If you’ve ever been in a situation at work or home when you wish you had an exact record of a conversation then a voice activated recorder is for you. They are discrete gadgets that are great for recording conversations without the person speaking being aware of them.
The fact that they are voice-activated means that they only record when someone is talking. They are triggered by sounds, such as a conversation starting nearby, a door closing, or a phone ringing so they don’t need any outside intervention to begin surveillance.
Here are some great reasons to use a voice activated recorder:
- Saving disc space and battery capacity,
- Normal voice recorders need to be turned on manually and stopped manually. This means that there will likely be periods of silence recorded that use up battery and memory. The fact that these recorders are voice-activated means that they last at least ten times longer than regular recorders on a single charge and the same goes for the memory capacity.
- You don't record hours of silence.
- Since they are voice activated recorders, you will only hear recordings that contain audio. This is a godsend when you are reviewing the recordings because you don't have to scan through hours of silence to find the audio you want. This saves a lot of time, trust us on that one.
- Divides the recording into usable segments
- Imagine you are reviewing a recording from a normal voice recorder, you would have to scrub through a single long recording, skipping and clipping all the silent sections to find usable audio. With a voice activated recorder, all the audio clips are separated and ordered in the sequence they occurred so they can be time and date stamped and reviewed in manageable chunks.
- They begin recording automatically
- This might seem like an obvious point to make but it bears thinking about. These small recording devices begin recording without any buttons needing to be pressed. This changes how you use the recording device entirely, since you can leave it disguised in some suitable place and bug an area when you are not around.
Where to hide a Voice Activated Recorder
It's important to pick a recorder that's appropriate for the environment. Some recorders lend themselves to situations where others would look out of place, it all depends on what the recorder is disguised as. Think about the context of where the voice activated recorder will be used and the types of objects that work in each situation. Most of the recorders we stock are disguised as regular household items so it's a good idea to pick the right one for the occasion.
The Pocket Keychain audio recorder looks exactly like a car fob so works great to record conversations inside your car but might look a little strange in a pencil case in school if you are looking to provide evidence of bullying.
Think about what you are planning to record and where you are going to be doing most of your recording, then pick up a recorder appropriate for that area. If you are looking to collect evidence of workplace harassment then it's a good idea to use a voice activated recorder disguised as office equipment such as the Pro USB flash drive audio recorder. If you are looking to collect evidence of bullying in school you could try using the 16-hour voice-activated recorder pen. If you want one that will work well in all situations but needs to be hidden out of plain sight you could use the Micro stick voice activated recorder.
Types of voice activated recorder
We’ve mentioned most of these spy recording devices before but let's do a deeper dive into the capabilities of each one:
Power bank voice activated recorder
This recorder is inside a working power bank, you can even charge your phone with it. It can record audio up to 50 feet away and does well through fabric like a jeans pocket or purse. The Battery lasts for 5 months on a single charge on standby and can record 576 hours of audio to an SD card.
The power bank is so ubiquitous that it fits in nearly anywhere so you can keep it in view at work, college, or at home without anyone noticing. But if you do want to disguise the power bank just keep it in your pocket or purse and it will pick up a conversation clearly.
Pocket keychain audio recorder
This little voice activated recorder is disguised as a car key fob. Since we usually carry our keys around with us, this is the perfect personal recording device to secretly record conversations without being detected. Its battery lasts for 10 hours of continuous recording and it can record clearly through fabric.
Since the microphone is sensitive enough to work through clothing, you can keep it in your pocket or bag like all of the recorders we stock. Other ways to use it depend on the location, obviously you can put it on your car keychain and use it to record conversations in your car. You can also use it to record conversations at home by handing it up on a key hook or putting it in a bowl where conversations are likely to occur.
16-hour voice activated recorder pen
No one who looks at this pen will give it a second glance because it is so natural in most business or domestic settings to have a pen around. Just flick the switch, which is disguised as the clip of the pen to start recording, put it down on the desk and the pen will make crystal clear recordings of any conversation nearby.
You can leave this pen out in your home or office and it will record when someone comes by to talk to you. This is very useful in cases of workplace harassment, you just plug it into your computer and transfer the file you need at the end of the day. If nothing has happened that day that's worth recording, just wipe the internal memory and put the pen back in your office tidy, ready for the next day.
Pro USB flash drive audio recorder
This is another great little voice activated recorder that can record for 24 hours non-stop but can store 114 hours of audio in its internal memory. It's another one of those objects you see everywhere, we’ve got a tonne of flash drives around the office ourselves. It has a little control wheel surrounding the hole for the key chain which can be used to switch from manual recording to continuous recording.
You can leave this little guy in a desk drawer and it will pick up conversations at work just fine. Leaving it sticking out of a USB port on your computer is excellent cover also. Just don’t stick it all the way into the slot because it will start charging and will not record when it is plugged in. Aside from that, just leave it wherever you might find a USB thumb drive without fear of discovery.
Micro stick voice activated recorder
This is the only voice activated recorder we stock that is not disguised as a household item so if it is seen directly it is reasonably obvious what it is. It is however very small, just the size of a paperclip, so it is really easy to hide. It has a super sensitive microphone that can pick up conversations from up to 50 feet away and a battery life of about 5 days.
If you need to hide the recorder you can stick it under a desk with some blu tack or tape and it makes a great room recorder because of its impressive range. It's also great for recording lectures or seminars where hidden audio surveillance is not necessarily the most important thing.
We love it because you don’t need a computer to play back the files. There is a headphone jack, clear control buttons, and a little LCD screen to tell you what file you are listening to.
We hope you found this guide useful. Do let us know if you have any other ways of using a voice activated recorder we haven’t heard of. We love hearing from you!