Day 28 – Audio Recording and Editing with the Surface RT
30 Days with a Surface RT for TeachersTeaching and Learning with a Windows 8 Tablet
It is a Saturday and today I am writing this at home on my Dell XPS laptop that is running Windows 8. I just signed into this laptop with my Microsoft Account after about a week of non-use and I just opened up Word 2013. It was great being greeted by my blog post from Day 27 (yesterday) in the recent documents section of Word.
Since I save the blog postings I am working on for this series to SkyDrive it is convenient to have them immediately available to me from any trusted device I use with my Microsoft Account. This syncing of content just happens without me even thinking about it. I did not have to sign-in to SkyDrive, go to the file manager and find my file in SkyDrive. My most recent Word documents from SkyDrive were just there waiting for me in Word 2013, nice!
Like many teachers I use Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote regularly and often create multimedia content. Today I would like to explore the audio creation side of the Surface RT and have a couple of audio app picks.
Pocket Recorder
The first audio pick for the Surface RT is Pocket Recorder. Pocket Recorder is an extremely simple to use audio recording app. When you open the app you will see a big icon with a microphone that is labeled “Start Recording”. Just click this icon and you immediately begin to record. 
There is a timer that begins to keep track of the recording time and you simply press the stop icon to stop the recording.
When you are finished recording you can swipe up from the bottom of the screen (or press Windows Key and Z) to bring up the app bar for additional choices. From the app bar you can Search, Group by Category, Delete, Edit, Export to MP3, Clear Library, and Pin Start Recording Task.
If you Pin the Start Recording Task a Tile will be placed on the Start Screen that is for instant one-button recording, just press this tile and you immediately begin to record audio. It doesn’t get much simpler than that.
Pocket Recorder also has the ability to Share a recording using the Charms bar to SkyDrive. If you want to have access to your recordings from any device you use with your Microsoft Account this is an easy way to access your recordings across multiple devices.
I also use the Pocket Recorder app on my Windows Phone and it has similar functionality. Having a phone app is often times more convenient because I almost always have my phone clipped-on to my belt. When I want to make an audio note on the spur of the moment I just use my Windows Phone and Pocket Recorder. These short audio notes are great for reminding me about things I want/need to do.
Files are saved with a date and timestamp. I am not sure what the recording limit is as I have been using this app for quick recordings under ten minutes. Going much more than this is probably pushing the Surface RT, especially when it comes to the audio editing process of larger files.
Lexis Audio Editor
Speaking of audio editors I have been using the trial version of the Lexis Audio Editor for some small editing jobs on the Surface RT. This is a very nice editor for single track audio edits. There is also a paid version in the Windows Store but I am not sure what additional functionality is provided, if any beyond removing ads.
I really do like the Lexis Audio Editor as it is pretty intuitive to use. Below is a screen shot with the app bar showing the different capabilities for editing.
I still have not found a suitable replacement for Audacity for my audio editing needs. Audacity is a fantastic multi-track editor and I need multi-track editing capabilities for producing my TechTalk4Teachers podcast.
Since the Surface RT has a USB port it is easy enough to copy my recordings from the Surface RT to a USB drive and edit the audio files on a x86 computer that will run Audacity. Or, I could also save my audio files from the Surface RT to SkyDrive and access them on any x86 computer running Windows 8 that supports Audacity.
These are workarounds but I am still looking for a good multi-track audio editor that works on the Surface RT similar to Audacity. If you know of a good one that is in the Windows Store please let me know.
When I have an audio recording I want to keep after editing with Lexis Audio Editor I select Export to MP3 to save the recording out to a folder of my choice and with a filename that makes sense to me. Having a file management system helps me keep track of all the projects I have going on.
I have been using the Surface RT more and more and while I would not say that the Surface RT is a full replacement for my laptop, it is getting close. The Surface RT is handling about 80% of my needs but there are occasions that require a different device for the job.
It will be no shocker that I need a more powerful computer to handle heavier video and audio editing duties but the Surface RT can handle many of the smaller audio and video editing jobs.
Until next time...
Keep on Learning,
Keep on Learning,
Tom Grissom, PhD
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@tomgrissom
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