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<div>Mary Anne Jebb had a query about recording equipment that she has
agreed to pass on to this list:</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Dear Mary Anne,<br>
</div>
<div>The first thing you need to do is to consider depositing all of
your material with AIATSIS. It is the only suitable repository for
your fieldtapes and it will make them available in the longterm. They
also provide advice on formats for recording
(http://www.aiatsis.gov.au/ava/Digital/digiarch1.htm).</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>You have no doubt also been in touch with the KLRC to see what
they are doing with regard to appropriate current recording
methods.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>We currently recommend using flashRAM recorders, like the Marantz
PMD690. These record directly to a removable RAM card which you
then plug into your computer and copy across. The digitising occurs at
the time of recording and there is no subsequent loss of quality in
data transfers. The problem with this medium is that it requires you
to have a computer nearby and sufficient RAM cards to get you through
the recording sessions.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>As you are (wisely in my opinion!) considering the longterm use
of this material, you should not use minidisk recorders which record
in a proprietary compressed format called ATRAC. There is a new
minidisk recorder coming onto the market which claims to record
uncompressed PCM format and this may be suitable. However, no-one has
trialled it yet.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>DAT tape is a good option. And if you still have analog recorders
then using chrome cassette tape is preferable to plastic tape.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>With all recording, the quality of the microphone is a crucial
factor. You should budget for around $500 per microphone.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Analog to digital conversion costs at least $130 per hour. If you
do it via AIATSIS I think it is free if you wait (they have a
huge backlog), but they can put your material ahead in the queue if
you pay for the work.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>I would strongly urge you to transcribe the tapes using
time-alignment so that your transcripts can then be played and they
have a citable form back to an archival data tape (video or audio).
The software I use for this is called Transcriber, produced by Claude
Barras.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>From my experience it is crucial to have a citable, archival
version of the data right from the start of the process so that all of
your transcribing and time-aligning refers to the archival version
held in a safe longterm repository.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>See our weblinks page:
http://www.paradisec.org.au/PDSC_Links.htm</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>A most useful set of webpages for oral history work is:
http://www.historicalvoices.org/research.php</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>all the best</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Nick</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" size="-1">To
Paradisec</font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" size="-1">I am working
with indigenous communitites in the Kimberley. We are about to embark
on a recording project using video and audio euipment. One audio and
visual record is made from an external microphone to the digital vdeo
camera and there are two separate tape recorders. The women will be
recording interviews, dance and song. They will be given
CDs of indvidual interviews and a 40 minute video of the community
edited record.</font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" size="-1">I would like
to budget for proper recording for future archiving and access. Do you
have any general idea of the costs to archive digital video tape, and
transpose tapes to archive quality
materials.</font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" size="-1">I am also
looking at buying a new voice recorder. If you have any easily
accessible advice please let me know where I could find it. I think
the question is whether there is any value in
continuing with ordinary tape or DAT and transposing to
digital or is it now better sound to start with
digital?</font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" size="-1">I have also
many hours of tapes from interviews done from 1989-1999 that I
want to make available to the people in the kimberley and to
archive.</font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" size="-1">I was hoping
to copy these tapes to CD format.</font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" size="-1">Any advice
about good websites would be very useful.</font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" size="-1">I will also
be at the Newcastle history meeting and am interested in discussing
any of this and finding out more.</font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" size="-1">Mary Anne
Jebb</font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" size="-1">Dr Mary Anne
Jebb</font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" size="-1">Allbrook
Jebb Research (ISS Pty Ltd)</font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" size="-1">Ph: (+61 8)
94332793</font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" size="-1">0400 245
651</font></blockquote>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1"> </font></div>
<x-sigsep><pre>--
</pre></x-sigsep>
<div><font face="Times New Roman" size="-1"
color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">ARC Postdoctoral Fellow</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Department of Linguistics and Applied
Linguistics</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">University of Melbourne</font></div>
<div><font
color="#000000">http://www.linguistics.unimelb.edu.au/thieberger/</font
></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Phone:<x-tab> </x-tab>+61 3 8344
5185</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Fax:<x-tab> </x-tab>+61 3
8344 8990</font></div>
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