Digital Voice Recorders

AtomBomb

My wife has to transcribe meetings for her job. I'm not sure what she uses now, but I think it's probably just a micro cassette recorder. She wants to get a digital one. Here's what it needs to be able to do:

Pick up a table full of people. She doesn't sit in on the meetings, so she needs to be able to hear everyone clearly. It's not just to jog her memory.

Easily transfer the recording to her pc. Ideally, she should just plug in a usb cord, have the recorder come up as a removable drive, and transfer the .wav's or mp3's or whatever into the folder she wants.

Ease of use for the people doing the recording. Something like an obvious light when it's recording, so they don't end up handing her an empty recorder.

Umm, there's probably more. If I get any more details I'll add them. I thought it would be good to get advice from people that have used specific models, as I've only used a couple (and I don't remember which ones) and the quality varied widely.

Thanks for the help.

Wezoin

I have an Olympus, and it's really great in terms of features, however, the sound quality is a bit bleh, but I think that has to do with the size it has to be in, so I'd say look for one with the option to use an external mic

embrik

How much can you spend?
If you want something really nice and easy to use, consider something like the Edirol R-09, but at $400, it ain't cheap. Some of the features though: Records Wav & MP3, has easy to use buttons, features a nice red record light, etc. It saves to SD memory cards and takes AA batteries. Really a well designed device.

AtomBomb

I was thinking that an external mic (or maybe 2 if the unit supported it) could be good. What are good microphones for that purpose? I understand a little about music/performance mics, but not so much this. I think she'd want something fairly small and unobtrusive.

I'm not sure what her budget is, but I'm guessing that $400 is beyond it. I'll run that one past her anyways, it does look really, really nice. She works for a non-profit, so the cheaper the better. To a point anyway, there's no reason to buy something that will be endlessly frustrating for $50 when the $150 version would make her job easier.

Fristle

Personally, I've been waiting years for some voice recorder to come out that can take dictation straight to text, and not a digital audio file. Either that or have a simple interface to dump the digital audio file to a voice recognition app on the home computer. My father is in his 60's and never learned to touch-type, but he spends hours transcribing his own voice notes into text notes. I've always thought there ought to be a better way.