AudioSharp

The voice recording utility that comes with Windows may be easy to use, but it is not exactly the most powerful app out there. Thankfully, plenty of replacements are available, many of them free and open-source.

AudioSharp is a compact, intuitive application that offers a handful of useful features but still keeps things simple. It can export content to WAV or MP3, and it is very unobtrusive.

The installation process is not complex by any means, and the program should detect all available recording devices automatically. You can switch between them at any time, as well as control the input volume.

AudioSharp can export your recordings to WAV or MP3, but it isn’t possible to control the bit rate when selecting the latter format. However, it is nice to see that you can set up a custom file naming scheme.

If you want to keep this application out of sight, you can minimize it to the system tray and start, pause or stop recordings directly from the tray menu.

Alternatively, you have the option of using configurable global hotkeys to manage recordings and mute or unmute the selected microphone.

I was impressed by the intuitive, clear-cut GUI layout, not to mention the fact that it is possible to hide the Settings and Output panels from the main window. When doing so, the application takes up a minimal amount of screen space, and it can also be set to remain on top of all other windows.

It is worth mentioning that I ran into a small bug during testing, as the program crashed whenever I attempted to open the output folder from the Tools menu. Not a major issue, but noteworthy nonetheless.

To sum up, AudioSharp is a well-designed recording tool that comes with a decent set of features while also being very novice-friendly. It’s not perfect, but it is certainly an option to consider.