Sound Quality on X5

MarkWoodhouse · 01-04-04, 02:28 PM

Hi,

I wonder if anyone else is having a problems with recording sound on Axim 5. I used to have Psion 5mx and could record sound through the in-built microphone and the play back was of very high standard. However when I record sound on my Axim it is very poor quality! I have tried playing with the sound settings, still the same! I have also tried it on a friends machine to see if mine was faulty - but the qualiity was still poor! Any ideas / help would be most helpful!

Mark

01-04-04, 02:40 PM

IMO I think that is the X5. I ran a comparison of the sound quality of the microphone between my X5 and my 2215. I used mNotes and the standard recording software. In both cases the quality was much better on the 2215.

I have not been able to get quality sound recordings on my X5.

aximx5user · 01-04-04, 05:13 PM

The noteM freeware utility gives me very good MP3 recordings.
I'm not sure if the Ipaq records better - what I'm getting is fine
for my purposes. No cracks, reasonable fidelity, and on-the-fly
MP3 compression. I wouldn't record a concert with it, but for
voice it is great.

tstrombotne · 01-10-04, 02:47 PM

I have very poor recording sensitivity on both my X5s, purchased March 2003. I tried all the settings and the quality does improve as you increase the bits of resolution and frequency, as expected.

Lots of hissing from internal background noise and very weak volume on playback. I have to speak very close to the microphone <6" to even get anything useable.

Audio playback of music MP3s using Media Player is fine, with low noise and very decent quality.

I read a post on this board that someone uses their X5 to record lectures and it works fine. I wanted to use mine to record meetings in a conference room environment but no way would the microphone sensitivity work.

:rolling:

derekivey · 01-10-04, 10:21 PM

My Axim X5 also has poor recording. I noticed that when I record something and play it back it sounds really bad. I think it is the way the Axim was made. Or it might be that Dell puts in poor speakers.

MarkWoodhouse · 01-11-04, 12:54 AM

Hey thanks all,

It looks like its not just me!!!!

Its a shame that Dell couldn't do something better as they have dam fine machine other than that!!!

Thanks for Comments

Mark

aximx5user · 01-11-04, 06:31 PM

I had this same crackling problem. Totally disappears when
running noteM, an alternate freeware recording tool that
supports MP3 format. I record at 8 kHz, 8-bit Mono and it
works great for me. Because of the MP3 format, I could literally
record for tens of hours using NoteM. Search the forms for
discussions on this app.

TalonUNT · 01-11-04, 07:03 PM

The sound quality of the recordings using NOTM doesn't seem that great. is it designed to pick up sounds spoken directly into the Mic? or can you use it for say a class lecture to take a recorded notes?

AximPhreak · 01-11-04, 07:13 PM

Personally, my opinion is that Dell put the Mic in as an afterthought (a sort of Ipaq's-have-this-so-we-must-have-it-too thing). Although I have no problems taking notes in class with my X5 (other than the annoying bickering of my teacher and classmates), I'm guessing it's a part-by-part thing: Some mics work better than others. I DJ and when I have a thought I need to get down (melody, overlay, or whole track) I, once again, face problems only from thse surrounding me (especially the time that an idea that later became an 8-minute track slipped into my mind in the middle of the Lord of the Rings when I was in a theater...)

MarkWoodhouse · 01-12-04, 01:26 AM

Hi

Could someone email me this NoteM utility (mark.woodhouse44@ntlworld.com) as everytime I go on to the web site it says site temp unavailable!!!

Thanks

tstrombotne · 01-12-04, 03:16 AM

I just sent you an email with the program.

I tried it and it seems to work pretty well, as advertised. The recording quality, noise level and sensitivity now seem good enough for the X5 to be serviceable as a small conference room meeting recorder.

It has some good options like being able to select a default file name and location on a folder in the SD card (or elsewhere), wav to mp3 file conversion, defeat autoshutdown when the program is running, turn off the display while recording to save the battery and assigning a hot key to record a quick note.

Pretty good for a freebie.

Good luck! :D

01-12-04, 04:22 AM

a temporary solution to weak volume is to plug the axim into a set of powered speakers and turn the volume up. recordings become far, far more usable this way.

to get rid of some of the background noise, turn off the backlight while recording.