Need recommendation for sound recorder for Android phone

Sue Anderson · Post by **Sue Anderson** » February 27th, 2018, 2:37 pm

Hi, Does anybody have recommendations for a simple to use, good sound quality voice recording app for an android phone? I volunteered for frog monitoring this spring in our local nature program http://frogsurvey.org/ and I would like to be able record frog calls on my phone. Since frog monitoring takes place a half hour after sunset, i.e. in the dark, the program needs to be simple to use.

Thanks!

Post by **chocoholic** » February 27th, 2018, 5:06 pm

Mine has a built-in recorder; have you double checked to see if yours already has one tucked away somewhere? (Sorry if this is insultingly obvious! Mine was buried in a Samsung Apps folder, I think.)

That sounds like a great project!

Sue Anderson · Post by **Sue Anderson** » February 27th, 2018, 6:51 pm

Hi Laurie Anne, Thanks for the suggestion. My phone did come with a pre-loaded app, but it didn't work for some reason, and so I deleted it. I was hoping Audacity had a mobile app, but apparently not. I could just record video, which would capture the sound, but I'd like plain audio which I could transfer to my computer for reference.

GrayHouse · Post by **GrayHouse** » February 28th, 2018, 6:55 am

Sue,
There are dozens of these types of apps - just search the Google Play Store for 'voice recorder'.

The one I've used is Smart Recorder by SmartMob. It's simple to use and very popular. It allows you to skip recording the (near) silent periods if your target sound is intermittent and surrounded by near-silence. I think people use it for recording their sleep talk, but you can turn off that feature if you don't need it. It is free, though ad-supported.

Many of the other listed apps would probably serve you just as well. The quality of the recording is going to be determined more by the quality of your phone's mic than by the software that you use.

-Ian

YouTube · Post by **Darvinia** » February 28th, 2018, 10:46 am

Also, as an alternative, it is possible to extract the audio as an .mp3 from a video. As you will be transferring the phone files to your computer you can do it there and just retain the audio. I do this in Ubuntu but there must be ways for other OS.

Post by **aradlaw** » February 28th, 2018, 11:20 am

I use Parrot for note taking, seems to work well. Available for free on Google Play Store.

Sue Anderson · Post by **Sue Anderson** » February 28th, 2018, 3:05 pm

Thanks, everyone, for the suggestions! Confronted with "dozens of apps," to choose from, I just freeze... I'm intrigued by Bev's suggestion to extract the sound from the video; if I could figure this out, it would be a solution.

YouTube · Post by **Darvinia** » March 1st, 2018, 11:42 am

If you can't find a reasonable way to extract the audio I'm happy to do it for you. You can email me the video (or a link to it online) and I'll send back the audio.

Sue Anderson · Post by **Sue Anderson** » March 1st, 2018, 2:28 pm

Darvinia wrote: ↑March 1st, 2018, 11:42 am If you can't find a reasonable way to extract the audio I'm happy to do it for you. You can email me the video (or a link to it online) and I'll send back the audio.

Bev, My goodness, what a nice thing to offer to do!

Thank you! Actually, I took Ian's suggestion and downloaded SmartMob, and it seems like that program will work out for me. So far, no frog sounds to record. The frog season in our locality starts (supposedly) on February 25th, but we're told the night temperature has to be at least 45 degrees (Fahrenheit) before the frogs start calling, and night temperatures are still in the 30's.

YouTube · Post by **Darvinia** » March 2nd, 2018, 10:18 am

I'm glad you found a solution.