Application collecting started out as a hobby, a Mac pastime, many years ago and has blossomed into, well, something of a professional hobby. I collect applications, review apps, share apps. My criteria remains simple. Apps I use myself or would use, apps I recommend to family, friends, co-workers (with the implied support issues).
Sometimes applications for the Mac are so complex, convoluted, poorly designed, and expensive that I ask myself, “Why bother?” Other applications are so simple to use with such a singular purpose that I ask myself half as much. “Why?”
That’s the case with Simple Recorder, a free– dare I say ‘simple‘– audio recording utility that does one thing. It records audio. Whatever audio input your Mac is using at the time is what Simple Recorder uses to record; connected USB mic, built-in mic, whatever.
Click the button in the Mac’s Menubar, select Record and recording begins. Click Pause or Stop. Pause stops the recording but it can be started up again. Stop simply stops the audio recording and gives you an option to name the file. The audio file format is m4a, essentially AAC, or MP4. There are no other options.
That’s simple.
The same Record, Stop, Pause and Preference options are also available in the app’s Dock icon. I do not recall using a simpler audio recorder app. So, that begs the question, “Why?”
QuickTime Player, also free, can do the same thing. As can GarageBand; and both come with every Mac and have far more capability. So, “Why?” Simple Recorder might be good for quick notes, or to record the audio for a meeting. Messages for OS X has a similar feature to record an audio messages quickly and send it to someone. I’ve reviewed and use a number of audio notes applications for the Mac, so the competition is intense.
Still, if all you need is a two-click method to record high quality audio on your Mac and you can live without any other features, Simple Recorder is worth the download time. Maybe in a future update the developer will change the menu word ‘Recod’ to the more proper usage, ‘Record.’