Hello,

I'm in the process of writing a new Windows based audio
recorder and would like to find out how people feel about
some of the features I am thinking of including. If people
who use software VOX recorders could tell me how they feel
about whether some features I am considering adding are
useful, it would help me to make the new software better.

This is an informal survey and I know many people hate
surveys. But if you can help provide some answers to my
questions, I can use this info to make my recorder better. A
competitor can use this info too, to make their product
better. Everybody wins if everyone knows what people expect
to see in a recorder.

I've already published a free VOX recorder for almost 10
years but didn't put many features on it that people have
been asking for since I first wrote it. It was too hard to
modify since it wasn't designed with all the desired
features in mind at the beginning.

-------------------

Here's some of the features I want to add and was wondering
whether these are useful enough for people to want to pay a
small amount for....(if you don't mind helping, I would
really appreciate it).

++++++++ If you could indicate a YES or NO for each feature
I listed that would be a great help.

*** The ability to separate VOX events into separate files
for each event. As well as dividing the files by time-span
or time of day. And of course that requires an
auto-file-naming capability.

*** A Review Button: Pushing a button in order to hear the
last VOX event that was captured. (or the last 30 seconds,
rather). The audio would have to be kept in memory and so it
would have a limited length.

*** A repeating clock/calendar to control automatic starts
and stops like a VCR has.

*** Splitting the stereo content into two mono output files
and allowing a separate VOX setting for each mono output
file.

*** Having the ability to record .wav files with more than 2
stereo channels, (such as 4 channels) I think this might
require MS Direct Show....but am not sure yet.

*** .MP3 file output format....in addition to the native mp3
support MS already has for .WAV files.

*** A spectrum analyzer for viewing on the front panel
during a recording or while monitoring the audio input.

*** A complex looking (busy) style of display with lots of
blinking lights, clocks, meters, log and stats all to make
it look sophisticated like a lot of receiver panels look.

or

*** A simple basic looking display style with nothing but
the very basic controls.

or

*** both types of panel formats with a switch to change
them.

This next question is not an easy one, but I'm wondering how
much people would pay for a recorder that they think is a
very good piece of softwa

*** $5 to $10 USD price range
*** $10 to $20 USD price range
*** $20 to $50 USD price range
*** above $50 USD if it has everything imaginable included.

Not very scientific, I know....

--------------------------

I didn't include a full feature list here because there are
some things that obviously need to be part of a recorder,
like a log file and an auto-start recording control. But
some of the features I listed will take some effort to
produce and I want to avoid wasting a lot of time writing
code that will not be used much.

Feel free to add the features you need to have that I did
not mention, if you think it'll be widely needed by others
too.

And thanks in advance for helping!

Dave
(Author of Scanner Recorder and Scanner Recorder Pro)