Lecture Capture

Audio Recording Program Boosted for Lecture Room Use

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 09/08/16

A company that develops recording software has introduced a new version of its flagship program optimized for students to use in lecture halls. Sonocent, which produces Audio Notetaker, has developed a set of "clear lecture" features that improve the quality of the recordings when they're played back.

Audio Notetaker is intended to be used by students to capture the lectures they're listening to on a computing device or mobile phone. The software breaks up the recording into chunks each time it detects a pause to simplify the user's job of navigating through the file. The user can also color-code sections of the recording as it's being captured, like a marker highlighting text, for locating key information. The program also lets the user import slides to link portions of the recording with sections of the presentation.

The new functionality is intended to enhance the recorded file specifically for users using a smart phone to do the recording. Four functions — noise cancellation, click reduction, low frequency cut and high frequency cut — reduce background noise. Two additional functions — thinner and brighter — rework the timbre of the voice. And volume adjustment can automatically adjust the volume based on the levels of the voice and background noise.

Although a 12-month subscription for the software is $85, the company also sells institutional multi-user licenses and "loan" licenses, which allows the school to give users access to Audio Notetaker for a pre-specified amount of time.

Among the institutions that have used it are the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and the University of Nevada, Reno, which licensed Audio Notetaker specifically for students with learning disabilities.