I agree with all Alan says. Hopefully in another couple of years we will have high quality solid state recorders which will work well with external microphones such as those mentioned. At present I have found that the minidisc is the best option for clarity and it is worth the price of slow ie real time re-recording onto computer.
Also, having spent a lot of money quite enthusiastically on VR software I find it quicker and less frustrating to type (I am not a touch typist). If I type, I make spelling mistakes, VR software can produce "gobble-de-gook" which if you don't identify correct at the time of dictation it is sometime undecipherable when you go back to the text later on.
Good Luck
Dan
>>> [log in to unmask] 01/30/03 08:52pm >>>
Kate,
I'm using minidisc at the moment. It isn't perfect but the audio quality is
very good. I haven't used any of flash memory voice recorders made by Sony,
Olympus and others so I have no idea how well they work. There are people on
the Qualrs list who use them and who have reported that they work quite
well. You can also read comments here:
http://davidson.cba.hawaii.edu/digitalrecording.html.
At the moment every choice involves a compromise. In the case of Minidisc
there no fast upload to PC and occasionally some reliability issues (ToC
write failure...). The flash memory voice recorders--at least the current
generation--won't have as good audio quality as Minidisc but maybe good
enough for many research purposes. You'll also sacrifice stereo recording
(which can be useful sometimes). I would imagine they are fairly reliable
and they allow you to easily upload the audio to PC (although often in
formats such as DSS, LPEC, etc. that are peculiar to these devices).
Whatever you decide I think it is important to think about how you plan to
transcribe or work with the audio once it is recorded. The Sony machine you
mention appears to come packaged with Dragon VR software. You'll need to
train the software to recognize your voice and then dictate back the
interview back to get decent recognition. I'm guessing that needs some
practice to do proficiently and may be more trouble than it is worth if you
are a good typist. I think Olympus sells or bundles transcription software
for use with their recorders. With minidisc you'd probably want to rerecord
the audio to a PC file in WAV, MP3 or some other common format. There are a
number of free transcription programs you can download from the Net.
I think you'll benefit from also purchasing an external microphone
regardless of the type of recorder you buy.
Alan.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kate Forrest" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2003 7:34 AM
Subject: Re: Recording and transcribing interviews
Dear Alan
Thank you for your advice regarding the best equipment to buy for
recording interviews. I have been looking into the merits of either
buying an 'all in one package' such as the Memory Stick Portable
Dictating Machine (ICD-MS515VTP) or simply buying a separate
mini disk recorder and microphone. What would you advise?
Separate components or all combined?
Thanks again,
Kate
On 29 Jan 03, at 14:24, Alan Stockdale wrote:
> This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
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> I'll just add a couple of points to what has already been said:
>
> A good microphone is important but it is also important to position it =
> properly. You want the speech to be recorded 30 db or higher above =
> background noise, tape hiss, etc. for good intelligibility. Interviews =
> that are produced for radio broadcast, and therefore need to be of a =
> high quality, are generally done by having the microphone placed within =
> a foot of the speaker's mouth. Move the microphone back from a foot to =
> two feet and you drop the level at which the speech is recorded by 4-6 =
> dB. Double the distance again and the level will drop another 4-6 dB. =
> Eventually a point will be reached where the speaker is just part of the =
> background noise and there and will be 0 db difference (i.e. no drop). =
> For this and other info see http://www.shure.com/support/technotes/.
>
> It is possible to work with both transcript and audio when coding. Go =
> here http://www.edc.org/CAEPP/resources/audio.asp and click the =
> [Preparing] link to see one way you can do this. Hopefully QDA software =
> will integrate this functionality in future.=20
>
> Alan.
>
> Alan Stockdale
> Education Development Center
> Newton, MA 02458, USA
>
>
> ------=_NextPart_000_00E7_01C2C7A2.2EE08290
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> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
> <HTML><HEAD>
> <META http-equiv=3DContent-Type content=3D"text/html; =
> charset=3Diso-8859-1">
> <META content=3D"MSHTML 6.00.2800.1126" name=3DGENERATOR>
> <STYLE></STYLE>
> </HEAD>
> <BODY>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>I'll just add a couple of points to =
> what has=20
> already been said:</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>A good microphone is important but it =
> is also=20
> important to position it properly. You want the speech to be recorded 30 =
> db or=20
> higher above background noise, tape hiss, etc. for good intelligibility. =
>
> Interviews that are produced for radio broadcast, and therefore need to =
> be of a=20
> high quality, are generally done by having the microphone placed within =
> a foot=20
> of the speaker's mouth. Move the microphone back from a foot to two feet =
> and you=20
> drop the level at which the speech is recorded by 4-6 dB. Double the =
> distance=20
> again and the level will drop another 4-6 dB. Eventually a =
> point will=20
> be reached where the speaker is just part of the background noise and =
> there and=20
> will be 0 db difference (i.e. no drop). For this and other info see <A=20
> href=3D"http://www.shure.com/support/technotes/">http://www.shure.com/sup=
> port/technotes/</A>.</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>It is possible to work with both =
> transcript and=20
> audio when coding. Go here <A=20
> href=3D"http://www.edc.org/CAEPP/resources/audio.asp"><FONT face=3DArial =
>
> size=3D3>http://www.edc.org/CAEPP/resources/audio.asp</FONT></A> and=
> click=20
> the [Preparing] link to see one way you can do this. Hopefully QDA =
> software=20
> will integrate this functionality in future. </FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>Alan.</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>Alan Stockdale</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>Education Development =
> Center</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>Newton, MA 02458, USA</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV></BODY></HTML>
>
> ------=_NextPart_000_00E7_01C2C7A2.2EE08290--
---------------------------------
Kate Forrest
Postgraduate Research Student
School of Psychology
University of Leeds
0113 343 6696
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