Review: Easi-Speak (TTS)

The Easi-Speak from TTS is a microphone designed for children. As with all TTS products, it is made to be as easy as possible to record one’s voice and transfer it to computer. In TTS’s familiar yellow and black colour scheme, the Easi-Speak comes in the box as one piece of equipment – no batteries and no wires. Everything is built in to the microphone.

There is a USB hub at the bottom of the microphone which serves two purposes: firstly to transfer any recordings to a computer and secondly to act as a charger for the internal battery. Simply plug the microphone into any USB port and it charges away.

So, how do you record? It couldn’t be easier. Simply press the record button, wait for the red recording light to come on, record your voice then press the same button again to store. You can play back recordings on the Easi-Speak itself before you transfer them.

However, within this simple device, there’s more power. In the internal hard drive where audio is stored, there’s a full copy of Audacity, a sound editing suite. This allows users to edit their recordings without the need to install extra software on your computer. A second addition is the ability to save sound files in two different fir mats – Wav and Mp3.

Quality of recordings is probably more important than anything else. I took the Easi-Speak to a very noisy conference and interviewed several people. For such a cheap device, I executed to hardly be able to hear my interviews with all the background noise. I also expected some general buzzing feedback. I was both shocked and amazed that the sound recording quality was as good as anything I’ve ever used before. You can hear our BETT 2011 podcast on this site to hear for yourself.

The only concern I have is that sometimes the Easi-Speak “forgets” to store recordings, particularly if they are very short. I’ve done about 100 recordings using the microphone and about 90% of what I recorded was stored. This was a little frustrating as I have to check my recording has saved each time I press the record button.

Overall, for €35, it’s very hard to beat to excellent sound quality, the ease of use and the power of the Easi-Speak. I highly recommend this product for anyone wishing to podcast. The Easi-Speak can be purchased from a number of agents in Ireland. Our review copy was provided by MJ Technologies, Waterford.