When using Pear note in a meeting, how do you get acceptable sound quality? Is the built-in mic OK or do you need to use a separate one on a line-in?
Mic and sound quality
(6 posts) (5 voices)-
Posted 4 years ago #
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I always use the built-in mic in my Macbook. The built-in mic is of surprisingly good quality (especially when compared to your average PC laptop). I can't speak for all Apple laptops throughout history, but the current Macbook mic is more than enough for me.
Posted 4 years ago # -
That is so wrong. The built in mic picks up the sounds of my typing and ruins the playback. Unless y0u plan on not typing any notes then you can't use the built in mic. The next problem is that the macbook pro doesn't accept external microphones. A total failure.
Does pear notes come in a Microsoft windows or Linux version? I am throwing away my mac's.Posted 2 years ago # -
tommyerols,
I'm sorry you feel that way. Typing noise tends to vary from person to person, but it's not a big problem for most people I've spoken with.
As to external microphones, there are plenty of USB microphones that work fine with Macs. I've heard good things about the Blue Snowflake (I actually have it's larger brother, the Snowball, which works well), but there are many others as well.
And no, there is no Windows or Linux version of Pear Note.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I agree: mac microphone is fine for the vast majority of tasks. However, the direction of the microphone be a problem if the speaker is directly opposite you and your pc. I have not experienced that eg USB Microphones has not worked - right now I use a Logitec webcam with a nice buildt in digital microphone. That also makes it easy to shoot video of, for example, a whiteboard.
If you use an external mic also calls out pretty clear that you record the meeting / seminar on your laptop and you can clear this with people and thus prevent various ethical issues.
/bentbPosted 2 years ago # -
Hi - using the onboard mic of an mbp is ugh! The developer is in denial if he thinks it doesn't bother people. How can one listen to playback of a lecture with bang bang bang going on throughout? Member bentb has the solution - external mic is essential i.e. one that faces away from the keyboard - +, as he says, one can record e.g. a whiteboard. For those of us with the old iSight - cool :-)
The main advantage of PearNote to me is in PLAYBACK of lectures from various outposts of academe featured on iTunesU, BBC discussions etc... I load the recording and make notes in 'real time' - as I'm NOT recording the audio, there's no bang bang bang :-)
If this app makes it to iPad - I will buy as the keyboard thereon is better suited i.e. no bang bang bang.
Advice to Notetakers: using this kind of app, one needs to change the customary method of note-taking i.e. as much as possible, restrict yourself to 'trigger words'. The lecture is being recorded so no need to take copious typed notes. Reduce the writing area a la Tofu (app) to make it easier to keep up with the speaker. It takes too long to get from one end of the writing area to the beginning. In this way, more of your attention will be focussed on the speaker and NOT on typing/writing! Using pen & paper, I'm probably paying attention only 50% or less in real terms. Using triggers backed up by reference recordings, I'm probably somewhere near 85%.
InfoPoint to Developer: I was talking recently with the tech buyer of a large retail chain - he said their forward policy was that within 2 years they will probably not sell pc's or at least reduce stock BIG time. They foresee a Tablet-orientated world. I agree with him. I'm a heavy lifter but having analysed my mbp and iMac use, I'm confident I can do 60% + on an iPad. So, the teachers in the iPad forum are right :-) - so please hurry up with that version :-)
- otherwise, its a decent app ----------- BUT would become a 'must-have' if transported to iPad :-)
Posted 2 years ago #
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