USB audio input devices

Tue May 25 13:55:42 UTC 2010

Hi John,

I agree with you that notebooks are useful in your scenario. I also agree that they will work fine with 24-bit data streams, especially if you have an SSD. Let me just say that it is a real shame that you don’t have access to funding, especially given the importance of your work. Perhaps there are some fund raising opportunities you haven’t yet explored?

As far as getting a cheap USB interface at 24-bit/96,000 Hz, you may have some success only if you are able to match your microphones with your pre-amplifiers as well as possible. So my advice would be to start with the microphones. Decide on what microphones you want to use and that will determine whether your USB audio interface can provide adequate quality. I would be happy to assist you with that. Let me know.

Bartek Plichta

http://bartus.org

From: John Hatton [mailto:john_hatton at sil.org] 
Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2010 1:27 AM
To: 'Josh Berer'
Cc: Resource-Network-Linguistic-Diversity at unimelb.edu.au
Subject: RE: USB audio input devices

Hi Josh,

Thanks so much for your input.

> Is there a specific reason you want to avoid recording onto a solid state device and want to jump directly to your hard drive?

Yes, indeed, it has been the accepted wisdom that recording directly is fraught with problems, but on several fronts around here, people have been demonstrating that this may not be true anymore.  But it’s still fair to ask, Why would we would we even take on the hassles?  Not for normal recordings, for sure.  Rather, for cases where there is a big payoff if you have someone else operating the computer as the recording is done.  For example, if making an audio book with someone who is not a fluent reader, we find that being able to pinpoint mistakes and record over them saves months of tedious fixing later, compared to the old methods.  More to the language documentation scenario, I’m finding that when doing the “Careful Speech” step of BOLD, doing it directly into the computer, editing as I go through the session, leaves me with a finished product, rather than one I would (ideally) find time to clean up when I return from the field.  I’ve done a successful trial of this, but with a lower-quality device.

Finally, we are starting to imagine some WeSay-level software which guides native speakers through the BOLD process, to allow them to do more of it with less outsider involvement. Such software can provide “rails” upon which people ride, greatly lowering the complexity and training required to do the work with raw materials like recording devices. 

In the scenario in which I was using it, the speaker is across the desk from me, wearing a headset mic. Netbooks are generally very quiet, compared to some hot high-wattage laptop.  So outside of a recording studio, I’m not yet concerned about fan noise.   It’s conceivable that a netbook could not keep up with the data coming in, but they seem to do well with such things as showing HD movies, so I’ll be disappointed if that’s true.

> If you're on a budget I've heard the Zoom is ok, I personally like the Sony Pcm-D50, but it's more $$. But I kind of feel like, if you’re in PNG doing fieldwork already, it would be a shame to go to all that trouble only to come back with sub-standard results because the equipment wasn't up to the job. Just my two cents.

Fair enough. Alas, SIL PNG doesn’t have a way to tap into the funding resources available to the rest of the LD community, so we do penny-pinch. Even an H4N represent a lot of money, to us. A shame, really, since we live here, year-round, surrounded by 800 endangered languages…

John Hatton 
 <http://pnglanguages.org/> SIL Papua New Guinea,  <http://palaso.org> Palaso, &  <http://sil.org> SIL International Software Development
Chat Google Talk: hattonjohn Skype: hattonjohn Google Wave: hattonjohn at googlewave.com

From: Josh Berer [mailto:olomachad at gmail.com] 
Sent: 25 May, 2010 3:53 PM
To: John Hatton
Cc: Resource-Network-Linguistic-Diversity at unimelb.edu.au
Subject: Re: USB audio input devices

Hey John,
Is there a specifc reason you want to avoid recording onto a solid state device and want to jump directly to your hard drive? My concern is that, especially with a netbook, you'll end up overloading the computer, especially if you record for a decent length of time. That translates into skipping or other interference, and if youre just using a mic and a computer, and no device in between, you have no 'backup copy', or fall-back to rely on. 

Also, sooner or later your computer's fan is going to start going to cool down the hard drive which is working hard to write all the data its getting, so you're going to have that background noise to deal with too. Just in general, I'd say direct recording to a computer is a bad idea, unless your computer is super-duper suped-up and capable of handling a lot of data coming in, which a netbook most assuredly is not. 
If you're on a budget i've heard the Zoom is ok, I personally like the Sony Pcm-D50, but it's more $$. But I kind of feel like, if youre in PNG doing fieldwork already, it would be a shame to go to all that trouble only to come back with sub-standard results because the equipment wasn't up to the job. Just my two cents.
Josh
http://joshberer.wordpress.com <http://joshberer.wordpress.com/> 

On Tue, May 25, 2010 at 1:27 AM, John Hatton <john_hatton at sil.org> wrote:

Hi folks,

Can someone recommend a device for doing direct recording into a computer, at 24 bit/96 khz, using only USB 2?   The system will be used with a microphone to do the “careful speech” stage of the BOLD approach.  There seems to be some question about USB’s ability to handle the load, but I’m looking for something which will work with netbooks, which don’t normally come with firewire inputs.  There’s a number of devices for sale with claim this ability, but, well, being in PNG, if we get ones which don’t really deliver, it’s an expensive mistake. 

If anyone has managed to make a Zoom H4N perform this role, I’d love to hear that (that would mean one less bit of kit).

Thanks for any advice.

John Hatton 
 <http://pnglanguages.org/> SIL Papua New Guinea,  <http://palaso.org> Palaso, &  <http://sil.org> SIL International Software Development

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