Figure 15: Playing an audio file.
During playback, the VAS bar turns into a volume control bar, and the microphone automatic gain bar turns into a track control bar where you can fast forward and rewind through the recording.
I listened to my six test audio files in order to determine how sound quality varied between the different formats and quality settings. The MP3 files sounded noticiably more "tinny" than the WAV files, but, at the highest MP3 setting, the audio quality was excellent. The WAV audio files had a richer sound overall, but, as seen below, they were considerably larger in size:
Low Quality MP3: 11 KB
Middle Quality MP3: 25 KB
High Quality MP3: 37 KB
Low Quality WAV: 85 KB
Middle Quality WAV: 198 KB
High Quality WAV: 332 KB
Conclusions
The Audio Notes application produces (even at the lowest quality setting) very clear recordings. I would think that the high quality WAV format would be suitable for creating a podcast, although a third party audio editor (and a large storage card) would be needed. Features such as VAS and automatic gain control make this a very well rounded recorder. The one new feature I would like to see is the ability to record the other side of a voice conversation without having to use the speaker phone.
Enhancements that can be made to existing features include the ability to choose a naming convention for files, choose another folder to store audio files in (instead of "My Audio Notes"), assign a button to turn off the screen, and show the time left in a recording instead of the time elaspsed. Despite the potential for improvement, Audio Notes is a well designed and thoroughly thought-out application.
Anjuan Simmons is an information technology consultant specializing in CRM technical implementations (with a focus on Siebel technical architecture and integration). He lives with his wife, two children and many gadgets in Houston, Texas.
When playing back an audio file, the application displays the name of the file, quality settings, and a counter that shows the elapsed time. The counter cannot be changed to show how much time is left in the recording.
Figure 15: Playing an audio file.
During playback, the VAS bar turns into a volume control bar, and the microphone automatic gain bar turns into a track control bar where you can fast forward and rewind through the recording.
I listened to my six test audio files in order to determine how sound quality varied between the different formats and quality settings. The MP3 files sounded noticiably more "tinny" than the WAV files, but, at the highest MP3 setting, the audio quality was excellent. The WAV audio files had a richer sound overall, but, as seen below, they were considerably larger in size:
Low Quality MP3: 11 KB
Middle Quality MP3: 25 KB
High Quality MP3: 37 KB
Low Quality WAV: 85 KB
Middle Quality WAV: 198 KB
High Quality WAV: 332 KB
Conclusions
The Audio Notes application produces (even at the lowest quality setting) very clear recordings. I would think that the high quality WAV format would be suitable for creating a podcast, although a third party audio editor (and a large storage card) would be needed. Features such as VAS and automatic gain control make this a very well rounded recorder. The one new feature I would like to see is the ability to record the other side of a voice conversation without having to use the speaker phone.
Enhancements that can be made to existing features include the ability to choose a naming convention for files, choose another folder to store audio files in (instead of "My Audio Notes"), assign a button to turn off the screen, and show the time left in a recording instead of the time elaspsed. Despite the potential for improvement, Audio Notes is a well designed and thoroughly thought-out application.
Anjuan Simmons is an information technology consultant specializing in CRM technical implementations (with a focus on Siebel technical architecture and integration). He lives with his wife, two children and many gadgets in Houston, Texas.
