Sony Digital Flash Voice Recorder (ICD-PX312)

(Actually 4.5 Star review)I bought this recorder because I wanted a voice recorder to record my conversations with my grandfather, but it has become so much more.In one of my classes, I began recording the lectures, and it picks up on everything said, even very quiet, almost whispered comments. My teacher has complimented the quality of it several times, and even intends to purchase one for himself.It is easy to operate and download the files to the computer, and it automatically records the date on the file, so it is easy to determine which one you are looking at. People complained about the software, and I didn't use much of it, but I did use it to cut the files up into "bite-sized" pieces, so I don't think it is worthless as people claim, it just isn't anything fancy or expensive, but then it was free.Also, I LOVE the battery life this thing gets. I have been recording to the point that I have almost filled the entire internal memory, and the first notch of battery life just went down (out of four).I only have 2 issues with this recorder:1) It makes an initial beep when you first begin and end a recording, and I cannot find any option to turn it off, and even turning the volume all the way down does not lower the volume on the beep. This can be bothersome when trying to record in a quiet or more formal situation. I have found, though, that if I just have headphones plugged into the earphone jack, it takes care of this problem.2) The second problem is that I dropped it off of a desk onto a carpeted floor (less than 3 feet), and now the display has dead pixels. I feel like it ought to be slightly more durable than this, but it doesn't affect the recording quality or anything. This might also be due to the fact that it was refurbished.Overall, I have found this recorder to be worth every penny of what I spent on it; it has been an amazing tool, and one which I am coming to appreciate more in various situations.

The Sony PX312 works just fine for what I use it for. Often, I am unable to listen to my favorite talk radio shows live so I download their podcasts to my computer using the included software . I then transfer the broadcast to my PX312. Takes only a couple of minutes. Then I can listen to my talk shows whenever I have the opportunity. There are a few things that I would improve. The small text on the screen is kinda tough for my old eyes to see. That's a minor complaint as I can put it under a light and read it sufficiently to operate it for the simple recordings I do with it. What really needs improving is a more intuitive system of putting files in their proper folders and marking them. Luckily, my recordings are simple and I just hit the record button when I'm using it for other than downloading podcasts. It simply puts my voice recorded files in the first folder and so on. Were I needing to organize the files and mark them, I'd be lost without spending considerable time reading the manual. Maybe this is not a real problem for someone that really gets into the manual and learns the process. I don't need that. Also, I have to turn the volume up quite high to hear the speaker. Again, this is a minor problem as I am a tiny bit deaf so I use earphones to listen anyways. I like the size of the unit as it fits in shirt pockets very comfortably but it probably would be better with a pocket clip to ensure it stays in when bending over. I also like the "lock" feature on the Off/On switch. I did record some music as a test and it did surprisingly well. But, it is a voice recorder and not really designed for music. All in all, the PX312 is worth the extra bucks one has to pay to get the Sony quality and features. I've owned the $20 models before and I was never satisfied with the quality or functionality (is that a word?) of the cheaper models. I would recommend it for voice recording and definitely if you download podcasts like talk radio shows or lectures.

Works great for recording lectures. Microphone is sensitive enough so that the recording is very clear. There are lower quality settings but adding an 8GB microsd is about $15 now so 2,000 hours (almost 3 months) appears to be possible. 8GB has me way beyond anything I will use.The recorder will play in stereo through headphones if you drop an MP3 on it. Not the best MP3 player but it's not supposed to be. The documentation says it will record in stereo with the correct microphone - haven't tried it.The recorder will also playback recordings a half speed or double speed (you can set the speed, DPC Speed Control, in increments of 0.1).I also use recorder to listen to podcasts I download from the web, music mp3s, instructional mp3's, etc. With 3 hours being less than 50MB you can fit a lot of podcasts on this, too.You can create folders, like PODCASTS and have it show up as a selection. It seems that all voice recordings go into numbered folders but that is fine. It makes them easier to find.One gripe, though. It does have a problem with USB on Windows 7, though I think that it is a Windows 7 problem. I use a USB trackball and plug this device in with no problem, but one day I had a flash drive plugged in and then plugged in the Sony. It stopped working. I would get errors that said the device was not recognized.After several attempts at uninstalling all the devices in the Device Manager under "Universal Serial Bus controllers" and rebooting it still would not come back. I also tried shutting down, unplugging from power and battery and waiting (this was supposed to work) with no success. I found that with a some patience you could get the device back by:1. Uninstall all the devices under "Universal Serial Bus controllers", including this one, which will look like "Unknown device".2. Open regedit.exe (run as Administrator) and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USBSTOR and look for something like Disk&Ven_SONY&Prod_IC_RECORDER&Rev_3.00 and try to delete it.This is the frustrating part. To delete it you need to run as Administrator (or be Administrator), but that is not enough. On my system I needed to Take Ownership by changing the owner under the Advanced Settings for permissions. After you are owner, add yourself as a User to the Key and give yourself Full Control. Then try to delete. At this point more subkeys will appear. You need to Take Ownership/Add User/Delete to all the subkeys until you can delete them all under Disk&Ven_SONY&Prod_IC_RECORDER&Rev_3.00.Detach all flash drives, restart your system, wait for the USB devices to reinstall, then attach the Sony Recorder and it should come back.It seems that the registry remembers the settings even when you uninstall in the Device Manager, you need to erase it from the system under USBSTOR as described so when they get messed up by plugging in another USB flash device at the same time there is a fair amount of work to get it back.Other than that the Sony works great. Not sending mine back! In fact I own two of them now.

I bought this for a few reasons.1. Everyone needs a dedicated digital recorder2. I could use one for work3. I wanted to capture EVP'sWhile I haven't captured any voices of the distant or not so distant past, I did find that this very lightweight digital recorder can be useful in a lot of situations. Small and sleek, it can slide in a tight shirt or pant pocket and not be cumbersome to the user.Once my corded mic comes in, I'll update the review to see how it performs while sitting in a pocket.It has a lot of standard features that are easy to use and navigate with on the small LCD screen. It only took me a few minutes from reading the manual to learn about how to do something as basic as record and playback, to using track marks and create folders for content.The digital software is sort of boring, but I plan on using third party software anyway.The sound quality seems very good, but I'm no audiophile. There are also options on the device to record in varying levels of quality. Keep in mind though I think this ONLY records in .MP3 format.The extra SD card slot is nice, basically doubling your record time or more. Read the instructions about SD Card formatting however before using it.4/5 stars. I think you pay for what you get here, and don't expect too much from Sony's included software. But at least you can hang your hat on their ability to support the product and have available accessories.

I am very impressed with this little recorder. I had read the manual online at Sony's website before buying it and was disappointed that it says its best quality is 192 kbps Mono even though the microphone input is stereo. I decided to buy it anyway. I am mainly going to use it for mono recordings with a lavalier microphone and decided I probably wouldn't use it for stereo line-in recordings much anyway even if it was stereo. But it DOES record in stereo. I have a 1/8 in. stereo microphone and it records in stereo that way ... and it records in stereo using the line-in feature. Just a few minutes ago, I decided to experiment a little. I have a Voice Live 2 harmonizer that I use in churches. I connected an MP3 player to the Voice Live 2 and played one of my recordings that I use as a track in churches. I connected an XLR microphone to the Voice Live 2 for singing and playing the trumpet with the MP3 song ... and then connected the output of the Voice Live 2 directly to this little Sony ICD-PX312. The results of the sound quality were impressive. The actual MP3 file I used to sing and play the trumpet with came out sounding virtually the same as the original. You can listen here: [...]. I wasn't trying to make a professional recording, just experiment with the sound quality of this Sony recorder. It was done in one take, no editing. After the recording, I just connected the Sony recorder to my computer with the supplied USB cable, copied the MP3 file over to my computer's hard drive, changed the attributes of the file itself, like the name, album, etc. and uploaded it to my website so you could listen to the quality. For under $40, it's an outstanding value. I'll also mention, the recordings I've made using the lavalier microphone create a good sounding MP3, and even the built-in microphone does a really good job. The ability to divide a file to edit out unwanted parts, or to make several smaller MP3s out of one large one ... to do this right on the Sony unit itself ... is quite convenient.Tony McCanless

On paper the ICD-PX312 has a good feature set, has USB & microSD slot for more storage. But the user interface is not very good compared to older models, particularly the Olympus VN-240.THE GOOD:+ Batteries are included. Also a a mini-USB to USB cable is included for transfer.+ Using the onboard memory (no external microSD) you can record for over 20 hours on SHQ mode.THE BAD:- Just as in previous Sony recorders I find the Recording interface is dumb. There are 2 large buttons: one labelled "PLAY/STOP", the other "REC/PAUSE". To start recording you press "REC/PAUSE" and recording starts. So far so good, right? The problem is stopping recording - if you press the large conveniently labelled "PLAY/STOP" button recording will stop BUT IMMEDIATELY PLAYBACK which is most cases is NOT what you wanted. To stop recording without playing back you have to hit the small unlabelled square icon "stop" button (located in the middle of 3 buttons). For the life of me I don't understand why it doesn't stop recording (without playback) when "PLAY/STOP" is momentarily pressed. If the user wanted to really review the just-completed recording he could just press "PLAY/STOP" one more time to playback. This would be a much better solution, because many people use a recorder for quick "to me" notes or lectures. When you stop recording you don't want to attract unwanted attention (in a lecture) or hear the note you just recorded, both of which will happen if you press the wrong stop button.- After stopping a recording there is a slight delay (about 1-2 seconds) while the recorder processes the recording ("ACCESSING" is displayed during this time). There was no delay with the VN-240.- I wish I could say the bad UI design stopped there but there's more. Like most recorders there is a "HOLD" lock to prevent inadvertent presses from starting recording or playback (i.e. if you put it in a pocket). The problem is when the recorder is locked it only displays "HOLD" on a blank screen for 4 seconds THEN reverts back to the normal display so there is no way to know if it is locked after the 4 seconds pass! Oh sure, you could press a button and see if it displays "HOLD" when pressed (or look at the HOLD switch) but a better way to handle this is what the Olympus VN-240 does in HOLD: it blanks the display completely so it is obvious that the device is locked. One way around this problem is to power off the recorder instead of using HOLD - the display will be blank and of course it will not respond to button presses. The only downside of doing this is that the recorder takes 3-4 seconds to power on (from off).- By default, the recorder will power off in 10 minutes. This means that even if you have the recorder on and 10 minutes elapse after last using it, it will power off and you will have to turn it on before proceeding (after the power-up delay wait). Fortunately this auto-power off time is adjustable to 5/10/30/60/OFF.- The volume control is implemented as two digital buttons (VOL+ and VOL-). I prefer a old-style volume dial because it is faster/easier to adjust volume that way. (The VN-240 had a volume dial)- The device is taller than it feel it should be (it is 1/2" taller than the VN-240). This makes it more noticeable in a shirt pocket. More importantly there is no pocket clip (as on the VN-240) so it will not stay upright in a shirt pocket.STATE OF THE RECORDER INDUSTRY:I find that the older Olympus models (like the VN-240, sadly no longer made) had a optimal interface (not to mention a pocket clip). Somehow manufacturers are making products that are worse than the older ones despite advances in technology! Even newer Olympus models aren't the same. For instance I cannot find any USB recorder with a shirt pocket clip. The ICD-PX312 could have been a 5-star product if these flaws didn't exist.Instead, I would recommend the Olympus VN-702PC as it has the same features but a better user interface (still no shirt pocket clip though).I hope you found this review helpful!

worked great through my college years, small light weight, portable.

I absolutely LOVE this recorder. First off the price is amazing for the quality of this recorder. I've had a few other recorders on the cheaper end ($45 and under) and they did the job but were extremely touchy, had a lot of background static, and were tricky to use at times.This recorder is a dream! Here are all the things I love about it:-It has the ability to attach a micro SD card to it to save files to so you can take them anywhere and store as much as you want.-It gives you an option if you want to record to SD card or device memory.-The background static is almost non existent.-It comes with a usb cord to easily upload files to your computer.-It has an on/off and hold option.-It has a t-mark, so while I am recording I can mark that second of tape that I need to come back to easily.-The screen is very clear and has large numbers/letters.-It has noise cut.-Many file/folder options.-Volume control.-It came with batteries - 2 triple A-Unlike the olympus it shows on the screen what time you are at on the file you are listening to and how much time you have left on the file.The things I don't like:-It didn't come with a soft case-It lumps recordings together that were recorded within certain periods of time. For example if I start recording something, stop, then 5 minutes later I start recording again, it lumps both of those recordings together instead of putting them in separate folders/files. It does not indicate when the first recording stops and the second begins it just flows together. (I'm not sure if there is an option to turn this off, but I haven't found it if there is)Overall it's an amazing recorder for the price. Whether you are messing with paranormal EVP's or a journalism major, this recorder is great. It's about the same price as the olympus and it's 10 times better.

very usefu. Sound quality very clear. nice.

works incredibly well, even if you're at the back of the room

If you need a small convenient and easy to use recorder with expandable memory this ones for you, would certainly recommend.

The sound quality and ease of use makes this purchase a great value. I would highly recommend this digital recorder for personal use.

great thing