Great Transcriptions » Digital Recorders: What You Should Look For When Buying

Yesterday, I decided to do a current search on digital recorders and I learned some good news: We’re getting more and paying less. I did a search on Olympus and found that for the same amount we were paying a year ago, we are actually getting longer recording times.

Then I went to a couple of local sources for purchasing recorders and found out the same thing.It occurred to me that this is a new technology and that some of you may be a little wary of trying it. It’s kind of like going from the standard typewriter to the electric typewriter. It was new and we had a lot of new stuff to learn. Then again, when going from an electric typewriter to a computer. More new stuff to learn. And now along comes this new technology and there’s more stuff to learn.

Well, learning is good, isn’t it? I think so. I love to learn. I urge you to embrace this new technology. Using a digital recorder to record your information product, presentations or teleseminars, will allow you to finish your product in less than 25% of the time it would take you to type it yourself. If you get your audio transcribed, all you have to do is edit it and you can have your product completed in less than a week.

Here are some guidelines you should consider when purchasing a digital recorder:

1. You must be able to download your recording to your computer. Some of the less expensive recorders are not “downloadable.” You need to be able to transfer your recording through the Internet in order to send it to a transcription service or even if you want to transcribe it yourself.

2. Although most recorders come with internal microphones, it is best to have the capability to attach an external microphone. External microphones work better to record presentations or to record from a distance. Additionally, you can elect to use a lavaliere microphone for yourself and not be hampered with holding the recorder. Or, if you are recording more than one person, such as if you are interviewing someone, you can get an attachment which allows you to hook up two microphones.

3. The recorder should have at least four hours of available recording time using the high quality recording setting. You want to make sure the recorder has enough time to record a full presentation before having to be downloaded to the computer.

When I checked out the Olympus recorder on the Internet, I found a very good quality recorder for around $100.00. I also found that you could buy a similar model at Radio Shack in the Los Angeles area at the same price. Other locations such as Circuit City, Best Buy and Frys may also have them.

For those of you who live in the Los Angeles area, I found an Olympus and a Marantz at Samy’s Cameras which uses a flash card and can get you as much as 4G-8G of storage space. Both of these sell for just under $400.00. The Sony or the Edirol are also good recorders, and have similar capabilities and prices.

Buying a recorder is much like buying a blender or a computer. Although it’s wise to buy as much as your pocketbook allows, at the same time, you don’t need to buy more than you will use. Why spend the extra money.

A digital recorder is small and easy to use. On it you can record all of your information products, plus your presentations, blogs or articles.

So, go ahead, embrace this new technology. Since using a digital recorder to record your information product will save you so much time and get your information product to the market faster in order to make more $$$ for you, it makes sense. It’s just learning a new technology, like when we came from the standard typewriter, to the electric typewriter, to the computer. Learning can be fun.