RE: [OT] - capture sound to MP3 ?

[Clark Guy <guy.clark@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

HI, Alex!

I'm a bit behind in my reading, so I don't know if anyone else replied to
this (none in the next half dozen posts, anyway!)  Many MP3 players also
incorporate voice recorders in them.  My Creative Labs Muvo certainly does,
and this provides a quick and dirty way to record voices and get them into
a
computer.

The Muvo has a USB link, and looks like a disk drive to the computer.  It's
also a rather small device, hardly bigger than a stack of two dozen
business
cards (if that!)  The MP3 player/recorder could either be placed on the
podium, or in the pocket of the speaker, and let run.  Mine has 256Mb of
storage capacity which translates to about 18 hours !!! Of recording time!
Audio quality is lousy in this mode for music, but perfectly adequate for
speech.

I used the Muvo in the pocket technique while conversing with my (now) late
dad during his last few months, and the sound quality is virtually as good
as the old open reel recordings he used to make of family gatherings
(except
for music, however).

They're also pretty cheap these days.

Otherwise, you might be able to make adequate recordings via the line input
on the sound card that likely is in your computer.  Patch into the churches
sound system, and use any number of free/cheap audio recording/editing
programs.  (I'd probably use High Criteria Software's Total Recorder
program, because it's good, cheap, able to record at a specific time for a
specific amount of time, and save the result as anything from a wave file
to
MP3s (you have to download a copy of the MP3 codecs like the Lame encoder
or
the Blade encoder to do MP3s).  I wouldn't record high quality audio using
the internal sound card, but again, for voice and perhaps general music, it
might be adequate.

Hope this helps!

Guy Clark

-----Original Message-----
From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Alex Monaghan
Sent: Monday, January 16, 2006 4:22 PM
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: [ukha_d] [OT] - capture sound to MP3 ?

Sorry for the OT post, please feel free to reply off-list unless you think
this may be of use to others.

I'm looking at recording the sermon 20 to 30 mins max (possibly the whole
service depending on feasibility) from our local church to MP3 or similar
so
that it can be distributed electronically. Getting the audio is no problem
as we can get this direct out of the mixing desk.

In an ideal scenario I'd have a PC with ADSL and upload to the web
immediately after the service, however I doubt I'd get the budget for this
:)

We already record to tape, however the person responsible doesn't have
sufficent equipment or the time to convert this to mp3, so I guess I'm
looking for a simple audio capture device with easy PC download or a cheap
PC with CD burner / USB memory stick.

Anyone do anything similar ? Any suggestions ?