This document provides guidance on conducting audio field recordings for linguistic research. It discusses important decisions regarding equipment, costs, and feasibility. Key aspects that are covered include recording purposes, recommended digital audio recorders and microphones, field situations, relevant tips, and metadata collection. Important considerations for field recordings include ensuring high recording quality, managing equipment, supplies, and time in challenging field conditions.

1. FIELD AUDIO RECORDING
NORHED LINGUISTIC CAPACITYBUILDING
Dr. FedaNegesse
LanguageTechnologyGroup
Department ofLinguistics
AddisAbabaUniversity
May 21-23,2018

2. 1. DECISIONS
 What do I want to do?
 What equipment do I need?
 How can I deal with odds in the field?
 How much money do I need ?
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3. Costs
(technique,
transport)
Feasibility
(Power supply,
Know How)
Purpose
(documentation,
specific
elicitation)
Recording Quality
(frequency range,
S/N ratio,
quantization )
Technology
(Microphone,
Recorder)
Field situation
(recording
environment,
speaker)
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4. 2. RELEVANT TIPS
 Purposes
 Recorders
 Microphones
 Field situations
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5. 2.1. PURPOSES
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 Language documentation
 e.g. endangered language project
 Corpus building
 e.g. spoken corpus
 Research
 e.g. conversational analysis , acoustic analysis

6. 2.2. AUDIO RECORDERS
 Analog/digital (costs, formats, media)
 Digital formats (wav, mp3, wma, amr, )
 Quality (signal-to-noise ratio)
 Power supply (accumulator / battery)
 Sound meter (intensity levels)
 Storage media (costs, durability, quality)
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7. AUDIO RECORDERS…
A. Cassette tap recorders
 Not recommendable
 Not digital
 Low quality
 File cannot be moved easily
 Obsolesce
 Incompatibility
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8. AUDIO RECORDERS…
Digital Audio Recorders
 Individual channel metering
 Mono recording possible
 44.1 & 48 kHz / 16bits
 Speakers + Line Out
 Professional XLR Input
 High quality output (
professional )
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9. AUDIO RECORDERS …
 Equipped with all accessories
 Very expensive
 Fragile
 Not usually portable
 Assumes advanced technical skills
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10. AUDIO RECORDERS…
Optimality (Use Zoom Digital Audio Recorder)
 Audio formats
 Two external mikes
 Options for sampling frequency
 Sample size
 Sound meter
 Good audio output
 Noise reduction system
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11. 2.3 MICROPHONES
Useful parameters
 Sensitivity
 Directionality
 Powering
 Affordability
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12. MIKES…
1. Microphone types
1.1. built-in mikes
 Bad quality
 Machine noise
 Omni directional
 Only in case of emergency
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13. MIKES…
1.2. Dynamic
 Very cheap
 Incompatible with new computer
soundcards
 Requires no power
 Less accurate
 Too small signal for small cards
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14. MIKES…
1.3. Condenser
 More accurate
 More senstive and responsive
 More expensive
 Fragile
 Needs power
 Equiped with noise reduction system
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15. MIKES…
1.3. Wireless mikes
 Unconnected, signal via radio frequency
 Wireless mikes can have dropouts
 Signal obstruction
 Allows freedom of movement and
 Good choice with e.g. children
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16. MIKES …
1.4. Wired mikes
 Stationary relatively
 Good quality
 May not need its own power
 Preferable for field work
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17. 2. Directionality
2.1.Omnidirectional
 Operates equally well in all directions
 Good for conversation
 Bad for a noisy recording situation
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18. 2.2. Unidirectional
 Receives signal efficiently
 From a specific direction
 Not from all directions
 Good for interview
 Reduces background noise from the back
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19. MIKES…
Mikes placement
1. Clip-on (Lavalier)
 Normally omnidirectional
 Usually fastened to clothing
 Good for dialogue/interview
 Good for children
 Intrusive
 Not good as big mikes
 Requires shield to reduce noise from body movement
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20. MIKES…
2. Headset
 Mounted on the head of the speaker
 Normally directional
 Makes excellent quality recordings
 Follows the speaker's movements
 Invasive for adult speakers
 Preferable to record children
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21. Windshield
 Most effective cover for mikes
 Protects against extreme wind.
 Provides 10-12db attenuation
 Protects against sunlight and dust
 Reduces pop sounds of stop release
 Attenuates high frequencies as well
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MIKES…

22. 3. Useful Tips for Video Recording
3.1. Getting started
 Mount on a tripod with a screw
 Plug the power cable to a power source
 Clear the background if needed
 Select a good view or angle
 Point at the event to be recorded
 Place it at a close distance to pick up the sound as well
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23. 3.2. Recording
 Remove the lens cover
 Open the LCD screen
 Press the movie button
 Start recording
 Monitor while recording
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24. 3.3. Saving files
 Files are automatically saved in the default format
 Playback to see the quality of the recordings
 Learn from your mistakes
 Move files if the memory card is full
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25. FIELD
CONDITIONS
Some useful tips

26. PROTECT YOUR DIGITAL
DEVICES
The Seven enemies
 Dust
 Heat
 Humidity / Water
 Cold
 Hard shaking/sudden motion/vibration
 Thieves
 Yourself
Solutions
 Insolate your devices!
 Watch the cables!
 Keep the equipment dry!
 Protect your devices!!!
 Watch or let watch!
 Take save backups with you!!!
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27. TIME MANAGEMENT
 Have a time buffer
 Expect that the recording (setup) takes twice
as long as in the lab.
 Practice the record setup (microphone
settings, cable ports/jacks, recorder settings)
 Check “Recording Onset Time” (especially for
recorders of all types)
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28. FAMILIARITY WITH EQUIPMENT
 Know your equipment
 Don’t play with settings in a real situation
 Stressful situation
 Focus divided among monitoring, asking questions, making
notes.
 Get well organized and skilled
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29. SUPPLY
 Make sure that you never run out of Power (Batteries)!
 Accumulators (Marantz professional )
 Solar panel for recharging?
 Dry cells ( rechargeable such as alkaline )
 Electricity
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30. SUPPLY…
Make sure that you never run out of storage media
 Cards
 External HD
 Flash discs
 Computer with good memory capacity
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31. RECORDING SESSION
Choose a possibly quiet location
Close doors and windows
Cover large reverberant surfaces
Ask for turning off lights, refrigerators, fans, air conditioning etc.
Remove anything that ticks, buzzes, bangs, rattles, squeaks, hisses,
or otherwise makes itself heard
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32. AFTER RECORDING
 Check your data again – listen through your recordings
 Make notes (on settings, solutions, etc.)
 Don’t lower the quality requirements for digitization
 Move the files to other storage media
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33. METADATA
Record
• Informant’s information (age, sex, dialect, place, others)
• Situation ( quiet, noise, ceremony)
• Place of recording ( open space, home etc)
• Genre ( domain of discourse)
• Objective ( to document, do research )
• Data collector ( Name, expertise )
• Time ( year, month , day , hour)
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34. ACTIVITIES
 Why are these sounds different in quality?
(1000 Hz, 5000 Hz, 10000 Hz, 22050 Hz)
 Are the following two sounds of the same
quality? (S/N =5dB, 20dB, Rev = 1 sec)
 What is wrong the following sounds?
(clipped, soft)
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35. ENJOY YOUR
RECORDING !
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