wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi, My organization is considering making recordings of
conferences/lectures that we do and one our people attend (Our main
thing is disseminating information relating to aquaculture). I am
trying to get them into it but since they barely have a concept of it
they aren't willing to put much money into it yet.

So. I am trying to track down an easy (I am the "techy-est" here,
kidna sad), cheap recording solution which I thought would be something
like a Mic and mp3 player/recorder (like some of iRiver's). But i
wanted to get some input from people that knew what they were talking
about (unlike me). The settings are usually such that putting a mic
right by the speaker isn't an option (I've tried, its always something,
either they don't want it by them, they walk around when they talk,
etc) so any suggestions of Mics that can pick up voice from a slight
distance (say i am sitting in the front row) and an MP3 player that can
store anywhere from 1-5 hours of reasonable quality sound. These
recordings don't have to be professional (those wanting to listen to
seminars about Shrimp in South East Asia etc is pretty small) but they
do need to be discernable.

I've done this. The best hands-off solution I've come up with is a PZM and
a Minidisc recorder using the LP4 speed. Tape the microphone to the front
wall about 8 inches from the floor. Yes, the mike will be behind the
speaker and not far from the floor. This will "shelve" the response down at
about 100Hz, just right for speech.

It's possible to get better results, but not without a lot of effort and
experimentation. The recommended method will work the 1st time--every time.

Norm Strong