query on recording equipment and archiving

[Nicholas Thieberger]

Mary Anne Jebb had a query about recording equipment that she has
agreed to pass on to this list:


Dear Mary Anne,

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).

You have no doubt also been in touch with the KLRC to see what they
are doing with regard to appropriate current recording methods.

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.

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.

DAT tape is a good option. And if you still have analog recorders
then using chrome cassette tape is preferable to plastic tape.

With all recording, the quality of the microphone is a crucial
factor. You should budget for around $500 per microphone.

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.

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.

 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.

See our weblinks page: http://www.paradisec.org.au/PDSC_Links.htm

A most useful set of webpages for oral history work is:
http://www.historicalvoices.org/research.php


all the best

Nick



>To Paradisec
>
>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.
>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.
>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?
>
>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.
>I was hoping to copy these tapes to CD format.
>
>Any advice about good websites would be very useful.
>I will also be at the Newcastle history meeting and am interested in
>discussing any of this and finding out more.
>
>Mary Anne Jebb
>
>
>
>Dr Mary Anne Jebb
>Allbrook Jebb Research (ISS Pty Ltd)
>Ph: (+61 8) 94332793
>0400 245 651

--

ARC Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
University of Melbourne
http://www.linguistics.unimelb.edu.au/thieberger/

Phone:	+61 3 8344 5185
Fax:	+61 3 8344 8990
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