Anyone knows about voice recording devices?

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I know smartphones are capable to record audio, but they seem to use up a lot of space (is compression at all used on Android?) - so, I was thinking conventional stand-alone voice recorders must be more efficient. Can anyone confirm this?

I'm thinking of recording lectures that are hours long.

Also, on a related note, do recorders ever have any function to only record when sound is audible? It'd be interesting, for example, to record talking in one's sleep but I wouldn't want to just switch one on all night.

Anything that can record mp3 or OggVorbis should be fine, Considering that you're recording large files of mostly spoken word, you can get away with fairly low quality audio, (96Kb/Sec and lower), and could possibly get away with 8 bit recording as well for even smaller file sizes. As far as standalone devices are concerned, why buy something else that you'll have to carry around, when you have a Droid?

My work bought me a livescribe echopen and it can record hours and hours of voice plus digital copies of the notes I write. The microphone works surprisingly well even in a large boardroom. it has microphones attached to each headphone for larger rooms but i haven't needed them yet. The built in speaker is useless but the audio is crystal clear through the headphones. Best part is the audio links itself to the notes so I can quickly find the recordings by clicking on the relevant words.

I'm not one of these analog only types, but I always thought cassette-based recorders sounded better. However, even if you can get a microcassette or standard cassette recorder today, they're of lesser quality and don't record as well as they used to. I ordered a new microcassette player to play back some old tapes, and it sucks...seriously, very poor quality.

As far as digital, make sure it comes with a USB that can export to a computer. RCA makes a decent one. As I recall, the standard SONY digital voice recorder didn't allow exporting, so the file had to remain forever on the device until deleted.

Most purpose-built audio recorders will have storage for at least 2-4 hours - many will go up to 10-12 hours or more. This is a prominent selling point for these recorders, so you shouldn't have any issues at all being able to get this information before purchasing.

Some recorders have VOX (voice activated recording) - many don't. For those that do, this is usually a big deal, and definitely will be mentioned in the product description. Again, you shouldn't have too many issues finding one that has this feature.