Audio Notetaker

Audio Notetaker

• Product Names: Audio Notetaker
• Manufacturer/Publisher: Accessible Audio
• Model: v1.3

Software to explore, annotate and utilise digital voice recordings

Audio voice recordings are a really useful tool to support note-taking in lectures, interviews and meetings, but re-listening and deciphering long digital recordings afterwards is a difficult task. Audio Notetaker is a new and unique software package to help with navigating, annotating and organising digital recordings.

With Audio Notetaker you can see a visual representation of what you are listening to! And you have the tools at your fingertips to quickly review, identify and reference key sections of speech to support your research and editorial work. There are so many opportunities to use the Audio Notetaker; to help you develop content for coursework, for revision, to transcribe recordings, to keep a record of important meetings, or to compile reports. The aim of the Audio Notetaker software is to introduce new techniques to make voice recordings far more accessible and, by doing so, enormously more productive.

So how does Audio Notetaker work?

View a Flash demonstration of Audio Notetaker.

By analysing your audio files, Audio Notetaker is able to identify the natural pauses that occur in speech. It presents the audio as a visual bar, broken at each pause in the recorded speech. This enables the listener to visualise the different sections of the speech, or lecture, and navigate the recording with ease.

You can use playback to hear the speech played aloud and you can jump to any part of your recording and the speech playback will automatically start at that point. To help you annotate, you can break your recording into sections through a single key press on the PC as you listen to the recording or alternatively sections can be automatically created using the index marks taken in your digital recording. Once your section is created, Audio Notetaker offers you a text pane to type in your own notes or copy and paste from other documents or web pages. It is also easy to colour-code sections for easy identification.

In education, the software is particularly suitable for students with dyslexia, dyspraxia and other difficulties such as RSI, which affect their ability to take written notes by using any digital recorder to make the audio recordings

In the workplace, Audio Notetaker is particularly suitable for all professionals that regularly use a digital recorder and would welcome the capability to manage and reference voice files. In particular, it will be of benefit to dyslexic individuals and those experiencing RSI.

Read some of the feedback we have received from professionals and students.

Features include:

• Import WMA, WAV or MP3 files and see your recording broken down into recorded phrases and sections.
• Break your recordings down into sections (equivalent to paragraphs) to make it easier to refer to different topics within the recording.
• Index marks from the original recording are shown as new sections.
• Navigate through your recording using fast-forward and rewind tools.
• Use your mouse to jump to any location within your recording.
• Edit your recording within Audio Notetaker by cut, copying and paste.
• New: File manager, enabling you to locate and manage your Audio Notetaker files and recordings
• New: Keywords search tool takes you to the point you want within your Audio Notetaker files
• New: Integrated spell checker
• Export your edited audio files as new audio tracks to listen to away from your PC.
• New: Easy-to-use facility to save a selection as a separate audio file
• Personalise the display with colour and font options.
• Add notes to each section or copy text from web pages or documents.
• Format your notes with colour and different fonts.
• Print or save your notes directly from Audio Notetaker or copy to another application.
• Highlight sections to help you organise and categorise your notes.
• Add meta-data to your recordings to store information on speakers, topic and module.
• Colour code segments of audio to highlight key points.
• Merge recordings into one file.
• Compatible with Olympus DS-30 and DS-40 digital recorders.

March 2008 Update

Audio Notetaker version 1.3 has been released. New features include the File manager and integrated spell checker. Existing v1 customers can updgrade for free by clicking here.

You will need:

• Windows XP or Vista
• 256MB RAM
• Speakers
• CD-ROM drive

Try Audio Notetaker for yourself by downloading the 30 day trial: