[Macworld.com]

In my entry yesterday, I suggested that reader Elizabeth Kimball use iMovie, GarageBand, or HairerSoft's Amadeus II to record audio on her laptop. A few readers pitched in with suggestions for other applications Elizabeth might use. [more]

[SPOOF]

Despite the bad etiquete of cross posting...this from the original Mac 911 this followed up to.
My continuation question on this is...
If one is to do LOTS of recordings (say, my classes, or a long speach/question time), what options are there that will record directly to a compressed format such as mp3 or aac to save HD space?
Likewise, if one is to be typing, what is a good, cheap, and SMALL mic (doesn't matter if directional or omni) that could plug straight into the line in jack on the mac? All of the myriads of generic PC mics aren't amplified such as the Mac tends to require, unless you get the iMic as a seperate input, which is yet another bit to carry around and set up, and thus why I search for just a single simple mic to plug in.

[xenocog]

If Elizabeth has Office 2004, the Notebook function in Word has exactly what I imagine she'd need: as you take notes, it records, and with each "Return" the recording is "location-stamped" so that you can return to that location in your notes and hear what was said at that point. It's worked very well for me in lectures (I'm a student), and the built-in mic on my iBook recorded adequately. I've also used an iMic with acceptable results. I am assuming voice recordings, not music.
Hope this helps,
xenocog
PS. Student price for Office is (I think) $149.00.

[I_like_Macs]

In reply to:

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Likewise, if one is to be typing, what is a good, cheap, and SMALL mic (doesn't matter if directional or omni) that could plug straight into the line in jack on the mac? All of the myriads of generic PC mics aren't amplified such as the Mac tends to require, unless you get the iMic as a seperate input, which is yet another bit to carry around and set up, and thus why I search for just a single simple mic to plug in.

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i'm sorry i cannot help you but could perhaps offer some insight. the good and cheap mics are mostly of the electret type, which require some 'bias power' or a DC offset. this means one needs to use a audio-to-USB device, such as the m-audio transit. the griffin imic is small enough so carrying it around shouldn't be such a burden. although the imic is too noisy for serious audio recording (the time-domain response has a good amount of a noise floor), it should be fine for casual recording.

[edbeach]

Tagging on to CB's response to Elizabeth Kimball's question, as well as to the question about microphones... A mic clipped to the interviewee's lapel or collar will render a significantly better quality recording than the internal mic of a computer. I purchased Radio Shack's model 33-3013 "Clip-On Electret Condenser Microphone" (AKA "Ultra-Miniature Tie-Clip Microphone") to use with both my Powerbook and with my miniDV video camera, and am quite pleased with it. It is a good quality omnidirectional lapel microphone, and sells for around $25. It can be plugged directly in to the Powerbook's microphone/line-in port thus avoiding the use of the iMic (see earlier post). This mic was enthusiastically recommended in a book that I recently saw on amateur video production, so I figured I'd give it a try. I haven't compared its real world quality to the famous Sennheiser MKE-2 lapel mic used on Broadway, but at $25 for the Radio Shack mic versus $400+ for the Sennheiser, the decision of which to buy was not difficult for me. :-) The RS mic uses a #357A button-cell battery, which is easily affordable and the user should always have an extra on hand. Note: Be sure to turn the mic switch on to activate it before recording, and then turn it off when you are done in order to conserve the battery power!!! The RS mic comes attached to a 1.37 meter long cord, so if it is not to be used with a wireless mic transmitter, then an extension cable is needed; I purchased a 6 meter long RS cable for $6 that works fine, though it is quite thin and like the mic should be treated with TLC. A weakness in such a setup is that the two cords connect with 1/8" mini-plug jacks/plugs which eventually become prone to poor connections -- a problem that can be detected while recording by using headphones to monitor what is being recorded. Despite this potential problem, the price of the RS mic is hard to beat and you really can't expect more for the money. If you need multiple mics on various interviewees, then ask at your local Radio Shack dealer for a suggested solution. When using an external mic, be sure to set the input of the Sound control panel to line-in. I hope this works as well for you as it did for me.