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Enhanced Audio Quality Option


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Hello! First of all, just want to say I love Evernote and have been using it everyday since I downloaded it on my iPhone. Thank you for developing such a high quality product!

I play music professionally, and would REALLY love an option to increase the Audio Recording Quality. Like a "Default", "Better", "Best" setting. That way, it would be much more convenient to keep my work in one place, rather than recording and importing from another app.

Convenience is the main reason I use Evernote- I'd be willing to upgrade to Premium for this feature!

Thanks for listening!

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  • Level 5*

Hi - welcome to the forums.  Evernote is a note taking application,  so it's internal audio feature is aimed at low-fi in the interests of space and uploading times.  You can however attach any file type to a note,  so if you have an app that has better audio quality - and produces files within your allowed note and upload limits - you can always use that for recording/ playback,  but store the source files in Evernote.

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Thanks for the reply gazumped!

I was aware of the option to import an audio file from another app, but like I said, the CONVENIENCE of having it available in Evernote would be great. Otherwise I have to email the file to myself before I can attach it - which takes longer, is messier, and isn't an option if I don't have cell service.

If Evernote is worried about space / upload times, then couldn't they leave the DEFAULT setting at a low quality, and then give the user an advanced option that could increase the size? Like I said, I'd be willing to upgrade to premium for this feature!

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I think there's a whole thing about camels being horses designed by committee,  and Evernote not wanting to become a horses app because of all the 'simple' add-ons that users want like this one..  others would like better note taking features,  a better camera,  others want to store photos - the list must be endless by now. 

 

Evernote want to stay a lean, mean memory machine and leave others to handle the bells and whistles - plus they're not experts in audio (AFAIK) and their version of a quality recorder app might suck!

 

As to emails - remember you can mail a file directly to Evernote using your account email address,  and it's easy to set up notebook and tag assignments in the email subject line.  You could even use automation software like IFTTT to move files from an audio folder into Evernote automatically...

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Ehh.. Well, I'd hope they'd take customer ideas into account. I realize that you can't please everyone, but I don't see any downsides to adding this feature- especially in a somewhat buried "advanced settings". The only people who'd be effected by it are the people who would be looking for it.

I know that there are workarounds to this, but it just seems so much simpler to use the Audio Record button inside the note itself. Not anything groundbreaking... Just like, Voice Memo quality. I'd rather do that than go through all this e-mail / IFTTT stuff.

I'm just someone who uses this app (on my phone) on a consistent basis, and I know this feature would make it much more convenient for me. I'd pass it along to my musician friends if it had it, but probably won't without.

Thanks for your feedback gazumped!

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  • 1 month later...

I too would love this function.

 

I teach English to non-English speakers and I use Evernote for my lessons: every time they come across a word they do not know how to pronounce, I write it down and make a recording of it so they can check it later and practice. It works very well except for the fact that the audio sucks and they have trouble understanding it. I do not need musician quality audio, just something that is a little better.

 

I would upgrade to Premium for this feature, but I understand it is not even available to Premium members.

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Try using another voice recorder.  Attach the file(s) to your notes.  As long as you choose a file type that will play on whatever hardware you use to teach with you should be able to get studio quality if you need it - subject to note size and upload limits...

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  • 1 month later...

Mr gazumped, I don't understand why you keep on defending Evernote on this. Just two things:

  1. Higher quality audio won't increase the "complexity" of the program. It is a trivial technical issue that would benefit almost everyone.
  2. Attaching files is not a solution. Not at all. And also, if you allow attaching notes with a higher audio quality (and hence larger file sizes) why on earth don't you produce these files yourself? The "size" argument is not consistent here.

Anyway, I'm ready to jump ship as soon as Notability implements the iPhone version.

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To the best of my belief I haven't 'defended' Evernote against anything in this thread - just pointed out that there's no better audio quality currently available within the app, though you can use another app and save bigger files if you wish.

If you want to save better audio quality in Evernote that is, by my definition a solution; it may not be the one that you're looking for, but it works.

As to trivial technical issues, I already said that there are a *lot* of simple improvements on users' wish lists - not to mention more complicated ones like reminders that still haven't gotten to Windows yet...

Oh yeah - and I ain't Evernote so I'm afraid producing anything is somewhat above my pay grade.

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Mr gazumped, I take your posts #2 and #4 as clear justifications of Evernote's current position. A "solution" has not only to "work", but to avoid destroying all the usability that makes the application desirable to begin with. If the usability is gone, why keep using the application at all?

 

From my understanding of programming, which is what I do as a day job, recording with a higher quality can be as easy as changing a single parameter to a single function call. It can not be simpler.

 

But anyway...

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I'd like to throw my support behind the OP's request. I'm a musician and knowledge engineer (and Evernote is a bad-ass way to manage knowledge; thanks for the great work you guys). It handles audio files from other programs beautifully. However, it'd be more convenient if there were indeed a way to change the built-in record function's quality. Right now I just record into Audacity or some other light-weight program, then attach the file to the note. It's not a terribly vexatious work-around, but it *is* a work-around, and one of the things I love most about Evernote is that its excellent design usually saves me from small, flow-breaking things like that.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey!  I currently have Evernote premium, and just sat down to use it for the first time.  I purchased it a few months back because I saw that it had audio recording, which is great.

I use it for business work, but I also thought it would be great for recording song ideas.  Nope, the audio quality is just too horrible.  What this means is that I am now about to go searching for another app to fill that space, and if another note taking app does that, I'm jumping ship. 

 

Such a shame for me, I know I'm in the minority probably, but higher audio quality would seem to be an option everyone that records audio would love.  

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Hey!  I currently have Evernote premium, and just sat down to use it for the first time.  I purchased it a few months back because I saw that it had audio recording, which is great.

I use it for business work, but I also thought it would be great for recording song ideas.  Nope, the audio quality is just too horrible.  What this means is that I am now about to go searching for another app to fill that space, and if another note taking app does that, I'm jumping ship. 

 

Such a shame for me, I know I'm in the minority probably, but higher audio quality would seem to be an option everyone that records audio would love.  

 

Hi - if you check the previous comments in this thread you'll see that there are many other audio options out there; if you want to use Evernote you can store your recorded files (subject to size limits) in a Note and play them from there.  Which gives you the better quality of audio software - whose search functions often rely on your OS,  which are.. basic.. at best - and the search functions of Evernote which are considerably better!

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 10 months later...

Evernote is a note taking application,  so it's internal audio feature is aimed at low-fi in the interests of space and uploading times.  You can however attach any file type to a note,  so if you have an app that has better audio quality - and produces files within your allowed note and upload limits - you can always use that for recording/ playback,  but store the source files in Evernote.

 

"evernote is a note taking application"

 

well yes, in the same way that a computer is a word processing device. evernote is also a multimedia multi-platform information storage and retrieval system, a project management system, an extensible database solution, etc etc etc. the comment is not only disingenuous, it's contradicted by the subsequent comments re audio recording and multiformat file attachment capabilities, features which preclude evernote from being _just_ a note taking app. evernote touts the product as being business-compatible, and i'm in business, and using evernote.

 

the OP made a valid point - (any feature request is per se valid). as a professional musician, and a premium evernote user, i'm also considerably frustrated in my evernote workflow by the miserly recording resolution and resulting abysmal audio quality. it's the worst quality recording i'm aware of in any modern recording application, and i would dearly like to see a simple preference option for differing recording rates and bit depths.

 

i should point out that the OP's request for "enhanced" audio quality is a bit of a misnomer - evernote reduces the quality considerably from the source resolution, so the request should be for a less degraded recording resolution. just saying...

 

FEATURE REQUEST:  OPTION FOR HIGH ("NORMAL!") AUDIO RECORDING QUALITY!

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Everyone is entitled to their opinion,  but to be precise.. 

  • a computer is not,  in itself,  a wordprocessing device. Try writing a letter on your satnav.
  • Evernote is not a "multimedia multi-platform information storage and retrieval system" unless you mean it stores and searches images and text.  I use VLC and Picassa for some of my multimedia activities and would not expect Evernote to match their capabilities.
  • Evernote is not a "project management system" - you can use the standard facilities of Evernote to help with that task in the same way it indexes CD collections and keeps contact lists.  There are several very good options that do a great deal more.
  • Evernote is not "an extensible database solution" - it's a flat-file card system with a search engine.  There are numerous very good options...(you get the picture)

Evernote does do a pretty good job of being all of these things to all of its users,  but as I noted above,  there will always be specialist products that do better.

 

Sadly I agree with you on one point - the OP did make a feature request,  which he's perfectly entitled to do.  And having made it here,  it will have been noted by developers as an area for possible improvement in future.  However as he plays music 'professionally',  I wonder how good the repro would have to be to satisfy him?  Perhaps as good as studio quality?  He is (which I'm sure will be an incentive) willing to consider actually paying for the app if the sound quality is improved...

 

Meantime there are one or two other issues that Evernote will be looking at and even if the request is adopted this may have to take some weeks or months (or years) before the better quality is introduced across all platforms.  Evernote don't usually give any indication of what's in the pipeline before it's released.

 

In the meantime, and with my genuousness completely disengaged, I can only suggest that if you need better quality,  you will need to use another app to record or play back.  You can still attach the file to a Note and have the rest of Evernote's features available.

 

Your comments will of course count as another endorsement for this feature,  and I'm sure that Evernote's developers will give them the consideration they deserve.

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  • 1 month later...

Hi there folks -- just an update in case you didn't notice: it seems like Evernote for iPhone has added an option for improved audio quality. I used it yesterday and it seems to be more than satisfactory. Not sure about other platforms. A quick hunt on Evernote for Mac didn't turn up anything, but to enable it on iPhone, it's just:

Evernote Settings (the wheel icon next to your name in the top right of the app's home screen) -> General -> Audio -> High Quality

 

Thanks, EN team. :)

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  • 5 months later...

I have to agree with the requests above. 

 

I use Evernote for songwriting, and having high quality audio recording (or at least not terrible quality) would be a game changer. Yes, the iPhone recording sounds great, but I don't really want to be forced to use Evernote on my phone all the time.

 

This would be very popular with many users, I'm sure.

 

I too, may be forced to look elsewhere for a solution.... The audio recording quality is not just 'average', it's actually terrible.

 

And yes, importing third party files is not a good solution. It makes the creative process cumbersome. 

 

Otherwise, love the app.

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  • 2 months later...

For those of you wanting enhanced audio quality using a Mac Computer, I found a lovely little work around. 

 

I downloaded a recording app onto my laptop from the app store: it's called Recorder Pro. Cost me a few bucks. I'm sure there are a few similar apps. 

 

It sits on the toolbar at the top of the screen. I can click on it, make a high quality recording, and then drag the recording directly into my Evernote note. 

 

It's very easy to use and has basically completely fulfilled my needs for getting convenient high quality audio in Evernote. Solved.

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  • 3 months later...

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