R61 Mic/Recording Questions

I'd like to use the microphone with OneNote to record lectures and take notes.

What is the best/simplest way to remove background noise (hard drive wine, fan noise and so on) from voice recordings?

Also, what would be the optimum settings for voice recording?


If it comes down to it I could part with a few bucks and purchase a small external microphone. If this does happen do y'all have any suggestions for a cheap discrete mic?

Thanks,
Bryan

 

The microphones built into notebooks are typically only good for recording the user. If you want to record a lecture, you might need to get an external mic that, ideally, would have a small stand and be pointing towards the front of the class. Try recording while walking side to side about 10 ft in behind your laptop. That should give you an idea of what you will need to get or do. As far as noise removal, some laptops come with small sound configuration applets that have a voice filtering option. On my T41, it can be found under Control Panel -> SoundMAX ( I think my wife's D630 has something similar from SigmaTel ). The filter optimizes the input for voice recording( from either an internal or external mic ). Also, in the advanced options in the Volume Control for the microphone, there should be a +20 db boost option. This will boost the incoming signal so that your recording can pick up more.

 

Something like this might be interesting to try while also being very low profile, but there are no guarantees that any cheap PC microphones will be adequate. You might be better off buying a sub-$100 voice recorder.

 

Thank you msiner for your feedback