Microcone Recorder Support
Below you will find some video tutorials and quick tips to using Microcone Recorder, as well as the latest drivers for the Microcone device. If you have any other issues, please contact our technical support at support@dev-audio.com
Video Tutorials
Getting Started
Speech to Text Conversion
Annotating Meetings
Microcone Remote
Quick Tips for Recording Meetings with the Microcone
To achieve the best quality recordings of your meetings, give thought to the position of the Microcone device and the meeting participants before you start. The optimal configuration is for the Microcone to be placed on a small table with participants seated around it. In particular:
- Each person should try to align with one of the flat facets of the Microcone and sit within 1-2 metres of it.
- People should try to be evenly distributed around the Microcone. That is, for a 2 person meeting, have the people face each other with the device in the centre. For a 3 person meeting, have people seated approximately 120 degrees apart with the device in the centre.
- As one of its features to reduce background noise, the device favours speech directed towards it. This means that people should speak towards, or "over" the device as much as possible, rather than face away from it.
- To minimise noise and distraction, it is best to have the recording computer placed away from the group and facing away from them.
- While the Microcone enhances speech and reduces background noise, best quality is obtained in a quiet room, so always close doors and windows and turn off any noisy equipment if possible.
- The above points should be taken as guidelines to achieve optimal performance, rather than strong constraints on the group's interaction.
During recording, the software is continuously streaming high quality multi-channel audio to the storage directory on disk. For this reason, it is best to have your database stored on the computer's internal hard disk, rather than an external drive. You should also avoid using other disk-intensive applications during recording.
Latest Drivers
- Mac OS X* : Download Latest Installation Package (26 April 2012, 7.5 MB zipped .pkg file) 17 May 2012: Note to users on Mac OS X who have updated to the latest version 10.7.4. Apple have acknowledged an issue with the Audio USB driver under 10.7.4 that prevents loading of the Microcone driver. This will be rectified in an upcoming update from Apple. In the meantime, advanced users may work around the issue by adding an entry to the Apple Audio USB driver Info.plist setting OSBundleCompatibleVersion to 1.8.8b1 Contact support@dev-audio.com if you require further details.
- Windows 7: Download Beta Driver Installation. (26 April 2012, 4.4 MB, Open self-extracting executable, then run Setup).
Latest Firmware
12 May 2012: This Firmware Update resolves a known issue with audio quality at peak input levels:
- Mac OS X : Download Latest Firmware Updater (download, unzip, connect Microcone and double click on MicroconeUpdater).
- Windows 7 : Download Latest Firmware Updater (download, unzip, connect Microcone and double click on MicroconeUpdater).
Microcone Console Quick Start Guide
Microcone Console is a simple control panel application installed with the Microccone drivers.
- Connect the Microcone USB device to your Mac or PC.
- Install the Microcone Driver (downloads below).
- Restart if requested by the install software.
- Open your favourite audio processing software, such as Audacity, LineIn, Skype, GarageBand, etc.
- Select Microcone as the input microphone device.
- Open Microcone Console (installed under Applications on Mac, or to the Start Menu on Windows).
- Use the audio processing application to start recording, monitoring or transmitting audio.
- Use Microcone Console to control and visualise the Microcone's different directional streams.