On 9/8/2014 11:35 AM, Tom Fine wrote:
> Hi Bert:
>
> I'm not saying ARSC "should step in and solve" any "issues." What I
> am saying is that we could help spread tips and good practices
> suggestions for amateurs. I'm sure there are plenty of weighty tomes
> hidden away on dense websites somewhere, but this stuff probably
> isn't getting read much. I'm suggesting ARSC can take a user-friendly
> approach, and make stuff accessible via modern means (YouTube, social
> media, informal "meet-ups", etc). The over-riding ethos should be
> KISS (keep it simple, stupid).
>
> If this is some sort of "controversial notion" vis-a-vis ARSC
> official business, then OK perhaps some of us individual ARSC members
> who care about the issue can self-organize and do some of this on our
> own.
>
> By the way, although there may well be plenty of outreach and
> information, I get calls all the time about archives of bad-recorded
> lossy digital audio. "What can we do about it?" "They recorded this
> at 64kbps MP3 and it's full of artifacts and noise," etc. Or, "we had
> a guy with a cassette machine who loaded this into the computer at
> 64kbps WMA, and now we'd like to do some signal-processing on it."
> So, the problem is still very real. The latest bad trend is using
> lossy low-quality cellphone video as a collection device (audio-wise,
> this is usually worse than an early-era digital audio recorder at
> 64kbps MP3). The worst thing is, parameters can be tweaked in many
> cellphones, and videos can be extracted native-resolution, they don't
> have to be uploaded super-lossy and then deleted. It's just a matter
> of relatively simple training for the non-technical. Those of us
> comfortable with technical gear and gadgets always underestimate how
> difficult this stuff is for a normal civilian to properly use.
A couple of years ago, I wrote an article for Recording magazine that
attempted to give some user-friendly suggestions for oral history
recording. The folks at Airshow Mastering have reprinted the article
here (with the magazine's permission):
http://www.airshowmastering.com/sandbox/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/ATimeToGive_REC_1212.pdf
It's part of a larger set of information that Airshow has posted:
http://www.airshowmastering.com/oral-history-capture-the-best-interview/
They include links to the Oral History Association and ARSC websites.
Peace,
Paul
|