[Linganth] Audio and video recording recs

Mon Jun 10 21:10:28 UTC 2024

This is a great perennial discussion, because as Michele says, tech changes all the time. I started replying to just Michele, but, in case this is useful to others / your students, here’s some practical advice on recording equipment. I second Steve’s recs for more thoughtful/global advice on ethics and recording-methods-as-theory, too, though I will focus here on Michele’s specific question.

Several years ago I founded a service lab at IU from which we check out field recording equipment to graduate students and faculty for exactly these purposes (because, although it is a campus-wide resource and is called the “qualitative data analysis lab,” it reflects my own needs and interests in field recording, mouwahahaha). Our focus is on interchangeable, lightweight equipment at different price points that researchers can try out for brief projects and then write into their larger grant budgets. I prefer equipment that records to SD or microSD cards and that runs on AA and AAA batteries when possible, because they are usable in more diverse field settings. A lot of research has gone into equipment purchases over the years, including from ethnographer and filmmaker Sarah Dillard Mitchell, qualitative sociologist Emily Meanwell, and me. You can see our current list of equipment here: https://ssrc.indiana.edu/facilities/quallab/checkout.html Some of this equipment is older right now—the last time I refreshed it was right before the pandemic—so a particular item on the list might no longer be manufactured, but an updated version is probably available. The flipside of age is that all of this is field-tested and has held up well, despite plenty of use and abuse. “Please don’t drop the camera in the river!” is my constant plea, with partial success. Anyway, if you came into the lab asking your question, here’s what I would say.

For recording political speeches outdoors on video, I would mount a small camcorder on a lightweight tripod that you can easily manipulate on the fly. Definitely try this out in advance to make it less awkward/disastrous. During field recording in the Gobi, my personal go-to became the Canon XA10, the current version of which is the XA60, mounted on a Benro travel tripod. That choice, however, was partly due to my power challenges recording in the Mongolian countryside; I liked the battery life and the fact that I could stockpile batteries at an affordable cost to use over several days. I also liked how tough it was, taking plenty of rough treatment by goats and rocks. If you will be closer to a power source or the events are fairly short and tame, there are other options—see the list above. Are these events going to be more like rallies, at which you could set up your tripod and leave it for a while, or are they going to be more like raucous street protests during which you need to walk, get jostled, etc.? If the latter, maybe you don’t want a tripod; you might want a shoulder rig to balance the videocamera and still give you better stability than a cell phone. Either way, mount an external mic onto the camera with a windscreen or windjammer. As a backup video device, your phone, a tablet you already own, or a Canon PowerShot camera (which provides really, surprisingly high-quality video for up to 30 min) could be a good option, with the significant caveat that you will probably lose some sound to wind noise. The lab’s Canon XA11’s and PowerShots are extremely popular with grad students and faculty when they are looking to upgrade from their smartphones, for what that’s worth. I promise this is not a Canon ad.

For audio, it first depends whether you need WAV format (such as for more detailed phonetic or musical analysis) or MP3 format (such as for content analysis). WAV format is less lossy and the files are much bigger; MP3 is lossy but convenient for storage and playback. If it’s outside, WAV might be overkill, because the ambient noise could swamp any chance at phonetic analysis… but if birdsong or music is part of the point, then maybe you need WAV anyway. Archivists seem to always want WAV, too, so it might be worthwhile if there’s any chance your recordings would be archived by community members or someone else. Because podcasting and music production are driving the recording industry, there’s lots of development in this area, meaning super-high-quality recorders are way cheaper than even a few years ago. If you’re not sure what you’re going to do with the recordings, I would recommend acquiring a recorder that can do both WAV and MP3, such as a Sony PCM-M10—my own all-around favorite recorder—or similar. If you want to control the direction of your mics, as Charles suggests, Tascam, Sony, and Zoom all make excellent options, and there are a lot of older models in circulation for cheap (search for, e.g., “Tascam DR-40 Version 2 Linear PCM Recorder”). The overall favorite among my grad students has been the Zoom H1n Digital Handy Recorder, which is what I now use with student researchers on research teams and as a backup device. You can also trick out your iPhone 13 (which should be able to record in WAV!) with an external mic. Once you are using SD cards for transferring video footage, however, you may as well use a higher-quality all-in-one audio recorder that also records to SD cards. In any case, you are again going to want a windscreen or windjammer that slips over your recorder or external mic for recording outside.

Smallest, quickest upgrade to your iPhone? One of my students likes to stick a fuzzy windjammer over the top of her smartphone. She gets serviceable interview recordings that way.

There’s no substitute for trying stuff out, especially if you’re going to invest a bunch of money and time into something. If your campus does not have a similar lab, you might have a media school, journalism dept, or other unit that focuses on media production, where you could try out some of this equipment. For recording political speeches outdoors, journalists have many of the same needs.

Totally agree with previous posters about the backup device.

I hope this helps!

Take care,
Kate

Kathryn E. Graber
Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology<https://anthropology.indiana.edu/about/faculty/graber-kathryn.html> and Department of Central Eurasian Studies<https://ceus.indiana.edu/people/current-faculty/graber-kathryn.html>
Co-Director, Qualitative Data Analysis Lab<https://ssrc.indiana.edu/facilities/quallab/index.html>
Indiana University
Member at Large, Society for Linguistic Anthropology (2023-2026)
publications: Mixed Messages<https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501750519/mixed-messages/> | Storytelling as Narrative Practice<https://brill.com/display/title/38668?language=en> | downloadable things<https://indiana.academia.edu/KathrynGraber>
I wish to acknowledge and honor the myaamiaki, Lënape, Bodwéwadmik, and saawanwa people, on whose ancestral homelands and resources Indiana University Bloomington is built.

From: Linganth <linganth-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> On Behalf Of Steven Patrick Black
Sent: Monday, June 10, 2024 10:51 AM
To: Elizabeth Keating <Elizabeth.Keating at austin.utexas.edu>; Garza, Joyhanna Yoo <j.y.garza at csus.edu>; linganth at listserv.linguistlist.org
Cc: Michele Koven <koven.michele at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Linganth] Audio and video recording recs

Hi all,
These are all great suggestions. I just wanted to also add that there’s a wonderful discussion of many of these practical issues in a chapter by Gregory Kohler and Keith Murphy, “Audio-Video Technology for and in the Field: A Primer” in Sabina Perrino and Sonya Pritzker’s edited volume Research Methods in Linguistic Anthropology; and if you are interested in some of the ethical and theoretical considerations surrounding use of and choice of recorders, I’ve got a piece in American Anthropologist (2017, vol 119 issue 1) about this, titled “Anthropological Ethics and the Communicative Affordances of Audio-Video Recorders in Ethnographic Fieldwork: Transduction as Theory.”
Take care,
Steve

Steven P. Black
Professor and Director of Graduate Studies
Department of Anthropology
Georgia State University

From: Linganth <linganth-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto:linganth-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org>> on behalf of Elizabeth Keating <Elizabeth.Keating at austin.utexas.edu<mailto:Elizabeth.Keating at austin.utexas.edu>>
Date: Monday, June 10, 2024 at 3:37 AM
To: Garza, Joyhanna Yoo <j.y.garza at csus.edu<mailto:j.y.garza at csus.edu>>, linganth at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto:linganth at listserv.linguistlist.org> <linganth at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto:linganth at listserv.linguistlist.org>>
Cc: Michele Koven <koven.michele at gmail.com<mailto:koven.michele at gmail.com>>
Subject: Re: [Linganth] Audio and video recording recs
Hi all,

I second the backup recorder idea. I’ve had a few times when my backup recorder has saved me from that particularly horrible self-flogging grief after irretrievable loss of precious words (one time is all it took).

Best,

Elizabeth

ELIZABETH KEATING, Professor of Anthropology
& Graduate Faculty, Human Dimensions of Organizations
The University of Texas at Austin | Department of Anthropology | 512-471-8518
https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/anthropology/faculty/elk612
https://elizabeth-keating.com/

https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Questions-Interview-Uncover-Generations/dp/0593420926

[cid:image001.jpg at 01DABB4A.B6869BE0]
“I’ve never had such good teaching reviews as when I had students do these interviews” – colleague at UT Austin

From: Linganth <linganth-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto:linganth-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org>> On Behalf Of Garza, Joyhanna Yoo
Sent: Monday, June 10, 2024 1:16 AM
To: linganth at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto:linganth at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Cc: Michele Koven <koven.michele at gmail.com<mailto:koven.michele at gmail.com>>
Subject: Re: [Linganth] Audio and video recording recs

I just wanted to chime in and say I always have a second backup device (cheap but effective Olympus recorder) which has saved me since there are interruptions you can't always account for (for instance, when you get a public safety alert on your phone).
Best,
Joyhanna
________________________________
From: Linganth <linganth-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto:linganth-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org>> on behalf of Charles Briggs <clbriggs at berkeley.edu<mailto:clbriggs at berkeley.edu>>
Sent: Sunday, June 9, 2024 10:38 PM
To: linganth at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto:linganth at listserv.linguistlist.org> <linganth at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto:linganth at listserv.linguistlist.org>>
Cc: Michele Koven <koven.michele at gmail.com<mailto:koven.michele at gmail.com>>
Subject: Re: [Linganth] Audio and video recording recs

Friends,
I think it depends on where you are recording and what you plan to do with the recording. I once had to record a crucial interview in a sports bar in Manhattan. If I had not used a recorder with two mics that could be pointed at a 90-degree angle and directed at the interviewee, the ambient noise would have rendered the recording useless. And there are times when pointing the mics outwards at a 180-degree angle helps (but most cell phones are, I suspect, about as useful here). So, the question for me is, what’s the soundscape?
Best to all,
Charles

On Jun 9, 2024, at 4:46 PM, Michele Koven <koven.michele at gmail.com<mailto:koven.michele at gmail.com>> wrote:

Hi all,

I was wondering about what devices people are currently using or can recommend for audio and video recording. I have seen earlier discussions of this, but technology changes so fast. I may be recording live political speeches given outdoors. My preference is for easy to use, lightweight, and small. ( In fact, if there were a way to optimize my iPhone 13, that would almost be preferable, but I can imagine that is not quite enough?)

Thank you!

Michele Koven
Professor, Department of Communication
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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