Tape recorders

Nursing Students General Students

Published

Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

I (please) need some suggestions on good tape recorders that will record well no matter what part of the room you are sitting in. Mine discontinued-brand one decided to die on me yesterday :(

LPN2Be:

I was just in the process of asking the same question myself!

What manufacturers of recorders conked out on you? I have a Radio Shack sale flyer advertising a Sony digital recorder (model # unknown). "Record a full day of classes-without tape!... Compact digital recorder stores up to 320 minutes. Voice activated, with room for 891 massages." $60.00. Any opinions?

With thanks!

I've been thinking about getting one, too, guys...but I haven't even looked into them yet. It isn't something that I've used before, but I want to make SURE I do good in these nursing classes, and having the actual recorded lecture would be fantastic.

I haven't looked into it yet because my FA still isn't here. It would be great to get some advice from those who have used recorders, tho. And, Alexander...it would be nice not to have to mess with tapes, but here's a question...if it can store 320 mins, then that is probably 2 classes worth of lecture. Is there a way to then upload the lectures onto computer and burn it to disk or something? Otherwise, if there is no tape, and you run out of space, what do you do? You don't want to erase those lectures! (Sorry if that's a lame question...I've just never dealt with a digital recorder before! :imbar )

I have hear the radio shack makes some pretty good ones. If you use them, ask your instructors permission to leave them on their desks. It makes hearing a little clearer.

Hello Everyone,

I bought a DVR from Wal-Mart. It is a RCA model# RP5012B. It's very small and compact and was only around $50.00. I have yet to use it in an actual class, but I have been playing around with it here at home. It's very easy to use and the sound is good. I'm a dork and always sit in the front of my classes so I'm sure it will be fine. It also has different files and folders that you can record in. Hope this helps a little.

I have had both type of recorders Digital and Tape. Digital has far better quality of audio when your in the HQ mode but it drops the recording length down to about 45 minutes for a recorder that will hold 3 hrs of audio. The only draw back to the digital recorder is that you must listen to the audio the night after recording if you want to use it again the next day. You can not keep lectures unless you transfer the recording onto a tape which is time consuming not to mention a major head ache.

I have an Olympus DS-300 digital voice recorder. It was expensive, but has really nice features.

The best thing is you can download the files onto your computer and save them. If you buy one that doesn't download, then you will quickly run out of space.

Mine records 5 1/2 or 2 1/2 hrs depending on what quality level you use. For lectures, you need the high quality level. When I am speaking directly into it, I use the low quality mode.

My suggestion is if you are able to spend $100+ get a digital voice recorder that downloads to your computer. If you need to spend less, get one that uses tapes. The low end digital ones don't let you store anything long term, so they aren't very useful.

I have a panasonic tape recorder for under $20 at Walmart. Its the same size as a walkman and uses full size tape. I save old lectures and relisten to them. Two drawbacks.. you need to sit in either the first or second row of class to get a decent recording, plus it picks up background noise.

I had considered a digital recorder, but I can't always listen to the lecture right away and don't have the ability to upload it to my old computer.

Specializes in Pediatrics.

I just bought mine last week...

My opinion is if you're going to buy digital...go all the way! This one is adjustable in quite a few ways so you can find what works for you as far as sound quality. I have the 256MB version which I bought for about $200 from Bestbuy. I have mine just above the manufacturer's default, and it records for over 7.5 hours. I think with the default setting its over 10 hrs. If you're like me, my lectures are 6 hours each, 2-3x per week. I did test it out on my first day of class last week, and I was very impressed! Our professors use microphones so that part was clear. The kicker was that I could hear my classmates' questions and I had it sitting on my desk in a room with 100 students.

I know they do make a 128MB one also for about $160(?). You can download lectures to your computer, it does have an FM tuner (which you can record), and of course download music to it when school's out! The appeal to me was that in order to buy a digital recorder that you can download to your computer and has enough memory, they cost about $150. At least I know I'll use it for exercising, etc for 50 bucks more.

I remember reading a thread about this over at SDN. (student docs)

I was going to get a digital type just like the others said that either recorded directly to mini-disc or let you download. I think I would prefer the download..

how bout this.. I could record all the lectures and take notes and build a webiste for my class and charge them all 5 bucks a piece to use it.. I'll be rich *laughs manically*

Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

Digital ones would be nice but tapes would work better for me because i'd like to keep my subjects separated.

The only problem with setting the recorder on the instructor's desk is that my instructors WALK everywhere, and plus i'd have to get out of my seat to turn it off and that can be disruptive.

I'll try to sit in the first 2 row but if i happen to be running late that might not necessarily happen.

I have an Olympus one that I bought at Circuit City for 39.99. It has voice control activation or normal. Mine does not pick up any background noises. I can sit in the back of the room and I can still hear the teacher. I love mine!!

Hissy

+ Add a Comment