Quote Originally Posted by RussMartin View Post
Have you considered using WinBond's ISD17xx family?

http://www.winbond-usa.com/en/content/view/160/290/

The audio quality is quite good at the 12kHz sample rate. It can be controlled in serial mode or in "push-button" mode. I have a PIC controlling two of these (ISD17180) at the same time in PB mode.

Unamplified volume is very good with a speaker driven directly from the complementary PWM output.
I would second RussMartin as I have looked into doing this in the past and then went down the Winbond route. Don't waste your time trying to get the PIC to do it; get yourself a dedicated speech chip and then use the PIC to address the speech chip. I use the Winbond ISD4002 which only gives 8kHz sample rate max. but allows 2 minutes worth of recording at this rate. This sample rate is absolutely fine for normal speech.

Regards

Rob