Awesome!

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "david goren" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, January 22, 2016 10:09 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Cassttes - Re: [ARSCLIST] One more sticky-shed data point - Richardson 
treated tape


They did:

https://storycorps.me/


On Jan 22, 2016, at 8:13 AM, Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I keep hoping someone, like Storycorps, will create a smartphone app for capturing oral histories. 
> The app would include a step-by-step about where to place the phone, and a little super-simple and 
> large-button recorder control. Maybe also a way to directly upload the oral history to Storycorps 
> or Archive.org or some other appropriate venue. I really think the emphasis should be audio-only, 
> because video makes a wide swath of people nervous and thus they clinch up on answering questions 
> or any other participation in the interview. The beauty of putting a phone on a table, hitting 
> record and talking is that it's super-unobtrusive, even less so than a 70s cassette recorder. The 
> goal would be a friendly app that is made for people with no technical experience, particularly 
> family members who want to get the old-timers voices and stories before they pass on. I think it 
> would be a very popular app.
>
> -- Tom Fine
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lou Judson" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2016 2:41 PM
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Cassttes - Re: [ARSCLIST] One more sticky-shed data point - Richardson 
> treated tape
>
>
> Indeed it would! I was once hired to record oral histories of SF Port people before they passed 
> on. We had four couples around a table in the Ferry Building, responding to questions and 
> conversing. Each had a lavalier mic and we used a Dugan System auto mixer into Pro Tools. Two 
> sessions like that before they ran out of funding. ’Twas fun while it lasted and sounded darn 
> good!
>
> I had a few dozen cassettes of a famus psychologist to transfer from classes at a college back 
> East. I noticed that the last few words were repeated on the other side, and sure enough later on 
> they got the original reels, and I got to do it all again but better. Been there, done that! :-)
>
> Good move to make them more affordable - ethics trump (Ooo, hard to use that word any more!) 
> profits.
>
> It has amazed me how good a recording can be made with an iPhone laying on a table - they are so 
> thin, it is like a PZM, and can be enhanced for pretty good clarity!
>
> (I recommend Retro Recorder for this - been using it for meeting records and darn good for that!)
> <http://mcdsp.com/2013/08/06/retro-recorder/> and they got the visual design just right:
> <http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/review/retro_recorder_1.1.1> More than a toy!)
> <L>
> Lou Judson
> Intuitive Audio
> 415-883-2689
>
> On Jan 21, 2016, at 11:14 AM, Richard L. Hess <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> On 1/20/2016 8:49 PM, Lou Judson wrote:
>>> I wish people would hire engineers to record oral histories!
>>
>> Wouldn't that be Nirvana?
>>
>> I recall that there was one client who had a mix of reels and cassettes of oral histories. They 
>> started out with reels. Someone made cassette copies of the reels so the client wanted me to 
>> digitize the cassette copies, but she didn't want to pay the extra cost of digitizing from the 
>> reels (the reels needed baking). I dropped my price on the reels as I refused to do it from the 
>> cassettes when the reels were still transferrable.
>>
>> The reels were good--even the 1.88 in/s ones, though the odd 7.5 in/s one was spectacular. 
>> Anyway, I convinced myself that the reels were recorded by someone who knew what they were doing 
>> with a good external mic (like usually came with a Uher).
>>
>> So then they got to the cassettes...yup, $29.95 drugstore cassette recorders with built-in mics 
>> sitting just far enough off tables...
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Richard