LDTC W ORKSHOP 4 Recording and Archiving

W HAT ARE RECORDINGS USED FOR ? Linguistic analysis Teaching purposes Preservation of important cultural topics such as mythology, folktales, poems, songs, etc. Can be archived as a method of preservation First analysis isn’t always correct!

I S AN AUDIO RECORDING ALONE ENOUGH ? No! Accompanying transcription, gloss, and free translation are a must. Without it, audio recordings lose a large part of their usefulness and quickly become meaningless. Appropriate metadata puts the recording in context and eases access to recorded material.

C HOOSING A RECORDING ENVIRONMENT You can’t always control where you record. Some situations will be less than ideal. If possible though, choosing a beneficial setting can dramatically improve the quality of your recording.

T HINGS TO WATCH OUT FOR : Fans Children Animals Background chatter Electrical appliances (such as fridges) Crunchy snacks such as potato chips Table tapping

A N IDEAL RECORDING ENVIRONMENT : Indoors Quiet Windows closed (birds are noisy) No fans/appliances running No children (children are noisy) No extra people

R EMEMBER ! Don’t let the “BEST” become the enemy of the “GOOD”! It’s okay if you have to record in less- than-ideal conditions. Sometimes we don’t have control over the environment – just try your best!

C HOOSING AN AUDIO RECORDER Microphone Directionality XY Cardioid External Microphones Handheld and Lavalier

C HECKING SOUND LEVELS It’s a bummer to find out after the fact that your recording is too soft to use. To do so, press the record button once; the record light should start blinking. Place the microphone where it will rest when recording for real and have the speaker say a few test sentences at normal levels Adjust the volume buttons on the side of the recorder until the sound level is as high as possible without going off the end of the scale

G ET TO KNOW YOUR RECORDER Spend the next 15 minutes with your mentor(s) getting to know your recorder. Go through all of the menu options to see what they are and what they do. Experiment with changing the recording format, navigating to and playing back sound files, etc.

H OW TO RECORD : Access the recorder’s menu to make sure that it is set to record as a 44.1kHz/16bit.wav file Hit record once Test the microphone volume Check for ‘clipping’ by saying a few sentences Adjust the volume settings on the side of the recorder if needed to just below the end of the meter

Hit record twice Include metadata prior to recording: Names of participant/mentor Location Type of recording (genre) Brief review of content Write down the file name on the recorder and note the location where it saved, if applicable. H OW TO RECORD :

R ECORD A S AMPLE OF Y OUR L ANGUAGE Use the digital audio recorder provided to record a short song/story/poem/etc. in your language. Listen to the recording on the recorder to make sure it worked Transfer the file to your computer ● USB connection, the computer should recognize it as an external hard drive that you can pull files from

F ILE NAMING CONVENTIONS Why are naming conventions important? Proper naming conventions can tell you who, when, and what. Bad file names: MyPoem.mp3 STE-001.mp3 Good file names: SS_ _FrogStory.mp _SS_FrogStory.mp3 Simpson.Sean_ _FrogStory.mp3

F ILE NAMING CONVENTIONS We have a set standard for file-naming at LDTC: LDTC_ISO01_XY Where ISO is the ISO code for your language And XY is the number of the recording, starting at 01 and going up from there

ISO CODES An ISO code is a three-letter identifier that gives a brief, unique name for all of the world’s languages Some examples: ENG – English MAH – Marshallese UZB – Uzbek A current list can be found at:

R ECORDING M ETADATA : Appropriate metadata puts the recording in context and eases access to recorded material. Provides information about an individual language clip and situation.

R ECORDING METADATA For our recordings, we are interested in: Filename Language information All languages in the recording All languages’ ISO codes Participant’s language Its ISO code Where your language is spoken

ARCHIVING We want our recordings to last as long as possible so that people in the future will be able to use them as well So we archive materials Meaning we give it to some organization to maintain “forever”

ARCHIVING The archive we will be depositing into, Kaipuleohone, run by UH, asks for a genre for the recording Instead of leaving it up to us, they have designated a few that we choose from: Lexicon Instrumental music Language description Primary text Song

E XAMPLE : / /33309

T HE L AST S TEP : Upload your recordings and metadata to dropbox after every session