Things to use a voice recorder for?

If you’re still in school…. lectures!

If not… um, a way to verify verbal contracts?

It is now your new favorite secret weapon. Any time you are having one of those conversations that you have a gut feeling is not going well and about to break bad….you whip out the recorder and shove it their face and declare…“would you like to repeat that!!”

Quickly will end most if not all disputes.

I had a boss that I would have loved to have one during our conversations. “But you told me not to send that.” “No, I didn’t.” Whips out voice recorder and plays it back. Ah ha!

I use mine as the closest thing I have to having additional RAM and a bigger hard drive installed in my brain. Just to record things I want to remember. Sometimes I use it when I hear something on the radio in the car that I like and want to remember to look for.

good ideas guys, thanks. i also do some photography and i was thinking i might implement it instead of taking notes. i guess ill have to experiment

To add to cruisers suggestion…that convo/argument that is about to go bad… Just let whoever you are going to discuss something with know upfront that you are going to record them, so that if you need to go back over what you have said you can accurately remember!

Said conversation will not come to pass.

If it did, you could really freak someone out by having a recorder going while you both listened to the other recording! They will then absolutely tuck tail! How to win friends for sure…

I use mine exactly like @lillycoyote does, then at the end of the day I transpose the recordings to a notebook. Then after 25 pages I back up the notebook digitally and physically, and file it all respectively.

I am kind of bummed that my recorder doesn’t let me release the recordings into a file outside of the recorder…but I bought mine for cheap. Not free though, ( Lucky)

I’ve used mine for lo-fi sound effects such as mimicking a VCR recording of a wedding (for a play).

@StephK is right. If you’re in college or any kind of school, ask your professor’s permission to record the lectures in class. Otherwise, keep it in your pocket and when you come up with random creative ideas for something, whether it be a story or a project or anything whip it out and record it so you don’t forget it! I’ve been thinking about buying a recorder to record ideas for short stories and things that I’ve been meaning to write.. and even college papers. I can never concentrate when I’m sitting in front of my computer but once I walk away the ideas just start pouring in…. and once I sit down to start writing them out, I completely forget them.

If you use it for lectures, it’s going to take you as long to play back as the lecture took in the first place. I can review all my class notes in two or three hours—much less time than it would take to listen a second time to, say, 15 hours’ worth of lectures.

People used to use voice recorders for a lot of things that are irrelevant or obsolete now. But there’s still some pleasure and value in preserving children’s voices, taping elderly relatives’ stories and reminiscences, rehearsing your speech or presentation, and seeing how your musical performance sounds.

@Jeruba Yes, my friend Annie suggested that I make a recording of my dad’s voice on the outgoing message one his answering machine, after he had died, because she thought maybe it was time to change it after a year and a half. I didn’t want to change the outgoing message but I did record it and the only thing I had handy was my little voice recorder. Then I lete the battery back up on the answering machine die because I wasn’t paying attention but I do have that recording and I’m so glad I do.

@Jeruba But if you record the lecture and take notes while it’s being recorded and you miss something.. you can fast forward to that point to re-listen. I still think it’s an excellent idea.

@jeruba I’m with you. I figure if I wasn’t willing or able to listen and pay attention the first time, it’s not going to be that compelling when I listen to it all over again. :) Notes are always better.

Rehearsing your speeches or musical performances.

song ideas…...

@Jeruba I used my Medieval History notes in the place of the BGM on The Elder Scrolls. It worked out pretty well.

No one’s said eavesdropping yet? When I leave a room where I’m pretty sure the remaining parties are gonna talk about me, I hide mine behind a book or something. Retrieve it later and find out what REALLY went down!

They are great for experiencing the horror of one’s own singing voice;)