Help for Blind and Visually Impaired Users About the App This app is TalkBack and screen-reader friendly. Buttons are labelled, and extra messages are spoken. You can reduce the extra TalkBack messages once you are familiar with the app, by turning On the Settings - Reduce TalkBack setting. This will shorten the messages spoken by TalkBack for the commonly used buttons. You can also avoid TalkBack sounds in your recordings - just follow the suggestions in the topics below. All the buttons (except for the Menu button) can be removed from the screen (click Settings - Show Buttons). Remove buttons to reduce things on screen that are spoken by TalkBack. This is a free app, with no advertisements. A few features like MP3 and Voice Changer are paid features (see below). Supported file formats: - WAV uncompressed (default) - OGG compressed - MP3 compressed (paid/free trial) Change using Settings - Compression (File Format) The WAV format allows Multi-part recording, so for long recordings, a series of WAV files are created, each being below the 4GB file size limit for WAV standard. WAV also supports Hi-Res Audio up to 32-bit at 192kHz on Marshmallow and above devices. Call recording: - Manual incoming/outgoing - Incoming Auto - Outgoing Auto (paid/free trial - but free for TalkBack and other screen reader users) If you want to use Outgoing Auto call recording with TalkBack turned Off, then you may consider purchasing Call Recorder using Menu - Store. Note: If you happen to use this app with TalkBack turned off, and then later use the app with TalkBack turned on, you may find that Outgoing Auto Record (which is a paid feature) is not working. If this happens, just make sure that Outgoing Auto Record setting is turned On. Click Settings - Call Recorder - Outgoing Auto Record to turn it back On again. Voice Changer with 12 character voices (paid/free trial - but free for TalkBack and other screen reader users). Themes (paid/free trial - but free for TalkBack and other screen reader users). Themes allow you to change the background color of the app. The default Theme is reasonably good for TalkBack users. Purchase using Menu - Store. Or donate using Menu - Donate. Donations will unlock all paid features. Working with 32-bit WAV files 32-bit WAV files can be played when you press the Play button, but very few audio player apps can play 32-bit WAV files. Here is one audio player app which can play 32-bit WAV files: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.neutroncode.mpeval Neutron Music Player (Eval) by Neutron Code Limited About this Help Topic This is the Help for Blind Users Help Topic which covers all the features of this application. It is text-only and can be easily browsed by TalkBack, Shine Plus and other screen reader users. Swipe up and down to listen to the different paragraphs. You can download text versions of this help as well as the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) help topic from our app's website: http://www.stereomatch.com/blog/amazing-audio-mp3-recorder Link for text version of Help - Help for Blind Users: http://www.stereomatch.com/apk/amazing_audio_help_for_blind_users.txt Link for text version of Help - FAQ: http://www.stereomatch.com/apk/amazing_audio_faq.txt About other Help Topics This Help for Blind Users can be found under Menu - Help. The help topics - Call Recorder, FAQ, Blind Users are all accessible for TalkBack users. However, the Animations, Folders and Controls help topics are not as accessible. Help - Animations uses animations to explain features and settings to sighted users. You can swipe over the animation buttons there using TalkBack, to listen to an explanation of what the animations are trying to explain. Help - Folders and Help - Controls help topics shows screens that automatically scroll horizontally. The Help - Folders help topic tries to explain the file management features of this app. For example, the Help - Controls section on the Ear Detect feature shows a rough drawing of a person and a phone, and how with the Ear Detect feature on, the phone can be made to record, as it is brought closer to the ear. These few help topics are not as easy to browse using TalkBack, but they contain the same information that is presented here below. Avoiding TalkBack sounds in your recordings When you click on buttons or are looking for the next button to press, the sounds that TalkBack makes can appear in your recordings. We outline some methods below for avoiding the appearance of TalkBack sounds in your recordings: Method 1: Turn On the Toggle Record Pause button on screen (click Settings - Show Buttons - Toggle Record Pause - and turn it On, and if you want, turn off the Record and Pause buttons since you will not need them). Click on the Toggle Record Pause button, so that the focus is on that button. Now you can double-click in any blank area of the screen to trigger Recording and Pausing. When you want to stop recording, make sure you Pause first, and then click the Stop button. This will ensure no TalkBack sounds appear in your recording. Note: If you have our app on screen, our app will prevent the screen from sleeping. This means you should be able to have an uninterrupted recording session without TalkBack speaking in the middle of recording (unless of course some notification or alert appears which TalkBack starts speaking on it's own). Note: Our app will also make sure the focus is on the Toggle Record Pause button when the app starts, or when you switch back to the app. This means as soon as the app is on screen, you would be able to click anywhere on screen to Record and Pause, without needing to find the Toggle Record Pause button first. Method 2: This method can be used from the home screen. Use the widget which contains the Toggle Record Pause button and place it on the home screen. Click on the Toggle Record Pause button in the widget so that the focus is on that button. Now when you double-click on any blank area of the screen, it will trigger Recording and Pausing. To stop, first Pause, and then click the Stop button in the widget. TalkBack sounds will not appear in your recording. A convenient way to make sure you have blank space available on screen to click, is to use a full row of your home screen, and place the Toggle Record Pause widget on one side, while leaving blank space on the right. Now you can click on the widget buttons on the left to put focus on them, and click on the blank space on the right of the widget to click the button which currently has the focus. This way you will be sure that you have some blank space on the screen which you can click without worrying about clicking other apps on the home screen. Note: If you are using the widget on the home screen to record, then we cannot prevent the screen from sleeping. And you will have to make sure screen doesn't go to sleep during your recording, otherwise TalkBack sounds will again appear when you try to stop recording (waking the screen will be spoken by TalkBack). You can use Android Settings for Display sleep time to set a longer duration before display sleeps. Method 3: Use Ear Detect. Turn on the Ear Detect button on the left side of the screen to use the proximity sensor to Record and Pause. Now when you move the phone to your Ear, or flip it over on a table, it will trigger the proximity sensor and start recording. Move phone away from your ear, or flip the phone up on a table, to Pause recording. To stop recording, first Pause and then click the Stop button. TalkBack sounds will not appear in your recording. Note: Ear Detect to Record feature will only work when the main app is on the screen. Method 4: Use gestures to Record, Pause, Stop and Play (no TalkBack sounds will appear in recording). Click Settings - Show Buttons - Gestures Overlay - and turn it On. The Gestures Overlay will appear just below the Counter area, and over the Record buttons. Draw or swipe upwards to Record, down to Pause, left to Stop and right to Play. Now you can record without TalkBack sounds appearing in your recording. It may take some practice to draw some gestures for TalkBack users, because of the slowness of touch events being delivered to apps when TalkBack is on. To practice, first press 1 finger and hold for 1 second, and then swipe up, and hold for 1 second again before removing. Once you know it works, you will eventually be able to draw these gestures just with your thumb while holding your phone in one hand. TalkBack users can also use 2 finger gestures if they want. Vibration Feedback and Sound Feedback will let you know what the app is doing. If vibration or sound feedback appears in your recording, increase the Record Delay setting (click Settings - Vibration & Sound - Record Delay). You can also use our Gestures app, which is a full screen app, which you can use to control recording in Amazing MP3 Recorder. The Gestures app is available on Google Play at: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.stereomatch.gestures.recording or https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.stereomatch.gestures.recording.hires Because the Gestures app is full screen and has no buttons, you will have more space to draw gestures, without any risk of touching buttons during your recording. And since it has a black screen, with no buttons, it will just appear as a black screen to others around you. The only buttons visible in the Gestures app, will be the usual Android Back and Home buttons at the bottom of the screen. And the only indication to others that recording is taking place, will be the recording icon in the notification area. One way to use both Amazing MP3 Recorder and the full screen Gestures app is to set up one of the Run App 1, 2 or 3 buttons (which are located on the right side of the screen in Amazing MP3 Recorder), so that it launches the Gestures app. Now you can use the Amazing MP3 Recorder, but when you really want to avoid any other buttons on screen, and want just a black screen where you can draw gestures, you can click the Run App button that will launch the Gestures app. When you are done with the Gestures app, you can just press Back button to return to Amazing MP3 Recorder. In this way, you can use the main app, as well as the full screen Gestures app, depending on the situation. Method 5: Use Volume Button to Record, Pause and Stop. TalkBack users cannot use this, since this method doesn't work for TalkBack. However, Shine Plus users can use this method. Click Volume Up button to Record, Volume Down button to Pause, and Volume Down long press to Stop. Volume Button to Record is Off by default. You can turn on this feature by clicking Settings - Record Controls - Volume Buttons to Record - and turn that On. You can also turn Off the Button Messages setting below that if you think you don't need the Toast messages that appear when you click the headset button to change recording state etc. Note: Volume Button to Record feature will only work when the main app is on the screen. Method 6: Use headset buttons to Record, Pause and Stop. Plug in a headset. Headsets usually have a button that can be pressed. Click once on this button to Record. Click twice (with a second delay between the clicks) to Pause. Long press the button to Stop. Note: Headset Button to Record feature will only work when the main app is on the screen. Method 7: Use earphones or a headset to prevent TalkBack sounds from being heard by the microphone. This is obviously the most ideal solution - since TalkBack sounds will appear in the earphones and will not be heard by the recorder. However with headsets - where the microphone on the headset is being used to record - the sound in your headset earphones can sometimes faintly be heard by the headset microphone (because they are so close to each other). Method 8: On devices like the Huawei Honor 7, there is an extra hardware button (and on Blackberry Android phones there is a 'Convenience Button'), which you can hook up to launch an app or launcher. That key can then be set up to launch our Record Stop launcher (our app includes the Instant Record and Record Stop launchers that can be found in the apps list). Method 9: The Record Stop launcher can be set up to work with NFC buttons like the Dimple.io device. However, NFC only works while the screen is on. Rooted phone users who are running the Xposed framework can use an Xposed module called NFC LockScreenOff Enabler, which will allow NFC to work (and thus Dimple buttons to work) even while the screen is off. However non-rooted factory-fresh android devices do not have this capability, and for those, the Dimple NFC button will require the screen on, so that NFC can work. Method 10: Our app makes available public intents which can be used to control our app. You can use an app like StartIntent, or Tasker to automate tasks. Here is a post on the Tasker reddit forum, which describes the features in our app, that can be used with Tasker: https://www.reddit.com/r/tasker/comments/3z1rgh/dev_android_mp3_voice_memo_field_recorder_call [DEV] [ANDROID] MP3 Voice memo + field recorder + call recorder with Tasker support (Record, Pause, Stop, Play, Folder, Settings Avoiding Android button click sounds, Vibration Feedback buzzing, and Sound Feedback beeping sounds from appearing in recording When you click on a button in the app, or on a button in a widget, android may make a click sound. This sound may appear in your recording. In addition, Vibration Feedback may also appear in the recording as a buzzing sound. And if you have Sound Feedback enabled (Settings - Vibration & Sound - Sound Feedback), then those beeping sounds may also appear in your recording. You can avoid these sounds from appearing in recording, by increasing the Record Delay (which make recording start after a small delay). Click Settings - Vibration & Sound - Record Delay - and set it to the maximum value or to a higher value than the default. Blind-friendly features The app is designed with feedback from the eyes-free google group. This app is TalkBack and screen-reader friendly. Buttons are labelled, and extra messages are spoken. You can reduce the extra TalkBack messages once you are familiar with the app, by turning On the Settings - Reduce TalkBack setting. This will shorten the messages spoken by TalkBack for the commonly used buttons. This app has large Record Pause Stop and Play buttons. When a button is pressed, a bright ring appears around the button. This design makes recording state visible even in sunlight, and from 20 feet away for sighted users. And should make it easier for low vision users as well. Remove buttons that you don't need from the screen, using Settings - Show Buttons. The app will give vibration feedback for Record, Pause and Stop. It will Buzz once for Record, Buzz-Buzz i.e. twice for Pause, and long Buzz for Stop. You can turn on sound feedback as well (which is Off by default) for Beep, Beep-Beep and long Beep sounds. Click Settings - Vibration and Sound - to set vibration and sound feedback settings. There are a variety of ways you can control recording: - Buttons - Widgets - Notifications - Launcher icons and Intents that can be used by Tasker app and Dimple.io NFC buttons There are also a number of ways you can record without TalkBack messages appearing in your recording: - Power button (works even when screen is locked) - Headset button - Volume Up/Down buttons - Ear Detect (uses proximity sensor) Record using Power button Note: Power button may not work for devices where the screen on and screen off is sluggish or slow when you press the Power button. This can happen on Marshmallow devices that are low-powered, or low on resources and are running TalkBack screen reader for blind users. On these devices sometimes the screen can take 5 seconds to turn on after you press the Power button. There is a solution to this - if you turn off the speaking of notifications on the lock screen, then screen on and screen off becomes faster, and Power button to record will work much better. Click Settings - Sounds and notifications - click on 'When device is locked' - and then change 'Show all content' to 'Do not show notifications'. The reason screen on and screen off events are important is because apps cannot directly access the Power button events, and have to rely on the screen on / screen off events to guess when the Power button was pressed. To Record using Power button, click 3 times on the Power button to Record/Stop. Turn On the Power Controls button on the left side of the screen to enable. The 'Power Button to Record' feature works even if the screen is dark (screen locked), and even when the app is not on the screen. Make sure any battery optimizer, or power saving app is turned off, or make sure that you have excluded our app from being optimized. This will ensure that Power Controls feature remains available and is not stopped by the battery optimizer or power saving apps. To change the behavior of the Power button, click Settings - Record Controls - Power click settings. You can change behavior to Record / Pause instead. Or use 3-clicks to Record and 4-clicks to Stop. Note that for the 4-click settings, you will have to wait 1 second before the 3 click action takes effect (this is to make sure there is no 4th click, before action is taken on the 3 click). Note that some TalkBack sounds may appear when Power button is pressed. TalkBack will usually say 'Screen On' and start announcing the time. You can use the proximity sensor to stop TalkBack from speaking, or just plug in earphones or headset to ensure that TalkBack sounds do not appear in the recording. Use wired earphones or headset to record Use wired earphones or headset to record (the monitoring feature will allow you to hear what is being recorded in real-time). All TalkBack sounds will also go to the earphones and will thus not disturb your recording. For monitoring to work, make sure you plug in earphones before you start recording. If you use a headset, recording will always be in Mono, since the headset microphone is Mono. You can turn off monitoring in earphones using Settings - Record Settings - Listen to Recording. Using wired headset button to Record, Pause and Stop Click on the headset button to Record, double-click to Pause, and long-press to Stop. TalkBack will issue messages which you can hear in your headset earphones. You can turn off Headset Button to Record in Settings - Record Controls. If you use a headset, recording will always be in Mono, since the headset microphone is mono. Note: the Headset button to record feature is On by default. So you just have to plug in a Headset into the earphone jack on your device, and can then click the Headset button to Record, Pause and Stop. Note: the Headset button to record feature will only work while the app is on the screen. The 'Power Button to Record' feature will be better for situations where you cannot see the screen, or where you are not sure if the app is on the screen or not. Using Volume Buttons to Record, Pause and Stop Using Volume Buttons to Record, Pause and Stop (this currently does not work for newer versions of TalkBack, but does work for Shine Plus and other screen readers). You can remove the messages that are spoken by turning Off the Setting - Record Controls - Button Messages setting. Note: the Volume button to record feature will only work while the app is on the screen. The 'Power Button to Record' feature will be better for situations where you cannot see the screen, or where you are not sure if the app is on the screen or not. Using Ear Detect to Record, using the proximity sensor Ear Detect is Off by default, so click the Ear Detect button on left side of screen to turn it On. You can now move phone close to you ear to Record and move it away to Pause, Stop or Play (depending on the Settings - Record Controls - Ear Detect Settings - Away from Ear behavior). So depending on the proximity sensor you can Record/Pause, Record/Stop or Record/Play. You can also keep the phone face down on a table to Record, and face up to Pause. TalkBack will only speak when you press the Stop button at the end, and will not appear in your recording, especially if it was Paused when you Stopped. With the Record/Stop setting, it will create a new audio file every time you move the Phone to your Ear and then away from your Ear. The Record/Play setting is useful for voice practice, where you want to Record and then immediately hear your voice. For that just bring the phone to your Ear to Record, and move it away to Play. Note: the Ear Detect feature will only work while the app is on the screen. The 'Power Button to Record' feature will be better for situations where you cannot see the screen, or where you are not sure if the app is on the screen or not. Record using voice command: 'Ok Google open Instant Record' Record using voice command: 'Ok Google open Instant Record' - which will launch the Instant Record launcher that is included in the app. This will start recording and open the app as well. You cannot use voice commands to stop recording, because the 'Ok Google' feature does not work if recording is in progress. 'Ok Google' only works when you are on the home screen. But you can make it work even when an app is on the screen - as this article suggests - How to get 'Ok Google' voice search on any screen: https://www.androidpit.com/how-to-get-ok-google-voice-search-on-any-screen. However, this setting does not seem to be available on all devices. If 'Ok Google' is not working for your device, check out this article - OK Google is not working: here's how to fix it: https://www.androidpit.com/ok-google-is-not-working-here-s-how-to-fix-it Audio Recorder and Field Recorder This app can be used as a voice recorder in heads-up situations, where you cannot look at the screen. The Ear Detect feature especially allows you to control recording without pressing any buttons. The app also has field recorder features - you can monitor recording in real-time (if you plug in earphones before you click on Record). Click on the Effects button on left side - it will show Volume, Equalizer and Pitch buttons. These can be adjusted in real-time while recording. The Volume can be used to increase recording volume for recording lectures, or to decrease to record a jet fighter. The 3-band Equalizer can be used to reduce some noise, by reducing the high frequency band. It's impact will be most apparent when you listen to the recording with earphones. The Pitch feature has been added for novelty applications - so you can sound like a giant or a chipmunk. Call Recorder Problems and Solutions This app can also record phone calls. To record phone calls manually, make sure the call has started, and then press Record button (recording will stop by itself when phone call ends). If you press Record button before the call starts, then that will be a regular audio recording, which will then be interrupted by the phone call. If you turn On the Notification Always On button (on the left side of screen), that will make it easy to access the Record button via the notification area. This will make it easy to press manually press Record, even during a phone call. Most users will just want to record calls automatically. For that, just turn on Call Record button on main screen (this button is also available as a widget). You can use this as the master control for Auto call recording. In addition, Incoming Auto and Outgoing Auto settings, and Floating Button during Call settings should be On in Settings - Call Recorder. Also check out Help - Call Recorder, or the call recording section in Help - FAQ. Phone call recording can be difficult to set up on some phones (i.e. not recording both sides of conversation). You may need to change settings using Settings - Call Recorder - Reset Call Recorder. Or e-mail us using Menu - Contact, and we will help you set up call recording for your device. If the default setting does not work, try the Samsung E7 setting. For Nexus devices, choose the Nexus setting - this uses the speakerphone but in a way which does not disturb phone call (follow the instructions there carefully to reduce in-call speakerphone volume). For Moto G devices running Android 6.0, choose the Moto 6.0 setting. For Moto G devices running Android 5.0, choose the Moto pre-6.0 setting - this uses the speakerphone but in a way which does not disturb phone call (follow the instructions there carefully to reduce in-call speakerphone volume). Use Help - Contact to e-mail us and we will help you find the best setting for your device. Help - Call Recorder includes the relevant section from the Help - FAQ related to call recording. Note: Phone call recording without informing the other person on the phone is illegal in many areas of the United States and other countries. The Folder button at the bottom-right of the screen shows you the Recordings Folder. Above that, the Call Folder button will show you the call recordings. So phone call recordings are stored in a separate sub-folder within the Recordings Folder. You can change these folder locations using Settings - File Management. Phone call recordings are organized into folder, with the folder name being the phone number. Play button The Play button remembers the last recording. This can help remind you what you last recorded. File Manager to play previous recordings Click on the Recordings Folder button, located above the Action on last recording button on bottom right, to browse through previous recordings using the currently chosen file manager. When you click on a file, Android will show a list of apps which can be used to play or edit this file. If you click on an audio player app, it will play the file. Click on an audio editor or ringtone editor app to edit the file. If you check the default checkbox before selecting the player, Android will remember that choice and not ask again. If there is only one player or editor app on your device, Android will not show a list but will instead directly play the file when you click on it. Changing the default player for recordings If you click on the default checkbox and then click on the player app you want to use, in the list of apps, then Android will remember your choice, and when you click on them, Android will then directly open your files in that chosen app. If you want to reverse this behavior, that is once again to be shown a list of apps when you click on a file in the file manager, then you can undo the default player choice. Go to Android Settings and then Applications. Find the default app in the list of apps and click on it to show the App information. Below the 'Clear Data' and 'Un install' buttons, in the section called 'Launch by default', click on the 'Clear Defaults' button. It will now say 'No defaults set'. Choice of File Managers In addition to the built in file manager, you can choose to use Total Commander File Manager, ES File Explorer, X-plore File Manager or ES File Explorer Pro. Total Commander gives better support for TalkBack for blind users. For example it gives better feedback when you select single or multiple files in TalkBack. If you choose these file managers, you will be taken to Google Play to download them when needed. Settings for Total Commander File Manager Total Commander is TalkBack friendly. For a better user experience, we recommend you make these additional changes to the Total Commander File Manager app settings. The Back button on Total Commander does not immediately exit the app, but instead takes you to the parent folder and only exits the app once you are at it's Top folder. To change this behavior so you only require one press of the Back button to exit the app, click on Menu, then Configure and set the option called: Exit via BACK Button, to On long press. This way you can use the Back button to go to the parent folder, but a long press on Back button will exit the app. The Total Commander File Manager ALREADY shows the most recent recordings at the top. Full featured File Managers to organize You can use the full featured file managers to organize your files, Copy, Delete, Rename, create new folders, or compress files or folders into ZIP files that are then easy to share with others. If you use the Total Commander File Manager, then you can use the FTP and other plugins available on Google Play for Total Commander. Changing the Recordings Folder Using Settings - File Management, you can change the location of the Recordings Folder, Call Folder, and the Cloud Folder. The Recordings Folder is the location where recordings are stored. The Call Folder is where the phone call recordings are stored. And the Cloud Folder is usually a sub-folder of the Recordings Folder, but you can change the location also. Saving recordings to the external SD card Starting with Kit Kat Android 4.4.2, Google has restricted access to the external SD card. With Lollipop, a new API was introduced so that apps could write to the external SD card again. However, this new API is different from the standard way of accessing storage, and therefore many apps (including this app) have not bothered to implement it. This means you cannot write to the external SD card. However, Android does allow writing to one specific folder (this is specific to each app - for our app it is this folder on the external SD card: Android/data/com.stereomatch.mp3.audio.recorder/files). However, this folder on the external SD card is temporary i.e. it will be deleted by Android if the app is ever uninstalled, and is thus not a safe place to put recordings. For more information, check out the section related to writing to external SD cards in the Help - FAQ. One minor side-effect of keeping Recordings Folder on external SD card can be if you have set Cloud Folder to internal storage (i.e. they are on different storage media). In that case when you do Action on last recording - Cloud (to move last recording to Cloud Folder), that move will fail (because our app is assuming the move is on the same media and can take place immediately). This problem does not arise for Trash and Favorites, since those are always sub-folders of the Recordings Folder. This problem also does not arise for Action on last recording - Ringtone, since there the last recording is copied to the Ringtone folder (at most 1MB of data is copied, to avoid copying too much data). Ear Detect to Record You can turn Ear Detect On and Off using the on screen button on the bottom left of the screen. Or you can turn Ear Detect Off permanently in Settings. If the Ear Detect is causing you problems, you can also remove the Ear Detect button from the screen - just click Settings - Show Buttons and then turn off the Ear Button setting there. Ear Detect will record whenever the phone is near your Ear, or whenever the phone is face down on a table. Ear Detect uses the Proximity Sensor and will Record whenever something comes close to the screen. Ear Detect makes it possible to record without thinking about whether one should pause during recording. If you forget what you want to say next, just move the phone away from your Ear. For recording lectures, or something important, you may want to disable Ear Detect using the on screen button so that recording is not interrupted by the Proximity Sensor. When Ear Detect is disabled, you can use the buttons to record, just like other audio recorder apps, or you could use Volume Buttons or Headset button to record as explained below. Ear Detect not available on tablets without phone functionality The Ear Detect feature uses the Proximity Sensor built into most phone devices. It may not be available on tablets that lack phone features. The Proximity Sensor is primarily used during phone calls to disable the screen so your Ear does not press the hang up button by mistake. Many manufacturers of tablets will therefore choose to not include the Proximity Sensor if the tablet has no phone functionality. Ear Detect for effortless pausing Effortlessly Pause recording by just moving phone away from Ear whenever you pause speaking. Compare this to other apps, where every time the user pauses in speaking, he has to make a small decision about whether he should pause the recording or let it continue. If you decide to pause the recording, it carries with it the one in 100 risk of wrongly pressing a button, and if you decide to let recording continue, that raises the tension level of the user if they are unable to think of what to say next. In fact, the process of thinking about whether to Pause or continue recording itself may hamper the user's ability to recall what they were wanting to say next. Ear Detect for reducing silent space in recordings With our app, the process of pausing the recording is natural, as you just move the phone away from the ear whenever you stop speaking. You are freer to think about what you were speaking, and your recordings also will have fewer instances of silent space. By reducing the COST of pausing and resuming, the user avoids having to make a conscious decision regarding pausing recording for every time that they pause speaking. Disable touchscreen near ear The touchscreen will be disabled when you bring the phone close to your Ear. This will help avoid button clicks when your Ear touches buttons on the screen. In addition, the screen will dim or darken when you hold the phone next to your ear, which will save battery power as well. You can turn Off this feature using Settings - Record Controls - Ear Detect Settings - Dim Screen near Ear. Dim or darken screen on timeout To make your phone screen dim or darken after a timeout period, set the Settings - Screen Timeout - Dim Screen on Timeout setting to On. The Timeout period and the degree of dimming or darkening on Timeout can be set in Settings as well. Blind users who wish to keep the screen darkened all the time to save battery power, may want to use the Android Display settings to always keep display brightness low, or may want to download one of the screen dimming applications available on Google Play store. Volume buttons to record You can use the Volume buttons on the side of your device to control recording. Volume buttons normally control the playback volume. But, if you set Volume Buttons to Record to On in Settings - Record Controls, then you can use Volume Up to Record, Volume Down to Pause and long press Volume Down to Stop. Just like the Pause button behavior, if you repeatedly press on the Volume Down button, it will first Pause recording, then Resume, then Pause and so on. TalkBack will issue messages about the recording state. You can turn off TalkBack messages for Volume Buttons in Settings. This can be useful if you want to use Volume Buttons to Record in public. Note that the Volume Buttons to Record feature does not work with TalkBack, but it does work with the Shine Plus screen reader (see below for more information). Volume buttons to record does not work with TalkBack Google has acknowledged that in the newer versions of TalkBack there is a bug which disallows use of the Volume Button by other apps while TalkBack is being used. Hopefully Google will fix this in a future update to TalkBack. While TalkBack has this issue, the Shine Plus screen reader works correctly with Volume Button control of recording. Here is the bug tracker webpage for this TalkBack issue: https://code.google.com/p/eyes-free/issues/detail?id=309 - Issue 309: Talkback Volume Up/Down OnKeyDown does not fire Volume buttons to record works well with Shine Plus screen reader If you are a Shine Plus user, then the Volume Buttons will work correctly. You will be able to Record, Pause and Stop using the Volume up and Volume down buttons. Volume Boost The Normal setting for Audio Source already provides some dynamic volume control or auto-gain. In addition, you can use Effects - Volume to change the recording volume in real-time while recording. However, you can also set a default volume boost using Settings - Record Settings - Volume Boost. This can be considered as an additional factor which will be applied to the recording volume. Setting volume boost can also be useful if you are recording without Android's auto-gain and noise reduction features - for example when you set Settings - Record Settings - Auto Source for Mono to RAW mode. In that case, you may want to set a volume gain manually, to get the right recording level. If you plug in earphones before you start Record, you will be able to monitor recording in real-time using earphones. Stereo Recording Uses the top and bottom microphones to record stereo. Switch to Airplane Mode to reduce noise in the top microphone. The noise can be caused on some devices by interference from the phone antennas. Airplane Mode shuts off the antennas. Hold phone in landscape mode. Use Earphones without built in microphones to record stereo. Or use without an Earphone. If you use a headset, then both channels will be the same, because the headset microphones are mono. Earphone jacks on Android and iOS devices only have pins for mono microphones. File size will be doubled with stereo. Only a few devices support Stereo recording. Most Samsung phones support stereo recording. The Google Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 phones did not support stereo recording, but the Nexus 5 does with Android 5.1.1 or later. Moto G and Moto X will record stereo Motorola Moto G and Moto X will only record stereo if you set Sample Rate to 48000 Hertz. Uncheck Auto Sample Rate in Settings and set Sample Rate to 48000 Hertz. However, for the Moto G a slight change in settings WILL allow you to record in stereo at ALL sample rates. In Settings, Record Settings, change Audio Source for Stereo from the default CAMCORDER setting to the NORMAL setting. This will now allow Moto G to record in stereo at all sample rates. Note: changing the Audio Source for Stereo settings will not affect the Audio Source for Mono settings. Nexus 5 running Android 5.1.1 can record stereo Nexus 5 running Android 5.1.1 and later CAN record stereo at ALL sample rates. In Settings, Record Settings, change Audio Source for Stereo from the default CAMCORDER setting to the NORMAL setting. This will now allow Nexus 5 to record in stereo at all sample rates. Note: changing the Audio Source for Stereo settings will not affect the Audio Source for Mono settings. Nexus 5 running Android versions earlier than 5.1.1 will NOT be able to record stereo. Nexus 6 has no stereo recording but it can be enabled for rooted devices Nexus 6, even with the Android 5.1.1 update, will not record in stereo. Nexus 6 has 3 microphones, like many other devices. However, it does not do stereo recording, even with the built in camcorder app. But stereo recording CAN be enabled for rooted Nexus 6 devices after some system file modifications. Reference: http://tinyurl.com/mo2m5k7 Nexus 4 will not record stereo The Nexus 4 does not support stereo recording. Compress audio to one tenth size Save recordings as uncompressed WAV files. Or save as compressed M P 3 or MP3 files. MP3 is a proprietary standard, and is the most widely recognized music and audio file standard, and is a paid feature. O G G or Ogg Vorbis is an open standard. MP3 files are about 12 times smaller than uncompressed WAV files at the default settings. OGG files are about 10 times smaller than uncompressed WAV at the default settings. Vibration feature for reliable recording Your phone will vibrate with distinctive vibration patterns when you Record Pause or Stop. This keeps you informed of recording state, so you don't have to look at the screen to confirm what is happening all the time. The phone will vibrate with one Buzz on Record start, two short Buzzes on Pause, and a long Buzz on Stop. With practice you will learn to sense recording state without having to think about it. Troubleshooting - if Vibration sound is appearing at start of recording Some devices will vibrate for longer or shorter period than others with the same app settings. If you find that the vibration feature is causing vibration to appear at the start of recordings, go into Settings and either decrease the Vibration Duration setting, or increase the Record Delay setting. You should be able to eliminate the vibration completely from your recording. Run App buttons - run other apps directly from our app This app provides the ability to directly run other apps of your choice. This makes switching between apps that are used together with our app much easier. Set up a Calendar app or a Calculator app for each of the 1 2 and 3 Run App buttons, which are located on the right edge of the screeni. To change the apps that the buttons are linked to, use Menu, then More, then click on Set Apps. CAUTION: Be careful in choosing apps, the apps listed will include system apps as well, and some system apps may not be runnable as apps. For example on Samsung phones, the Calendar Storage app is not the calendar app. The default calendar app is called S Planner. Set last recording as Ringtone, Notification or Alarm sound Click on Action on last recording button on the bottom right to show 6 new buttons. Rename, Trash, Favorites, Cloud, Share and Ringtone. Click on the Ringtone button. 3 new buttons will appear. Ringtone, Notification, and Alarm. You can click on these to set the last recording as the ringtone, notification or alarm sound. Note: Only the first megabyte or so of the last recording will be copied to avoid inadvertent copying of large files. View Ringtone, Notification and Alarm folders and manage default sounds Conveniently manage Ringtone, Notification and Alarm folders and set the default sounds for them right from our app. Click Settings - Ringtone Management. Sharing or Emailing files Click on Action on last recording button on the bottom right to show 6 new buttons. Rename, Trash, Favorites, Cloud, Share and Ringtone. Click on the Share button to share the last recording with Skype, Email, DropBox or other apps. Click on the Play button to listen to the last recording. To share earlier recordings, click Recordings Folder at bottom right, just above the Action button. The Folder button will show you your recorded files in the built in OI File Manager, or using Total Commander File Manager if you have selected that as your File Manager in settings. Within the File Manager, long press on the audio file, and then select Send or Share. For OI File Manager, click on top right on the 3 dot overflow menu icon and click on Send in the drop down menu. With Total Commander, long press on file and then select Send To from the drop down menu. Rename last recording Click on Action on last recording button on the bottom right to show 6 new buttons. Rename, Trash, Favorites, Cloud, Share and Ringtone. Click on the Rename button. A Rename dialog box will appear on screen. The Edit Box will show the current filename without the extension. And the caret will be aligned so you can append to the file name. Add something extra to the filename so you remember what the recording was about. Or completely change the filename. Press OK to change the filename, or Cancel if you decide not to rename after all. This provides a quick way to rename the last recording. In addition you could always use the Folder button and rename files or folders from within the file manager. Trash and Favorites buttons Click on Action on last recording button on the bottom right to show 6 new buttons. Rename, Trash, Favorites, Cloud, Share and Ringtone. The Trash and Favorites buttons are a way to remember which files you would like to delete later and which files seem great at the time of recording. The Trash button can be used like a Delete button, except it will just move the last recording to the Trash sub folder. You can later browse or delete this folder using Recordings Folder file manager. Trash as an alternative to a Delete button The Trash button is safer than a Delete button on screen, because a Delete button can be mistakenly pressed and is hard to reverse. The very presence of such a destructive button on screen can make a user become careful about all button presses, perhaps adding 100 milliseconds or more to every button-press choice they make. In contrast to that, the Trash and Favorites buttons are reversible, you can press the Trash button and then the Favorites button to mark the last recording as Favorites instead of Trash. However, some users may still want a permanent Delete button. We do provide a Discard button for immediate delete - we do not encourage it's use (it is hidden by default). You can enable it using Settings - Show Buttons - Action Buttons - Discard Button. Local Trash / Favorites vs. Top-level Trash / Favorites folders When Local Trash / Favorites is On, then Action - Trash / Favorite moves to Trash and Favorite sub-folders in the same folder as the recorded file. When Local Trash / Favorites is Off, then Action - Trash / Favorite moves to top-level Trash / Favorite sub-folders of the Recordings Folder (having only one Trash folder makes it easier to delete). If you have Daily Folders set to On in Settings - File Management, then you have a choice of having Action - Trash / Favorites move the recorded file to Trash / Favorites sub-folders that are within the Daily Folders, or to move to Trash / Favorites at the top-level. Having Trash / Favorites sub-folders within the Daily Folder allows you to separate one day's trash from another. Keeping Trash / Favorites at the top level makes it easy to delete files, since there is only one Trash and Favorites sub-folder created. Cloud folder and Cloud storage services Click Action - Share to share the last recording with Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, OneDrive apps, to upload to your cloud storage service. You can also use the built-in file manager to share previous recordings. However, the Action - Cloud button provides a convenient way to move the last recording to a Cloud folder. You can customize the location using Settings - File Management - Choose Cloud Folder. The default location for the Cloud folder is at the top level in the Recordings Folder. The Cloud folder is just a convenient way to organize, like the Trash and Favorites folders. Except the Cloud folder is always at the top level, while the Trash and Favorites folders can be set to be at top level or be created within each Daily Folder. Recordings placed into the Cloud folder will NOT be automatically synchronized with your cloud storage service. However, if you use an app like DropSync, available on Google Play, you can set it up to automatically synchronize the Cloud folder with Dropbox. Now any recording you move to the Cloud folder will automatically be synchronized with Dropbox. Screen layout Symmetrical screen layout The Record Pause Stop and Play buttons are arranged vertically in the center of the screen. This positions them directly below your thumb for easy operation. This layout ensures that the application is easy to use for both left and right handed users. Screen layout Date and Time The Date and Time are shown at the top of the app. This was added because users often need to remember both the date and time that they are making a recording, or would like to speak that at the start of recording. The Date and Time are therefore provided for convenience. The Date and Time will be spoken so that, if you click or swipe on left side of this area you will hear the Date, and if you click or swipe on the right side of this area, you will hear the Time. Screen Layout Counter for Record and Play The Counter is a wide horizontal area just below the Date and Time area at the top and just above the Record button. With TalkBack on, you can touch or swipe across the Counter area, to hear the elapsed time and the number of clips in the recording. The clips roughly tell you how many times the recording was paused and resumed. When playing it will tell you the time remaining for playback. It will also tell you if there is no recording or playing taking place, that is the app is in the stopped state. Use the Counter area to always be aware of the current state of the app. Screen Layout Recording buttons Below the counter are the Record Pause Stop and Play buttons. On the bottom left of the screen, the Ear Detect button allows you to turn the Ear Detect feature On and Off. Screen layout Recordings Folder The Recordings Folder button is located just above the Action on last recording button on the bottom right. The Recordings Folder button will launch the OI File Manager which is built into our app, or use Total Commander. Blind users should switch to the FREE Total Commander File Manager instead in Settings, which has better Accessibility support for TalkBack. You will be taken to Google Play when needed if you don't have it already installed. If you click on a file in the file manager, Android will show a list of audio players if you have more than one such player apps on your device. You can choose one as the default as well. To remove an app as the default later, go to Android Settings, and then Applications, and then the app, and then click the Clear Defaults button for that app. Screen layout Cloud Folder The Cloud Folder is located just above the Recordings Folder at the bottom-right of the screen. This will show the Cloud Folder using the current file manager. The Cloud Folder is a sub-folder of the Recordings Folder. However you can change it's location using Settings - File Management - Choose Cloud Folder. Screen layout Call Folder The Call Folder is located just above the Cloud Folder at the bottom-right of the screen. This will show the Call Folder using the current file manager. The Call Folder is a sub-folder of the Recordings Folder. However you can change it's location using Settings - File Management - Choose Call Folder. Screen Layout Play recent recording The Play button will play the last recording you made with the app. There is a Large Play button located below the Stop button. And there is a Play button also located just above the Folder button on the bottom-right. You can choose which one you want to show or hide on screen using Settings - Show Buttons. Screen Layout Run Application buttons The 1 2 and 3 Run Application buttons are located on the right edge of the screen. These will allow you to run any of your installed apps directly from our app, without having to go looking for them on your Home Screen etc. For example, you may choose to point one button to the DropSync app which allows you to synchronize any folder on your device to your DropBox account. And maybe the second button to run the phone or calculator app. And the third button maybe to run another audio recorder app. You can also remove these buttons if you like, just use the Show Buttons section in Settings. Device Issues Some Android Phones will not work with the default recording settings. You can try setting Sample Rate setting to 16000Hz and then restart the phone. If you are still unable to record, please email us, and we will try to fix the issue. Contact Us Use the Email Feedback button in the Menu to contact us. Send us suggestions for improvement.