update, I used garageband and itunes to get out of this mess ultimately, but it really is a poor implementation the voice recording feature. Since itunes is destined to play audio files as per the de facto standards on os x, it makes little sense for this to be in a .mov container. I understand that it's the usual output of quicktime but it doesn't integrate well with the rest of the os, so either the rest of the os and itunes have to change or the quicktime extension. Guess what I think should change, lol.
Also I am disappointed that you cannot set specific bitrates just high and max settings, all this customization exists for itunes, why not quicktime? Because as is you have to, and that's what I am going to do in the future, go with garage band, just for recording a simple line in or soundcard audio from the mac....tstststs...
As an aside may I ask what the difference between .m4v and .mov is (and mp4), not the rudimentary stuff - I am aware of this, but why doesn't apple just do away with dual formats for quicktime and itunes to just go with one file type for movies and one for audio (or class of file types). I see little point in the existence of .mov anymore, does anyone else agree?