Voice recorders on the iPhone

Posted by Gavin Brockis on Friday 19 June 2009 at 4:10pm
Tags: accessibility | delivery | e-learning | microphones | mobile | podcasts | sound recordings |

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All iPhone users yesterday benefited from a free software upgrade, which among many new features includes a new application for recording and delivering voice memos.

The Voice Memo application is the only completely new application added with this software upgrade, though it has a couple of competitors in the form of previously released audio recording apps like Retronyms Recorder. While the new app is free and embedded into the OS - as opposed to the 59p download of the Retronyms equivalent - the features differ slightly.

Formats: Both apps record in mono. Voice Memo records to Apple Lossless m4a format which, while a lossless compressed format, is not yet a standard delivery format. It can simply be transcoded to wav or mp3 without loss though, so this is a sensible space-saving feature, as it halves file size with no audio degradation at all. Retronyms recorder records to a 16 bit  uncompressed aiff file, either at 44.1kHz or 8Kz (high or low quality), and then delivers as either aiff or mp3 version (selectable by the recipient). Both these formats are standard in most audio fields, though mp3 is a lossy format, and the 8kHz aiff setting is pretty low quality. Uncompressed 44.1k aiff and  m4a sound identical to my ear, as you would expect from lossless data compression.

Delivery: Voice Memo gives the options of emailing or messaging your recording - simple and effective options, but possibly limiting in file size depending on your and your recipients' file size email and message limits [edit: initial tests suggest a 2 minute email limit]. For large file transfer you must connect by a cable to your own iTunes library and sync devices. This does slightly tether and limit you to your own computer. Retronyms Recorder similarly allows emailing of recordings, but rather than mailing a large file, it uploads the recording to a temporary storage point on a web server [limit 5Mb], encoded as both an aiff and mp3 version, and mails the recipient a link to it. Recordings must be downloaded within ten days, for at that point they are wiped from the server.

Most notably, the Retronyms app also allows WiFi sync for large files, and in this process the phone effectively becomes a temporary WiFi internet server, handing out a unique URL to clients. This is an ingenious, very elegant and powerful solution, and a feature that pleasantly surprised me and a few colleagues, once we realised what it was doing! This feature allows fast wireless transfer via the web through any computer's browser. Recording time is limited only by the phone's available memory.

Metering: Voice Memo sports a stylish replica of a VU meter, but the response of the meter is sluggish, and it does not accurately indicate when distortion occurs. Voice Memo also flips the display orientation when you turn the phone over to have the microphone at the top, which is a nice touch. Retronyms Recorder has a set of accurate bar-graph meters, showing the levels for the last couple of seconds - less attractive, but much more useful.

The Retronyms recording display:

Additionally, Voice Memo allows you to trim the beginning and end of your recording, and choose a label from a list of preset choices (Interview, Lecture etc) or give it a unique name, wheareas Retronyms Recorder allows only simple file naming - though this is quite sufficient. One other very potentially useful feature is that Voice Memo continues recording even when you exit the program, and only stops when you press 'stop', allowing you to use other phone features while recording.

Verdict: Both applications record in excellent quality. However, while the Apple app scores in style and ease of use, and has better editing and labelling features, the superior delivery tools and native aiff format of the Retronyms Recorder give it the edge for me in terms of flexibility, especially in handling longer recordings. I can envisage using it in combination with a Macally iVoice III microphone for location interview recording etc. as the subsequent wireless transfer to a DAW for editing would be relatively simple, and its metering is more accurate and informative. Apple's Voice Memo I would use for quick memos (as the name might suggest) sound notes, and audio messaging, to which the email + m4a formula is better suited. Both are equally valid uses, and both apps are neatly - if differently - implemented solutions. On balance I'm happy to have parted with 59p for Retronyms elegant little program, even though I also now have a free alternative.

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