This happens to me all the time. I use Pear Note to record a meeting, then leave the meeting without remembering to hit stop. A few hours later, I realize that I’ve been recording ever since then. Sometimes I’ve had private conversations that I really don’t want recorded, other times it’s just hours of silence. Early in developing Pear Note I realized this would be a problem.
So, I made a solution. Pear Note allows you to crop recordings (look under the Edit menu). Just play up to the point you want to be the end of the recording (or drag the slider) and select “Crop Recording From Here”. Save your document and the excess recording is no more.
How about a simple preference to stop recording after a certain time period of no text input or sound input or if the application no longer has focus?
Also for the cropping feature how about the ability to automatically find the beginning of the silence?
Erin:
Good suggestions. I will say that in my experience, the extra hours of recordings are not silent, but instead include random conversations that I’ve had throughout the rest of the day. I also worry about stopping recording without user interaction. The worst thing Pear Note could do would be to stop when the user really wanted the recording to keep going, which is why I’ve avoided a feature like this so far.
That said, you’re not the first person to request such a feature. A couple more and you guys might beat me into submission.
Thanks very much for the suggestion,
Chad