Guest Author - Michelle Anne Cope

Talk to yourself or let others leave you words of endearment and praise. You can take the voice of your friends and loved ones with you on your portable MP3/iTunes player!

The Story
I’m so excited because I found a way to make voice messages and save them as MP3s to put on my Shuffle! It was very easy and didn’t require any expensive or fancy equipment.

I’m going on vacation sans husband and cats to see Clay Aiken in concert. This is a big deal – I’m taking a plane. Well, not actually taking the plane, I bought a ticket to ride on a plane that flies to my destination. I’ll be gone six days and you would think that I’m leaving for a month with all the preparations I’ve made. It’s just that – I don’t get out much. The house is spotless, the bathroom cupboards are bursting with clean towels and I have made a list of every little thing I can think of that Jeff would need to know.

I’m coming back; I just want to be prepared. I’ve also prepared for homesickness by having Jeff make some recorded messages that I downloaded onto my green Shuffle. I don’t know what they say yet. I had him record them, turn off the microphone and then save them to a file so that I could simply download them into my Shuffle. I will listen to them on the plane. He said he even got our male cat, Gus, to give a few meows.

The Way I Did It
You can use any microphone and recording software, even the recording software that comes with your computer, to record a short message. After you are done, save it as an MP3. Then all you have to do is transfer it to your player. I opened mine in my iTunes library and transferred them to my Shuffle.

Cool beans!

Remember, I’m still in that learning curve, so if this is something you’ve already done, I’m sorry if this is a repeat. If you haven’t tried, do so. It’s a lot of fun and I also found that I can make little voice recordings and send them to my friends. The small MP3 files can be attached to an email easily.

Here are some suggestions for occasions where you might want to send an MP3 Voice Message.

• Birthdays
• Weddings
• Graduations
• Engagements
• New Job
• New House
• Just to Say Hi!
• Just to say I love you!
• Just to say I Miss you!
• Just to say, well, anything!


Have a great week!
Chel