Digital Voice Recorders

College Majors Musical Theater Major
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<p>I've just finished rereading the gifts for MTer's folder, and did not find my question there, so here it goes. Prefacing the question, my daughter loses things... she's lost a cell phone, digital camera, the ring we got her for her 16th birthday and two, yes, two IPods. Our policy now is that we do not buy her anything expensive that she can lose - we will give her money to get something, but she has to decide what she will spend the money on, knowing her past history (she has not chosen to replace any of these with any of this money). Anyway, I remember reading about digital voice recorders, which I think are a great idea for voice lessons. Right now, she tapes them, but buying tapes adds up, as well as takes up space, so I'd like to go the digital route. She also needs something better than a cassette recording for her accompaniment tape for Unifieds, and needs to provide copies of prerecorded songs to at least one school prior to her audition.</p>

<p>All the discussion in the gifts for MTer's is referring to devices that are compatible with mp4 players. Does anyone know anything about the digital recording devices you can pick up at Staples or Office Max, per se. From what I've read on websites, with these devices, you can download your 'session' onto your computer, then burn a CD. Has anyone used this method? I'd appreciate what you have to offer.</p>

<p>By the way, for those of you who mentioned getting the extended warranties when buying your IPods, I completely agree. My older daughter has not lost hers (and actually takes very good care of it), but about every 9-11 months, it seems to break. When they can't fix it, she gets a new one, which is usually an upgraded model. Yea, it's pain to deal with, but I think she's been through at least two upgrades that didn't cost her anything. But as of now, we will not be buying the MT daughter another IPod - if she feels she needs one, she will have to buy it. She's lucky with the digital camera - we got her older sister a new one for Christmas as a 'going to London-abroad' present, and she kindly gave her old one (it's three years old) which is somewhat outdated, but still working, to her sister. The bet amongst family members is how long will it be until she loses it!</p>

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<p>teri, you can actually get very inexpensive ($30 or so) digital voice recorders at RadioShack, though I wouldn't vouch that the sound quality would be good enough to serve as accompaniment at an audition! My D is a hs junior, so we decided not to invest in an iPod that can accomodate a voice recorder, etc. until next year, when she might need something like that. (She has an iPod nano, which is not compatible with a recorder, apparently.) My husband found the inexpensive recorder at Radio Shack and it has been working really well in use at voice lessons, both for recording her voice to chart progress and, more commonly, to record her teacher's accompaniment so she can practice at home.</p>

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<p>Hi! We have 2 of these digital recorders. One- an individual digital recorder- I bought for my daughter before she went to CAP last summer (they recommended something to record with for practice). She rarely used it but it does record pretty well. The problem became remembering to take it and the download process was a little bit complicated overall. We have used it since to record my sons voice lessons.</p>

<p>We just purchased the MicroMemo from XtremeMac which is an Ipod attachment. It was around 60$ I think. We gave it to my D for Xmas. (She also got a new Ipod). I think the sound quality is very good. We have now used it to record her accompaniment music for her NYU audition next week. It is easy to record (her teacher playing) and then burn that onto a CD. It is less complicated than the individual recorder noted above is. </p>

<p>Hope this helps!
MikksMom</p>

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<p>Lisa, have you guys tried to download the accompaniment to your computer, then burn it to a CD yet? I'm hoping that process will yield a better quality than recording on a tape recorder, then playing a tape back on a boom box.</p>

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<p>check the internet for prices. We bought a digital recorder for our daughter for christmas and it was considerable cheaper on the net with free shipping & no tax. (amazon). She got one that has a usb connection that plugs into the computer. Loves it.</p>