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Using the Sony ICD-UX81 Voice Recorder

Note: The Learning Commons has the manual for this item. This is only a summary guide!

Turn ON

One the back, slide the “hold” the opposite direction of the arrow (toward the H in Hold).
Wait a moment and text will appear on the screen on the front.

sound recorder back

Set up for recording

On the front, hold down the MENU button (next to picture of folder) until the recorder beeps and the Recording Menu appears.

sound recorder menu button

To scroll up or down, use press the up or down on the main selection tool. To make a selection, press the ENT button in the center.

sound recorder main control

To go back to the top-level menu without making changes, press ENT without scrolling. (i.e. choose the item already selected.)

REC MODE – set the speed of your recording; below are the max times for this device. These times refer to the storage capacity not the battery life!

ST – 24 hrs (stereo)
STSP - 36 hrs (stereo)
STLP – 96 hrs (stereo)
SP – 144 hrs (mono)
LP – 575 hrs (mono)

MIC SENSITIVITY – set the sensitivity of your mic input
high – for quiet rooms, when you want to pick up every little noise.
low – for locations with lots of background noise or for dictation/verbal notes
LCF (Low Cut Frequency) – turn this feature on when you have a lot of steady background noise, like wind or other low frequency sound
VOR (Voice Activated Recording) – turn this feature on to pause the recording when there is no one speaking
Display – allows you to select what will be displayed in the menu window as you record.

Record

It is always best to do a TEST RECORDING before beginning the real thing.
To begin recording, press the record button on the side (the one with the red dot).
The time will begin counting up (or down, depending on your display choice). If you have it set to VOR, it will pause after a few seconds of no voices present.
The built-in microphones are located on either side of the recorder beside the SONY logo.
You do not have to speak directly into the mic – it will pick up sounds from quite a few feet away. However, you should always do a TEST RECORDING to ensure that you are going to get the sounds you want.
Use an external mic for best quality sound. The mic must have a stereo jack output. Plug the mic into the RED input hole at the top of the device.
To segment the recording into sections to find key points more easily, press the DIVIDE button on the front while recording. (The barcode is partially covering the label for this button, and it reads as “IDE”.)
To stop recording, press the button on the side next to the record button (the one with the square).

Play Back a Recording

Use your own headphones to listen to your recording or borrow some from the Learning Commons. Plug the headphone jack into the GREEN input hole at the top of the device.
Select the folder where your recording was stored. Folder 1 should be the default. Use the Up and Down buttons to scroll through your recordings and press > (Play) to start playback. Press >> to skip to the next recording. Press << to return to the beginning of the recording. Press << or >> more than once to skip back or forward through the various recordings.
In Easy Search mode (turn on by holding the menu button and then scrolling down to “Easy Search”, you can skip or rewind by using >> to go forward 10 sec or << to go back 3 seconds.

Moving Recordings to your computer

To move your recordings, which have been stored on the digital recorder as mp3 files:

Remove the cap from the bottom of the recorder.
Plug the USB into your computer. If your computer doesn’t have a USB input that fits the recorder, you can borrow a USB extension from the Learning Commons.
Open “My Computer” and then double click on the new drive (J://) that has appeared.
Drag the files from the J:// drive into a folder on your computer.

sound recorder cap off