Awkward silences are the bane of any conversation (or audio recording for that matter). Sony’s ICD-BM1DR9 Digital Voice Recorder nixes these hollow spaces in time with voice-operated recording (VOR) technology.
With the feature installed, the recorder can detect longer-than-usual pauses in a recording and will stop recording these silences until it hears someone talking again. This eliminates lost memory and saves you some time in the sound editing phase. The recorder can also handle up to 694 minutes of recording time on the provided 32 MB memory stick. Feel free to re-use the stick as many times as you want, just as long as your remember to transfer your files onto your computer.
As an added perk, the recorder comes with Dragon Naturally Speaking speech recognition software, which takes your audio recordings and turns them into written, printable documents. To do so, all you have to do is plug your recorder into your computer and let it do its magic. The resulting transcripts can really come in handy when you need to provide minutes or action lists from a meeting.
The software does a good job of keeping things organized on your computer. You can create up to 340 dictation folders and categorize them so you’ll know exactly where to go for business memos, lectures and more. It also has functionality that lets you choose audio folders that you want sent to a specific location on your computer.
If you’re going to ride solo and use the device to record only your own voice, you can take advantage of its overwrite correction function. If you make a mistake or stutter, you can rewind to a location on the file and re-dictate from the last correct word that was recorded. So even if yours is the only voice on a recording, you can make sure everything sounds smooth and engaging.