The Best Free And Paid iPhone Voice Recorder Apps
Wow! When it comes to the voice recording apps available on the iTunes store we are really overwhelmed by the huge amount there is! It only takes you an attempt to go to the iTunes app store and set the search filter on voice recorder to notice that there are hundreds of apps just waiting for you to download. But there is a balance you need to achieve and trust me, it takes a while to see which ones are really worth to get (or even take a look at, actually). Just to make it easier for you we take it upon ourselves to shed some light on this, and we will commence with?analyzing?the matter via 2 different columns. The one category we shall discuss is the one of the best free digital voice recorder app, and, of course, the second one nominates the best paid app of this sort. Once we chose the first rankings of both categories, we will briefly give you a glimpse into a top 5 of the apps. It has taken a while and a lot of enthusiasm on our side to try on a good number of voice recording apps, and we have also gathered users’ feedback to make the “analysis” more thorough. Let’s scroll down our discovery and conclusion and see what we have decided to?advertise?as our chosen apps (and of course, highlight why this is). We are positive that you yourself have a series of apps you find the best, so we are looking forward to hearing which these are and most important, why. Hope we can agree on the topic and help you discover new ones you think you really have to try.
Yes, iPhones and iPads have more and more become the?center?of the universe for most of their users and can sometimes even replace your best friend. We have grown so much attached to our iDevice lately that we seem to attribute any useful feature to them and try to adapt their usage to any need we might have. We are all so particularly fond of our?iPhone and iPads that we find them masters of the universe and perhaps even the “Bond” of the gadget world. They can save us from any?embarrassing?situation we might let ourselves fall into, and can take us to the highest peaks of success as well. When it comes to recording, these devices come in and do their job better than we can imagine. But this doesn’t mean that they are however suitable for anything whatsoever. For instance, to make it a bit clearer, if you are present at a large meeting, a conference or perhaps an?university?course, then we do advise to use a digital voice recorder instead of an iDevice app. Unless the audio is very loud or the room very very quiet (which is almost never the case when it comes to this type of manifestations, let’s be honest), then just go with a digital voice recorder. Be safe. On the other hand, the iPhones or iPads can perfectly be the tool you need if you are in the presence of a smaller group or want to record an one person dictation. They work very well for recording an interview, for example, or just be handy when you are in a small brainstorming session with a few of your colleagues.
Best FREE iPhone Digital Voice Recorder App ? PocketDictate from NCH
Let’s talk now about the Australia originated company that has become so famous and implicitly valuable when it comes to audio related software titles for Mac and Windows. We are referring to App Store. Not only were they so popular before, but now that they have added iPhone to their list, ?they will most definitely be even more sought after. Do you remember PocketDictate? This is a very innovative audio voice recording app that provides basic simple function, making it therefore quite popular, but not that very special you might think at the beginning, on the other hand. Why do we say that? First of all, especially because its functionality is so basic, it only does the minimum of tasks you can think of, which are to record, pause, stop and play. Nothing less and nothing more. Yet. What NHC realized would take it out of the ordinary would be to transpire a digital dictaphone. This is how they made the difference with PocketDictate. This dictaphone recorder simply takes the leap from the normal recorder. The main difference between the two would be that you can use the dictaphone recording feature to simply go back in the audio file and do two different things here, depending on your final purpose. You can either insert audio parts within the recording, or, on the other hand, you can alternatively bring amendments to the recording by overwriting audio from anywhere in the audio recording. And this is exactly what PocketDictate can do for you, and costless too. But this isn’t all that NHC brought new to the game, and the list goes on with other features which we will briefly post in the next lines.
Among these new features, please note the following: recording in a choice of compressed wave .WAV or .DCT audio formats, sounding a tone when the recording starts (configurable) and implicitly?sounding a tone when the recording ends (configurable), voice activation with variable activation level (which records only when you speak), and also adjusting the recording level manually according to your own liking. But there are also other features included here, such as?Auto deletion of files by age (configurable), sending files via FTP, email or to iTunes, and our personal fav -?encryption of audio files making the app HIPPA?compliant. Yes, what not to love.
We believe at this stage that we have given you enough (sustainable) reasons and arguments to opt for the PocketDictate. It represents a great tech?endeavor?to make the recording process easier for you and we can undoubtedly state that a lot of work has been put into this concept. So if you really need an app of a digital voice recorder that also functions as a dictaphone, PocketDictate is what you need.
Express Scribe is one of the most used transcription software programs worldwide, and and it has been also wrote by NHC. If you are into digital dictations and transcription then this is no news for you. However, be informed that both the .wav and .dct audio formats created by PocketDictate are compatible with Express Scribe so if you use a transcriptionist or transcription service to process your digital dictation, then you can send them either file format. Great job. If you want to use it to email your audio, then we highly suggest to use the?.dct audio format, as this is the one that produces smaller sized audio files. Exactly what you need.
Best Paid Universal iOS Voice Recording App ? AudioNote from Luminant Software
Our best rated paid recording app is AudioNote and the reasons why are quite clear to us. So if we were initially talking about PocketDictate as the number one free app for voice recording, then we present you its competitor in the second previously mentioned category. This is another app seriously thought about by its developer, who came up with a great idea. He started by questioning the other things we do while recording interviews and meetings. The answer he came up with is taking notes in this case, or actually drawing whatever comes to your mind if you are sitting in a really boring meeting. Or doodling you may call it. The innovative part comes in right now. It connects the notes you take or the drawings with the recorded audio, so that when you play back the audio you can just simply click or touch on your notes and the audio starts playing back exactly from the time you made the note or drew the doodle. This is really cool! The app doesn’t cost that much at all taking into consideration its awesomeness and can actually be regarded as the equivalent of the LiveScribe SmartPen, whose price is a lot higher however. So this is why AudioNote ranks highest in the best paid iOS voice recording app top. As a tip, it works best on the iPad, and the reason behind this is that the larger screen for taking notes (using either a stylus, or the traditional keyboard).
AudioNote has a basic recording functionality spectrum, so this differentiates it from PocketDictate quite a lot. We can exactly say that because it doesn’t have an incorporated digital dictaphone feature it is not as good, primarily because it doesn’t necessarily need it in the first place and the?insert or overwrite features would not typically be used during the recording of a meeting, of a conference, lecture, interview or anything else that comes to mind.
Following the same structure in presenting the features that AudioNote has, we shall highlight the following. Firstly, handwritten notes linked with audio are the pillar of the whole app. ?You can easily share?Audio via wifi, save audio into folders if you wish, convert notes to PDF, simple text and even HTML with your drawings included via web gui across wifi. Moreover,?Audio can be downloaded via wifi web gui or emailed from the app (.caf format) and there is a lite version available so you can try before you buy AppStore.
As reported by one of its users,?Pocket Dictate is a great and easy to use app and its dictation features definitely make it stand out from the hundreds of basic voice recorder apps for iOS. It is especially nice to use as it capture thoughts and ideas on your iPhone, so just give it a go.
Although these are the 2 primary apps I wanted to bring to your attention, let’s just have a quick scroll across the other 5 apps we have for you.
The first one on this additional list is?SpeakEasy by Zarboo Software.?It is again a very easy to use app, and what it does besides?record reminders, notes and pretty much everything that your built-in iPhone mic can pick up, is that it gives you the chance to play these recorded files back too. Speaking of easy to use – its user interface is so simple that you simply have to tap the big green mic when you want to start recording and then tap on the red icon to stop. You can also continue recording, or play the?recently recorder file back, save the file or delete it once the recording has been stopped. Options unlimited (approximatively).
The second one is the?Audio Recorder by Peerium. Beside the other common feature buttons it has in common with all the other mentioned apps, it has something fairly new in the sense that?it allows you to send your recordings via email to your own email account or to any contact found in the address book of your iPhone with just a tap of a button away In order to do this however you will need to configure your email account settings under the Audio Recorder settings, so make sure you do this first.
The?Recorder by Retronyms has also caught our eye and can be placed in this top, along the rest. It can also send your recordings via email and, like the others, and has a big Record button which you just need to tap and the app immediately begins recording. What this particular app has special is that it can record your outgoing calls at the price of an extra fee, but this is probably a small price to pay for what it offers.
The?iTalk Recorder by Griffin Technology will surely be into your top preferences too, as it is in ours. If you want to record lectures, meetings, interviews and other possible conferences in high-quality, the iTalk Recorder is the one you need to choose. Moreover, it allows you to select the sound quality of the recording between Good (11.025kHz), Better (22.05 kHz) and Best (44.10 kHz), so just take this info and see if it makes a difference for you. You can share your recordings via email, of course, and if you are using iTalk Recorder on your iPhone 4, then check this out. Its graphics are updated to take advantage of Retina Display, and it also has an auto-noise?cancellation?feature.
The last app we want to bring to your attention today is?Note2Self by Web Information Solutions, and this one makes your process very simple and straight to the point as well.?It offers you the option to send a recently recorded file to your email inbox or to any email address of your choice. Firstly, you can do this via email and afterwards you have the option to save the file in your iPhone during the process as a second step. One of the features it encompasses – and perhaps what makes it so special – is that it uses the?accelerometer of your iPhone to start recording. You will therefore have to place your iPhone next to your ear when you want to make a phone call and then?Note2Self automatically?starts recording. Once you are done with the call and you immediately put it back, then the recording stops.
I am sure you can come up with a lot of apps you have found as well so just give us the heads up if anything else has caught your attention, we will be delighted to try. But what are you waiting for right now, just start recording if you are an?aficionado. Good luck!
PS. If you want to use your iPhone as a micophone you can follow our full guide here.
