Conversation Recorder

October 12, 2005 2:41 PM

What is the best device to use for recording a conversation with another person? The recorder needs to be small and able to record voices while stored in my pocket.
posted by Francophone to technology (6 comments total)

THIS might be handy for you...
posted by grafholic at 3:03 PM on October 12, 2005

Hmm....secret recordings....is there another question tucked away inside this question?

How good does the quality of the recording have to be? How much of a pocket bulge is permitted? Are you open to wearing stealth eyeglass microphones?
posted by craniac at 3:09 PM on October 12, 2005

See also.
posted by heatherann at 3:15 PM on October 12, 2005

Dictaphone
posted by caddis at 3:38 PM on October 12, 2005

When I was a volunteer journalist for a computer game network, I used to take my little Creative Labs mp3 player with me. Creative packs most of their mp3 players with microphones. Since you're recording voice only (i.e. you don't have to worry about the dense sound traffic of music), your recordings are very small, and even a rather limited mp3 player can hold a dramatic amount of conversation.

I did this series of interviews using the Creative MUVO player with 128MB of RAM. When I bought it brand new, it cost me in the neighborhood of 70.00.
posted by thanotopsis at 7:23 PM on October 12, 2005

Ditto on the mp3 player, although you may want to use an external mike instead of the built in. You can very small mikes that are nest to invisible if you want to do secret recordings or just a clip-on lapel mike to record a conversation.
posted by JJ86 at 1:32 AM on October 13, 2005