Can anyone recommend a dead simple voice recorder?
I'm looking for a handheld voice recorder that's as simple to use as possible for my dad. His memory is starting to fail and I'm wondering if this would help ease some tension that that is causing.
He has trouble with tech these days so unfortunately using an app on a phone isn't an option. The hurdle of getting the phone out and app open would be too much and that's assuming he remembers to use it and HOW to use it.
I'm hoping for a device that just has a button that can be pressed or held down for short voice notes. I'm picturing the device being able to be plugged into a computer for saving the audio recordings. It would also be a huge bonus if there is some automatic transcription functionality that makes the notes searchable, though I bet there's software for that that doesn't have to come with or be part of the voice recorder itself.
I can see lots of cheap options on Amazon but before I just start buying some to try I'm hoping someone here might have some experience in this area.
I really appreciate any insight anyone is able to give.
Maybe this is silly, but perhaps some tech he had some familiarity with in his prime would be easier. Like an old tape recorder.
That doesn’t sound silly at all! That even sounds like a great idea. That’s tapping into old muscle memory.
Only downside is the medium and quality of the recordings. Digitizing might be a pain.
This is a great idea but the hindrance of digitizing the recordings would be a bit too much I think.
Also, I may have oversold his tech issues. He used to be pretty good with computers and tech in general but it's just that these days he doesn't quite get navigating a smartphone UI well. A digital recorder should be fine - the biggest problem will be getting him to remember to use it in the first place.
I did notice some of the newer cassette recorders have a usb port to transfer to mp3, though I don't know how that works exactly. But yeah, setting up a routine to check and record things every day is the challenge.
Not sure how simple they are to use, since I have been controlling my urge to impulse buy one, but "field recorder" is the term used for professional audio recorders: they're very basic and rugged devices with stereo mics that record raw audio files to a memory card and can be plugged into a computer. They're at least not any more complicated than old style microcassette recorders, with a big record button and transport controls.
Something like a TASCAM can be had for under $100, and is designed for recording music, podcasts, dictation, whatever.
I've been causally looking at these for sampling random things to make weird wavetables for synths.
The DR-05X you linked is a fantastic little machine, especially for sampling. For $100 I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
To OP's point, though, the DR-05X has a lot of "point and shoot" style simplicity. Hold Stop to power on, press Rec to enter Rec Mode, press Rec again to start recording. You can monitor just by plugging in a pair of headphones (3.5mm jack), and it's got neat features for voice memos like being able to place "marks" which work like chapters on a DVD that you can use to skip around a long recording. The files are written to a MicroSD card plugged into the device, but you can plug it in via USB Micro and have it work as an SD Card Reader to retrieve the files over USB.
That said, especially for an older person and especially if they're not very tech-literate, I would maybe lean more towards tech they already understand and are comfortable with. The old style of Sony portable tape recorders are great, and if you can find them cheap and in working order, are totally worth looking into for this option. (TCM-939, for example -- here's an ebay search)
If you have a local thrift store, it could be worth checking there too? Lots of portable voice recorders end up in those places and get mistaken for MP3 players or stuffed into random "tech" boxes without a further thought.
That looks brilliant but I do worry it might be overkill to the point of confusing. I'll keep it in mind as I see waht's out there.
Thank you and @3d12 for the info on it!
I know you said “no apps on phones”, but wouldn’t it be possible to just set up a $100 to $150 Android phone for this? You can even blow up the font size for readability, get rid of all bloatware, and place the app icon, enlarged, right in the middle of the screen. A lot of voice recorder apps on Google Play have a simple record/stop button right in the middle of the UI too. All it would take is for him to swipe up to unlock the screen (you would have to disable any other locking methods), tap the app icon, and tap the recording button. The advantage is that you could much more easily transfer the recordings to your computer and even have them transcribed later.
Seems to be ignoring that he likely struggles with the interface to the point of having difficulty even opening it.
A single large tactile button is a world of difference to a touch screen/small key pad. I would not recommend a phone at all for the situation described.
I appreciate the thought but a phone as the device really won't cut it. He actually does have a smartphone that he uses and adding a second phone that he probably will have difficulty differentiating will just cause confusion. Not to mention having to worry about keeping another device charged every day and god forbid the recording phone malfunctions and doesn't open to the app properly.
An app on his current smartphone wouldn't work because he already has difficulty remembering how to do stuff with his phone and also, having the app not immediately accessible would likely lead to forgetting to use it.
My hope is that a dedicated device, purpose built for only recording will be enough of a presence to help him remember to use it.
Taking it a step further: OP could even set up syncthing on both the device, and a local (physical) server of their choice, and the files could autosync (copy to server) whenever the father comes to visit (i.e. enters Wifi range), or comes home.
I would take the rough I approach I’ve been told with most tools. Just get something to start and see if it works. If it does great, if it’s crap then look for higher quality.
That’s assuming you can’t find someone to give more direct feedback. It’s a pretty niche scenario though so not sure what hobby/profession would be able to give ideal feedback
Yeah, my recommendation is "just buy the cheapest one that doesn't look like garbage that you can find". Voice recorders are very "old hat" at this point; they're hard to mess up.
Voice transcription services tend to be pretty hit-or-miss, where hits are "acceptable" and miss can range to "annoying but usable" to "unintelligible garbage", so I personally wouldn't bother with any of that. Especially if he doesn't have a good grip on technology to begin with. But if you want to go that route, I recently saw an odd product called plaud. It's a very tiny recorder that is ludicrously expensive, probably because it comes with some amount of AI transcription service credits included. I don't recommend it, even if the transcription is great.
Thanks for the info on transcription.
The Plaud actually looks like exactly what I would want if it weren't AI. On top of the issues with accuracy and hallucination, the idea is for the device to be for notes that will contain some very personal details and there's no way I would trust that to some random AI company.
To be fair, all computerized speech transcription is AI. We've used machine learning models to understand speech for decades now. They're a lot more complex now, but at their heart they are models trained on statistical analysis. The newer generation of transcription is decidedly more accurate than they were in the 80s and 90s when these techniques first started seeing use in commercial projects.
That being said, IIRC Plaud is using OpenAI, so I completely understand not wanting to do business with them.
It's looking like this is what I'll end up doing since nobody has direct experience. I figured this would be the case but thought it wouldn't hurt to ask.
This isn't quite what you're asking for, but what about a voice labeler? Something like this https://www.penfriendlabeller.com/penfriend-3
It's meant for blind/visually impaired users but I could see it being useful for reminders too
That does look like a brilliant device for those situations but honestly I bet my dad would just lose the labels lol.
I've never used this, but what about a bluetooth mic with something like otter.ai to transcribe on the fly?
I actually just commented this on another response that had AI - I'm just not ready to trust that AI is accurate and consistent enough (I've played with AI a good bit myself) for something of this importance and I'm definitely not going to trust an AI company with notes that will contain some very personal information.
Thanks for the suggestion though - it looks like cool tech and I hope it keeps improving.
yeah, I don't blame you. That being said, there's probably a way to do it all off-line if you want to pour a little time into over-engineering something. Just imagine... 'make a note...' and that note ends up on his new Magic Mirror that also contains the date, weather, important names w/ photos, and more :)
Yeah that's definitely something I'm thinking about. I've experimented with locally hosted AI stuff and if I set it so each audio file was transcribed three times then he could look at all three and determine which, if any, may have errors.
One thing at a time though lol