Recording Chinese Lectures: Recording Devices & Speech to Text Query

[tongtaitai]

***ALSO POSTED IN GENERAL LEARNING FORUM***

Hi!

I'm about to start a chinese medicine degree course at BUCM (taught in Chinese), and am concerned that I won't be able to keep up with note taking in class. Does anyone have any tips or information on the following:

1) Recommendations for digital recording devices e.g. using ipod, or Olympus/Sony devices to record lectures. I currently have access to an 20GB Photo iPod, but would be ready to purchase an Olympus D-50 Digital Voice Recorder or similar if this gets the job done better.

2) Speech to text software - I have no experience of this sort of software, so any help would be very much appreciated. I'm looking for something that would be able to to take the recording of my lectures (given by various teachers), and turn it into text.

Thanks in advance,

Angharad

[wushijiao]

Hi Tongtaitai. Please, only post things in one section. Otherwise, there will be two conversations about the same topic going on in two different places. That makes it hard for people to follow.

Anyway, I don't the answer to your questions, but I hope somebody else will.

[character]

1) Recommendations for digital recording devices e.g. using ipod, or Olympus/Sony devices to record lectures. I currently have access to an 20GB Photo iPod, but would be ready to purchase an Olympus D-50 Digital Voice Recorder or similar if this gets the job done better.

I've been happy with the quality of recordings using an Olympus WS-300M and the optional Stereo Microphone (ME51S). The microphone is tiny and pricey but it seems to increase the sound quality. It definitely increased the recording file size by ~25%. It's certainly worth trying your iPod with a good microphone first. I like the Olympus I have, but if I was buying now I'd get one of the newer models which can hold more. It may be an issue for you that it records in WMA format, but I've been able to play recordings on Windows and Linux.

I'm looking for something that would be able to to take the recording of my lectures (given by various teachers), and turn it into text.

AFAIK, multiple voice recognition is still not available, and Chinese voice recognition products seem very hard to find. It might be better to transcribe the recordings yourself as another way of going over the material.

If you could use a Windows XP/Vista laptop during class, you might look into MS OneNote. Supposedly it allows one to record audio in sync with your notes.

[woliveri]

yeah, I bought the Olympus WS-200 digital voice recorder before coming to China last year and it's perfect for me. I recorded all my classes and downloaded them to my laptop after class.

tongtaitai, Does BUCM have a program without much Western science, TCM only?

[autumn]

I have the DS-30 and it is great (much better than any of the others I tested). If you don't need the extra capacity (ie you don't need to record more than 20 hours) then the DS-30 is just the same as the DS-50.

The only thing is that the mic is ultra sensitive so don't touch the recorder during recording.