What audio modules should I use for a voice recorder?

Other Hardware Audio
1

Hello everyone

I have a project in mind, I‘d like to use quite plain and agile voice recorder for my job in which I need to meet some essential requirements, I have already bought two commercial voice recorders and none of them met my expectations.

I just want to record quickly without having to look for anything in my pocket, without looking at a screen or stop my task or conversation. Of course if anyone of you knows of any commercial device that I can purchase to do so, I would appreciate it if I could save all the building.

The operation is quite simple, I will wear the recorder installed in my lab coat with a microphone and a switch on my lapel, I will press the button while recording a simple note of no more than 15 seconds, it is desirable that the device starts recording immediately after pressing the button, then, this audio clip will be stored in a memory.
It should be able to save all the notes of a day, it would be good if the saving process is fast to allow a second note recording five seconds after.

At the end of the day I will dedicate some time to manually dump the notes in a database, for this I have thought of a system as simple as a FIFO queue.
The audio clips are being stored in a row, a play button will play the first recorded clip and another button will erase this same clip to let play the next audio.

For this project I will need some module related to sound, I will need to explore it and do many tests, I would like you to point out for me the audio modules that are capable of carrying out all these functions.

I would like you to tell me which modules I could buy and learn to use to achieve my goal, there are many audio module options.

Does the book Arduino Music and Audio Projects have the info that I need?

Those are some fo the audio modules that I have found

Adafruit Audio FX Sound Board - WAV/OGG Trigger - 2MB storage with 2.2W Stereo Amp
Arduino Audio Shield Kit
SparkFun MP3 Player Shield
Adafruit 1788 Music Maker MP3 Shield for Arduino 3W Stereo Amp
Isd1820 Sound Voice Recording Playback Module With Mini-sound Audio Speakers K4
Velleman Arduino Audio Shield
Audio Hacker Shield Kit for Arduino

Thanks.

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2

Does the book Arduino Music and Audio Projects have the info that I need?

Speaking as the author then I would say while it covers the principals of digital audio I think it would not be sufficient to help you.

You need something that will record the audio on an SD card.

What is your level of skill in hardware and software.

Can you turn that list into clickable links.

3

Thanks Mike,

I'm a Desing and Technology teacher in secondary, I studied computer science, I'm not specially skillfull with electronics but I like to learn building something that I need to use.

I certainly need to divide my project into two stages, first record and then reproduce the sounds.
What module should I buy to start fiddling to record with?

Mostly I have seen that SD memories are used for these projects.

Thanks.

4

Yes a lot of those boards are unsuitable because they either can’t record at all or only have limited recording capabilities. I would go with the Music Maker MP3 Shield for Arduino w/3W Stereo Amp . Although I haven’t used that one it looks like it might give you the capacity you need.

Before you part with the cash, download the library for it and see if there are any examples that come with it that are close to what you want.

5

I don't have a recommendation, but I wouldn't use an Arduino.

Maybe something like: Isd1820 Sound Voice Recording Playback Module With Mini-sound Audio Speakers K4 but with more memory.

Or, maybe you an "hack" a digital recorder by soldering-in some additional buttons and an LED.

Or, maybe the [u]Raspberry Pi[/u]. It's got more processing power than the Arduino and it has some built-in audio capability. You'd need to add a power amplifier, and I think you need a USB soundcard for playback.

6

I asked in Adafruit and they said:

"The Music Maker can encode audio input as an OGG file, but you’ll need a microcontroller to handle the button input and to write the file data to an SD card. An Arduino Uno or Metro 328 should be able to do the job though."

It's enough for me to buy it and get on it.

7

DVDdoug:
Or, maybe the Raspberry Pi It's got more processing power than the Arduino and it has some built-in audio capability. You'd need to add a power amplifier, and I think you need a USB soundcard for playback.

No, you can play back without any trouble but recording is an altogether different proposition. That is the thing that requires a sound card. You can do recording with one as Audacity runs and records on the Pi but that is not the simplest of things to automate, nor is the Pi the simplest thing to keep running in your pocket all day.