![]() ![]() The best recorders have something called ‘phantom power’ which allows certain kinds of microphone to be powered by the recorder (rather than having their own batteries). Remember to adjust the settings on your recorder depending on whether you’re using an internal or external microphone. There are also special microphones designed to record groups of people sitting around a table. They can be attached discreetly to your clothing and usually give excellent results.įor interviews outdoors a uni-directional (or cardioid) hand-held microphone is best as it will pick up less unwanted noise. If your recorder is stereo and has two microphone sockets you can get two microphones – one of for your interviewee and one for yourself. Whatever recorder you decide to use you will generally get better results if you use an external microphone. The internal microphones built into the recorder can be OK but only if the recorder is mounted on a tripod to help eliminate handling noise and is carefully placed near enough to the speaker to get good audio levels.įor one-to-one interviews indoors, the best external microphone is a small tie clip or lapel microphone. Compressed files (such as MP3) can also audibly degrade when they are converted to another format. Some recorders use ‘proprietary’ or compressed digital formats which are not internationally-recognised and may not be future-proof: these should be avoided, especially as some will record poor quality audio. Called ‘solid state’ because they have no moving parts and record audio directly to a memory card or built-in hard-drive memory, there is a bewildering range of makes, models and formats available. Bear in mind that audio formats and professional advice are in constant flux so it is vital to seek up-to-the-minute advice (for example from the British Library’s oral history department: recent years ‘solid state’ digital recorders have replaced the analogue recorders (such as audio cassettes) and older digital formats (like minidisc) that many oral historians used. Choosing the right recorder depends very much on your budget and what you plan to do with the recordings subsequently. There are many different makes of portable audio recorders. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |