Geekzone Reviews Sound Explorer for Pocket PC

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?ContentId=3763' target='_blank'>http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.a...?ContentId=3763</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Sound Explorer is one of the few fully featured sound applications available for the Pocket PC platform today. While there are plenty of music players out there – and good ones at that, Sound Explorer is one of the few applications that can record audio as well as play it back."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20041208-SoundExplorer.gif" /><br /><br />Darryl Burling has posted a review on VITO's latest offering of Sound Explorer over at Geekzone. It's well worth the read as this software title looks to be one of the best sound applications available for the Pocket PC.

[rmasinag]

I've been using this everyday for almost 2 years now and it has never let me down.

I tried Resco Sound Recorder at least 3 times and my biggest beef with resco is when I stop recording, it takes at least 4-5 seconds delay before I can record again. With VITO, I don't have the same problems.

Just a warning, if any of you guys update or wanna try it, don't use the .cab file for WM2003 because it would lock up my HP2210 when I exited SoundExplorer forcing me to reboot. I just downloaded the .exe version and reisntalled and everything works fine now.... This problem is prevalent in their forums, hope they fixed it by now.

But this is certainly worth the ducats if you are a student!

[wouterk]

Indeed a great program! :lol:
I think the version of the progam tested was v.5. Right now there is version 5.10 which solves the WMA support problem and the unable to rename the bookmarks problem.
This is realy a great program. :)
Wouter

[claud9999]

I've been using NoteM for months now and it works great. Not quite as nice a UI and feature set, but it's free.

[Don't Panic!]

The 40th Floor iPlay client has been able to do most of these functions for quite some time although I must admit the GUI on Vito Sound Explorer is much more polished and is easier to use plus the support files from Vito are easier to understand.

Don't Panic!
Bobby

[Menneisyys]

I certainly miss the subjective recording sound quality comparison to Resco Audio Recorder (http://www.resco-net.com/audiorec_indepth.asp) and NoteM (http://www.zavorine.net/wince/mp3.htm) in the article, mainly because, so far, no MP3 recorder could achieve the recording quality (in 44 kHz, mono, 56/112 kbps mode) of NoteM. Fortunately, the latest VITO release changed this all. Still, a lot of users, unhappy with previous VITO releases, may have skipped the new release because of the past of the product.

I've tested all the three new programs (Resco, Vito and, of course, NoteM) thoroughly; my experience is as follows.

The MP3 encoder in the latest Resco Audio Recorder still lacks in the tremble area - it sounds as it was a telephone conversation -, even with 96-192 kbps recording modes. Furthermore, it is useless with OGG encoding even on quick PDA's like the iPAQ 2210 (400 MHz XScale PXA255 processors running on WM2003) because it simply requires way too much processing power. The other Resco encoders are pretty lousy too: Speex only supports 32 kHz as the maximal sampling frequency. Futhermore, its power consumption is some 45% more than that of NoteM.

VITO's Sound Explorer, up to now, was certainly even worse because of the reduced recording capabilities of the built-in MP3 encoder (11 kHz maximal sampling frequency up to until the latest version). Fortunately, this version allows for using 44 kHz and high bitrates too.

The subjective sound quality of VITO's Sound Explorer is almost as good as that of NoteM. The one and only problem with it is that it requires even more battery power than Resco's latest MP3 recorder. In some cases (e.g., several hours long recording on battery power), this may render the application useless.

[bbarker]

I have been using Pocket PCs since their inception. Before that I had what I think was the first Windows CE device (the Casio A-11), a clamshell device, and one of the first Palm-sized PCs (the Casio E-10).

I've wanted to use these devices as voice note takers, dictating machines and meeting recorders. But the built-in recording software created a new file every time I pressed the button. I wanted to be able to start, pause and start again and remain in the same file. The standard software also produced lousy sound.

A couple of months ago I discovered Vito's Sound Explorer. It's an outstanding product. It does everything I've hoped for. I'm sure there are similar products available but this one works extremely well. There were a couple confusing aspects to the user interface at the beginning, but once I figured them out it was great. Highly recommended.