Voice Note Recorder

Voice notes let you record a short audio explanation and attach it to text in your study note. Speaking a concept out loud is one of the most powerful ways to test and strengthen your understanding.

Voice notes work the same on every plan. There is no limit on them in the app beyond the 60 seconds per recording.

Why Voice Notes?

Recording yourself explaining concepts offers unique learning benefits:

Verbal Practice

The Feynman Technique emphasizes teaching concepts out loud. Voice notes let you practice this without needing an audience.

Authentic Understanding

You can't hide behind fancy words when speaking. If you stumble or can't explain clearly, you've identified a gap in your understanding.

Auditory Learning

For auditory learners, hearing yourself explain concepts reinforces memory more effectively than reading or writing.

Quick Capture

Voice notes are faster than typing or writing, which makes them handy for capturing a sudden insight while you read.

Natural Expression

Speaking feels more natural than writing for many people, leading to more authentic explanations in your own voice.

Ways to Work with Voice Notes

Create a Voice Note on New Text

Select text in the Reading tab and choose Voice. The selected text becomes a highlight linked to your recording.

Add Another Note to an Existing Highlight

Tap a highlight that already has notes, then under Add Another choose Voice to attach one more recording to the same text.

Play a Voice Note Back

Tap a voice note to open a player with a progress bar and a Play button. You can only listen to a saved voice note. To change it, record a new one.

Creating a Voice Note

To create a new voice note:

After saving, the text you selected is highlighted with a double underline, which marks a highlight that has a note attached.

The Recording Interface

Status Pill

The pill in the recorder's header shows where you are: READY before you start, RECORDING (with a red dot) while recording, PAUSED while paused, and RECORDED after you stop.

Record Button

The red microphone button starts a recording. While you are recording, the big button becomes Stop.

Pause and Resume

While recording, a small Pause button sits beside Stop. Once paused, the controls change to a red Resume button and Stop. Resume is a separate button, not the same button toggling.

Clock

A large clock shows your elapsed time with "of 01:00" beneath it (for example, 00:23 of 01:00). The clock stops while you are paused.

Waveform

While you are recording or paused, a waveform of your audio levels appears. It shows roughly the last five seconds, so it is a quick way to confirm the microphone is picking up your voice. It is not shown once you stop.

Leaving Without Saving

Tap the back arrow at the top left. Notesmakr asks "Discard recording?" and explains that your recording has not been saved. Choose Discard to leave, or Keep recording to stay.

After Recording

Once you stop, you can review the voice note before saving.

Playback Controls

• Play: listen to your recording
• Pause or Stop during playback
• Seek bar: tap or drag the progress bar to jump to a point in the recording

Options

• Save: keep the recording (in the top bar)
• Re-record: discard the take and record again
• Trash icon in the recorder's header: delete the take and go back to the start, without a confirmation

What to Record in Voice Notes

Explain a Concept

The core of the Feynman Technique is to explain a concept as if teaching someone:

Example:

"Okay, so photosynthesis is basically how plants make their own food. Imagine you're a plant—you can't go to a store and buy a sandwich, right? So what do you do? You use sunlight as your energy source. You take in carbon dioxide from the air through tiny holes in your leaves called stomata, and you pull water up from the soil through your roots. Then, using energy from the sun, you combine the CO₂ and water in a chemical reaction that produces glucose—which is sugar, the plant's food—and releases oxygen as a waste product. That oxygen is what we breathe! So basically, plants are solar-powered sugar factories that give us oxygen as a bonus."

Since a recording ends at 60 seconds, a full explanation like this one works best split across a few voice notes, one idea each.

Talk Through a Problem

Verbally work through a math problem, logic puzzle, or case study:

Example:

"Let's see... if I have $1,000 and I'm earning 5% compound interest annually, after one year I'd have $1,050. But in year two, I'm not just earning 5% on the original $1,000—I'm earning 5% on the new total of $1,050. So that's $52.50 in interest in year two, bringing me to $1,102.50. And then in year three, I earn 5% on that amount... Okay, I'm seeing the pattern now—it snowballs because you're earning interest on your interest. That's why they call it compound interest!"

Ask Questions Out Loud

Voice your confusion and questions. Speaking them often helps clarify your thinking:

Example:

"Wait, I'm confused about something. If plants need carbon dioxide for photosynthesis, and we're told that CO₂ is bad for the environment, isn't that contradictory? Plants should want more CO₂, right? Hmm... I think the issue is that TOO MUCH CO₂ causes problems like global warming, even though plants use it. But maybe I need to research this more—why is extra CO₂ bad if plants use it? I'll look that up."

Create Verbal Mnemonics

Record memory aids, rhymes, or acronyms:

Example:

"Here's how I remember the taxonomy levels: King Philip Came Over For Good Soup. Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. King Philip Came Over For Good Soup!"

Teach Step-by-Step Processes

Walk through procedures or sequences:

Example:

"The steps for solving a quadratic equation using the quadratic formula: Step one, identify your a, b, and c values from the equation. Step two, plug those into the formula: x equals negative b, plus or minus the square root of b squared minus four a c, all over two a. Step three, simplify the discriminant—that's the part under the square root. If it's positive, you have two solutions. If it's zero, you have one. If it's negative, you have no real solutions. Step four, solve for both the plus and minus versions to get your two x values."

Reflect on What Worked

Capture meta-learning insights about your study strategies:

Example:

"I just realized that drawing diagrams really helps me understand this topic way better than just reading the textbook. I should start with a visual every time I learn something new in biology. Also, teaching my little brother actually helped me see that I didn't really understand the difference between mitosis and meiosis—I kept mixing them up when I tried to explain. That's something I need to work on."

Capture Spontaneous Insights

Record "aha!" moments as they happen:

Example:

"Oh! I just realized why this matters! If DNA is the recipe book and RNA is the chef, then mutations are like typos in the recipe book! Some typos might not matter—like if you write 'solt' instead of 'salt,' you can still figure it out. But some typos could completely ruin the recipe, like saying 'one cup of salt' instead of 'one teaspoon.' That's what genetic diseases are—typos in the DNA recipe that cause the protein to be made wrong. This analogy really helps me understand!"

Recording Tips

Find a Quiet Space

Background noise can be distracting and make it hard to hear yourself during playback. Find a quiet room or use headphones with a microphone.

Speak Clearly

Articulate your words, but speak naturally. There's no need to sound formal or robotic.

Use Conversational Language

Imagine explaining to a friend over coffee, not giving a lecture. Use "you" and "I" freely.

Don't Worry About Perfection

Pauses, "um"s, and corrections are fine. They show authentic thinking.

Explain, Don't Just State

Don't just list facts. Explain why and how. Say "This happens because..." not just "This happens."

Add Context

Start with a brief intro: "I'm going to explain photosynthesis in simple terms" helps you (and future you listening back) know what to expect.

Keep It Focused

Each voice note is limited to 60 seconds, so focus on one concept or question per recording. It's better to create several short, focused voice notes than try to cram everything into one.

Watch the Clock

Nothing warns you as the limit approaches. Keep an eye on the clock, and wrap up before 01:00 so the recording does not cut you off mid-sentence.

Playback and Study

Play a Voice Note

Tap the highlighted text in the Reading tab (the one with the double underline) to see its notes. Each voice note shows its title and length, with a Play button and a trash icon. On an iPad in landscape, you can also open the Annotations panel from the top bar and tap a voice note there. Either way, a player slides up with a progress bar, the elapsed and total time, and a Play/Pause button.

Needs a Connection

Voice notes are stored online, and the app loads the recording each time you play it ("Loading the recording..."). If you are offline you will see "Error playing audio" with a Retry button. Saving also needs a connection. If a save fails, the recording stays on screen ("Could not save") so you can try again.

Review Your Explanations

Listen back to hear how you explained concepts. Often, you'll notice:

• Parts where you were confident and clear
• Parts where you hesitated or got confused
• Mistakes in your understanding
• Good analogies and explanations to reuse

Use for Pre-Test Review

Listening to your own explanations before a test reinforces memory and builds confidence.

Managing Voice Notes

Name Them When You Save

The title is set once, before you save, and there is no way to rename a voice note afterwards. Give each one a descriptive title so you can find it later:

• "Photosynthesis Explanation"
• "Quadratic Formula Step-by-Step"
• "Questions About Mitosis"

Delete a Voice Note

Tap the highlighted text to open its notes, tap the trash icon on the voice note's row, and confirm Delete when asked "Are you sure you want to delete this annotation?". This also removes the recording itself. The Annotations panel does not have delete buttons, so use the highlight's notes to delete.

The highlight dialog also has Delete Highlight, which removes the highlight and all the notes on it, not just the voice note.

Audio Quality Tips

Microphone Positioning

Hold your device 6-12 inches from your mouth for best quality.

Avoid Wind and Noise

Don't record outdoors or near fans, air conditioning, or other noise sources.

Test First

Record a few seconds and play it back to ensure audio quality before recording a longer explanation. If you don't like the take, tap Re-record.

Use Headphones

If recording in a slightly noisy environment, headphones with a built-in microphone can improve quality.

Editing Voice Notes

Voice notes cannot be edited after saving, and there is no trimming. If you need to make changes, you have two options:

Option 1: Use Re-record Before Saving

Before you save your recording, tap Re-record to discard it and start over.

Option 2: Create a New Recording

If you've already saved the voice note:

1. Tap the highlighted text and play the voice note to find what needs improvement
2. Tap Voice under Add Another to record a new one with the corrected explanation
3. Delete the old version if you no longer need it

Technical Details

Recording Format

Voice notes are recorded as AAC audio (128 kbps, 44.1 kHz).

Recording Duration

Each individual voice note is limited to 60 seconds. You can attach as many voice notes as you need.

Voice Notes Are Not Transcribed

Notesmakr saves the audio only. Voice notes are not converted to text.

Permissions

Microphone Access

Notesmakr needs microphone permission to record voice notes. You can change it in your device settings at any time. If access is off, the Open settings button in the app takes you there.

Next Steps

Combine voice notes with other formats for comprehensive annotations:

• Use Typed Note Editor for detailed written explanations
• Use Handwritten Note Editor for visual diagrams

Together, these three formats create a powerful multi-modal learning experience that engages your brain in different ways!