1. Recording with the Book port Plus
Unit Three

2. Introduction
So far in this training series, we have focused on the Book Port as a versatile and feature-rich playback device for a wide variety of audio and text-based documents. In this unit, however, we will focus on the device’s digital recording capabilities, features and functionality.
In module one, you learned how to record and set voice bookmarks, which are brief recorded annotations associated with a specific location in a specific document. In this unit you will learn how to create, play and edit two additional types of files: voice memos and standard digital recordings.

3. Voice memos

4. Voice Memos
The simplest form of recording is a voice memo. Voice memos are typically used to note a class assignment, phone number, reminder or similar bit of information and are limited to a maximum of one minute in length. They are stored in the Book Port Plus’s internal memory. The memory allocated for voice memos can accept up to two hundred memos or thirty minutes of recording time, whichever is greater.

5. Recording a Voice Memo
To record a voice memo, perform the following steps:
Press and hold the Record key. The device will announce “Voice memo” and beep twice.
Following the beeps, continue to hold the Record key and begin dictating your memo in a normal voice. Remember that you have a maximum of one minute per recording.
When you have finished, release the Record key. The device will play the recording, the waiting chimes will sound and then return to the current title.

6. Accessing Voice Memos
To access all voice memos, perform the following steps:
Repeatedly press the Title key until the device announces, “Voice memo” followed by a number. The recording will begin to play immediately and will be followed by an announcement of its creation date and time.
Use the Left- and Right-Arrow keys to move backward and forward through the list of voice memos.
If you know the assigned number of a particular voice memo you would like to listen to, press the Go To key and enter the number on the numeric keypad followed by pressing the Play/Stop key to go directly to and play it.

7. Deleting Voice Memos
To delete voice memo(s), perform the following steps:
Use the procedure detailed above to locate the voice memo to be deleted.
Press the Menu key to enter the menu system.
Use the Left- or Right-Arrow key to scroll through the main menu until you reach the “Voice Memo” submenu. Press the Down-Arrow or Enter (#) key to enter the submenu.

8. Deleting Voice Memos (continued)
The default menu option is “Delete the selected voice memo.” To select this option, press the Down-Arrow or Enter key. The selected voice memo will be played and you will be asked to confirm your selection. Press either the Down-Arrow or Enter key a second time. The voice memo will be erased and focus will return to the voice memo(s) list. To cancel this operation, press the Up-Arrow or Cancel (*) key.
To erase all voice memos, use the Left- or Right-Arrow keys to select this option from the Voice Memo submenu and follow the procedure described above to select and confirm this action.
Note: If a voice memo is deleted, all the other voice memos will change numbers. For example, if voice memo 1 out of 4 is deleted, voice memo 2 will become voice memo 1, voice memo 3 will become voice memo 2, etc... .

9. Activity One
Working with Voice Memos

10. Working with Voice Memos
Turn on the Book Port Plus.
Press and hold the Record key. The device will announce “Voice Memo” and beep twice.
Following the beeps, continue to hold the Record key and dictate a brief note. When you have finished, release the Record key. The device will immediately play back your recording followed by the waiting chime.
Once the waiting chime stops, repeat steps two and three above to ad one or two additional voice memos to the memory.
Repeatedly press the Title key until the device announces “Voice Memo” followed by the number of the most recently recorded note. Then the voice memo will be played followed by an announcement of its creation date and time.

11. Working with Voice Memos
Repeatedly press the Title key until the device announces “Voice Memo” followed by the number of the most recently recorded note. Then the voice memo will be played followed by an announcement of its creation date and time.
Use the Left- and Right-Arrow keys to cycle through and play all of the voice memos you recorded. Note that this list does not wrap like the main menu and submenus.
Press the Go To key and enter a valid voice memo number followed by the Enter key. Note that the number of the voice memo is announced, but the recording is not played. Press the Play/Stop key to play the recording. Alternatively, simply press Play/Stop instead of pressing the Enter key following the numeric input to immediately move to and play the selected voice memo.
Use the Go To key or Left- and Right-Arrow keys to select a voice memo.

12. Working with Voice Memos
Press the Menu key to enter the menu system. Use the Left- or Right-Arrow key to cycle through the main menu until you find the “Voice Memo” submenu. Press the Down-Arrow or Enter key to enter this submenu. The default menu item should be “Delete The Selected Voice Memo.” If it is not, use the Left- or Right-arrow key to find this option. Use the Down-Arrow or Enter key to select it. The device will play the recording and then announce “You are about to delete the selected voice memo. Are you sure?” Press the Down-Arrow or Enter key to confirm your choice. The device will announce, “Please wait … deleted.” If you do not want to delete the selected memo, press the Up-Arrow or Cancel key to cancel the operation.
Continue practicing recording, playing and deleting voice memos until you are comfortable with these operations.
When you are comfortable working with voice memos, press the Menu key to enter the menu system and use the Left- or Right-arrow keys to go to the “Voice Memo” submenu. Enter the submenu with a press of the Down-Arrow or Enter key. Use the Left- or Right-Arrow key to locate the “Delete All Voice Memos” option and select it with a press of the Down-Arrow or Enter key. The device will announce, “You are about to delete all voice memos. Are you sure?” Press the Down-Arrow or Enter key to confirm your choice. The device will announce, “Please wait … deleted.” If you do not want to delete all voice memos, press the Up-Arrow or Cancel key to cancel the operation.

13. Standard Digital recordings

14. Standard “Regular” Digital Recordings
“While Voice Memos provide an easy method for making quick and short recordings, Book Port Plus offers one of the highest quality recording experiences available with its regular recording functionality. It offers a wide variety of settings to precisely control the recording, and it provides unparalleled accessibility during the recording process.” -(Book Port Plus User’s Guide, American Printing House for the Blind, Inc., © 2013, 03/17/2016 revision)

15. Standard “Regular” Digital Recordings (continued)
The easiest way to make a recording using the Book Port Plus is to simply press the Record key to enter Record Pause mode. The device announces, “Starting DAISY editing mode” followed by the status of several recording options and some brief instructions. For now, ignore the announcements and wait for the device to stop speaking. Then press the Record key a second time to begin recording. Press the Record key again to pause the recording and again to resume. Press the Play/Stop key to stop the recording process and if you press the Record key once, Play/Stop will exit “DAISY editing mode”. If you make a recording, press the title key to exit “DAISY editing mode”.

16. Standard “Regular” Digital Recordings (continued)
Recordings are stored in a folder labeled “Recording” on the currently selected storage media, e.g., SD card or USB. They are accessed and played in the same way as any other titles stored on the device.
Note: If you press the record key and the player responds, “Cannot record this media,” The device’s focus is most likely on the voice memos list in the internal memory. You cannot make a regular recording using the internal memory. Press the title key once to return focus to the SD card and then press the Record key again.

17. Activity Two
Standard Recording

18. Standard Recording
Press the Record key and listen to the resulting announcements and instructions. Ignore all of them for now.
Press the Record key a second time. The device will beep and begin recording. Record a brief message, sound or series of sounds. When you have finished, press the Record key to enter record-pause.
Resume your recording with another press of the Record key and continue your recording.
When you have finished, press the Play/Stop key to end the recording. The device will beep to indicate that the recording process has been stopped, briefly play the busy chimes and then announce the selected media and folder (Recording) before playing the first few seconds of the recording.

19. Standard Recording (continued)
Press the Title key. The device will announce, “Exit DAISY editing mode, are you sure?” Press the Enter key to confirm the action. The player will exit the recording mode and return to the current title.
Press the Up-Arrow key twice to enter category selection. Use the Left- or Right-Arrow key to cycle through the categories until you find “Recordings.”
Press the Down-Arrow key twice to return to title selection. The device will play the first few seconds of the first recording in the folder. If there are multiple recordings in the folder, the Left- and Right-Arrow keys can be used to cycle through them.
Select the recording you just made and press Play/Stop to begin playback.

20. Recording Options
The Book Port Plus has advanced or specialized features and functions which are beyond the scope of this unit. For information regarding the advanced recording options and functions not discussed here, please refer to the user’s guide.

21. Changing Recording Options
While in recording mode, some of the Book Port Plus’s keys are reassigned to perform recording-specific functions or adjust a variety of recording parameters as follows:
Record: Starts and pauses recording
Menu: Opens the “Recording” menu
Title: Turns on and off the signal level feedback
Bookmark: Turns on and off the signal monitor
Play/Stop: Cancels Recording Stand-by (exits recording mode)
Information (5): Announces Recording status and current settings as well as battery level and other useful information

22. Adding to an existing recording
It is important to note that, when you press the Record key and enter record stand-by, you are NOT necessarily about to begin a new recording. If the currently selected title happens to be a recording, the device assumes that you wish to add to that title. If you wish to start a new recording, you must use the Right-Arrow key to scroll through the recordings title list until you reach the last entry which is “New Title.” Use the Left- or Right-Arrow key to find a recording you would like to add to, if that is your goal. Note, however, that this titles list, unlike all others, does not rap. This means that when you reach the beginning of the list, e.g., title 1, you must begin using the Right-Arrow key to begin moving forward through the list and when you reach the end of the list, e.g., “New Title” you must begin using the Left-Arrow key to begin scrolling backwards through the list.

23. Adding to an existing recording continued
To add (append) to an existing recording, enter record stand-by and use the Left- or Right-Arrow key to locate the recording within the recordings list. Another press of the Record key starts the recording process and the new material will be appended to the end of the selected recording. Unlike cassette tape recording, the reading point does not have to be at the end of the existing recording to append additional material at that position.
For example: a student can be in the middle of listening to a previous recording, and without losing his place can continue to add to the end of the recording without fast forwarding.

24. Activity Three
Add to a Recording

25. Add to an Existing Recording
Press the Record key to enter record stand-by.
Use the Left- or Right-Arrow key to locate the recording you made in Activity Two. Press the Record key and append additional material to the end of your original recording.
Press the Record key to return to record stand-by and Play/Stop to stop that specific recording session.
Locate and play your recording as described in steps 5-8 of Activity Two. Note the new material appended to the end of the original recording.

26. Summary

27. Summary
As you have discovered in this unit, The Book Port Plus, in addition to being a very versatile and feature-rich playback device is also a very powerful digital recorder. From simple recordings such as voice memos to fully indexed DAISY audio books, the device provides the user with a wide variety of fully accessible recording parameters and functions which can be used to produce professional-quality results. Although a full explanation of some of the parameters and functions was beyond the scope of this unit, you are strongly encouraged to read about them in the device’s user’s guide as well as do some experimentation on your own.

28. Summary continued
Upon successful completion of this unit, you should be able to describe how to:
Record a voice memo.
Locate and play back a specific voice memo.
Delete specific as well as all recorded voice memos.
Enter record stand-by, begin, pause, resume and stop recording.
Exit “DAISY Editing Mode” and return to the currently selected title.
Locate and play back a recording.
Start a new recording and append to an existing recording.
Access the “Recording” menu using both methods and the options available within that menu.
Locate and move or copy a recording made on the Book Port from a portable storage device to a computer.