A decent way to record lectures

Hey, im about to enter my second year of university and in hindsight i think i would have achieved a higher percent if i had of recorded the lectures.
My question is, could anybody recommend a specific dictaphone or app for my iPhone that would do the job effectively. My course is quite big so the lecture rooms are 100+ people, i know that means id need something fairly decent.
I'm sure this has been asked before but i can't find an appropriate article telling me what i want to know, also the research I've done so far has lead me to olympus dictaphones which are around £50-£100 - which is a little out of my current price range. Id rather make an informed decision than waste money and have to buy something twice, or maybe there is some genius app out there i could use?
thank you for any help provided.
TLDR: i need a decent dictaphone, any help is appreciated.

Reply 1

Engineer2015

Research on Youtube and Amazon reviews. I used an iphone 4 once to recorded a lecturer who was sitting 2 meters away, the sound quality was perfect. In lectures, i would pickup the sound from turning pages, noisy people and gaps in the audio due to the distance.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 2

Arihc

We have some big lecture halls, and we are allowed to leave dictaphones on the lecture podium or front desk, which definitely helps if your recorder is a slightly cheaper one, so may be that would be an option?

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Reply 3

JsConcernedMum

I have an old Olympus dictaphone that was very expensive at the time, but I have seen recently on ebay etc for almost no money. It recorded really well and I have used it in university lectures during open days. If people make a lot of noise around you then obviously that will be louder than the lecturer as it's closer to the mic (unless as Arihc suggested you put it at the front). I wouldn't chose to sit right at the back obviously, but you don't have to be right at the front either. It's an Olympus DM-20.

I'd love to know if anyone has got on well using one of the apps that will simultaneously record the audio and also let you write notes, syncing the two together. Was looking at AudioNote maybe for an iPad but I guess the quality of the recording depends on the platform you're using.

Reply 4

gvu_3

thanks for the advice, I've also seen a few apps that looked quite good but unsure if my phone would work well with them as it is a bit battered. I can't say all lecturers appreciate people going to the front and recording (i don't understand why as all we're trying to do is get the most out of the extortionate tuition fees, but lets not take a trip down that road) so thats put me off using my phone because the mic is probably pretty dire in such a situation.

eBay is what im going with at the moment, got a few on my watch list and they are going for a fraction of the price when new. Should of thought of this really as second hand stuff really doesn't bother me. And also i can refer to reviews etc of the product helping to give me an idea of how well it will do the job which is extra handy.

Thanks again for your help :smile: