Genealogy Gems Podcast meets Family Oral History (at Jamboree)
I was interviewed for the Genealogy Gems podcast back in June, at the SCGS Jamboree in Burbank. Lisa Louise Cooke, podcast host and Chief Gemologist, released Episode #97, and it features our discussion. (Our interview happens about 24 minutes into the podcast.)
Thank you, Lisa, for interviewing me. Since Lisa and I spoke not long after I’d given two presentations (interviewing family/all about digital audio recording equipment), I happened to have all kinds of recording equipment with me, so I offered to also record the interview using my kit (scroll down for photo of my “recording studio in an Otter Box”—I also wrote a post to I describe how I bought it—it’s a few years old, and Things Have Changed Since Then.)
Oh, and also—click all photos to enlarge.
Show notes and Equipment Updates
When we recorded the interview (in early June), I recommended the Zoom Handy H2 (and compared it with the Marantz PMD620).
Since then, Zoom has brought out a new recorder the Zoom H1 Handy Portable Recorder—less expensive and simpler to use than the H2. The price is $99—a great price for full stereo quality sound. Better yet, it has one-button recording, that works around the press twice problem I described in our discussion.
I’ve written about the Zoom Handy H1 (and have another post planned, since my own unit arrived not long ago). Functionality? Love love love it! Audio quality? (sounds good, but I still need to do some tests). The Zoom Handy H1’s designers worked out some of the H2’s annoying kinks.
A number of Flash Memory Recorders in my Amazon Equipment Store. These are the portable digital recorders. Take em with you, and then transfer them to your computer later.
Here’s more detail on the Marantz PMD620—also very easy to use but more expensive.
Other items mentioned in the Genealogy Gems Podcast interview:
I mentioned microphones you can use with your iPod: You can either plug a small ($50-$79) microphone into your iPod, or plug your iPod into a special enclosure ($110-140). See options in the iPod section of the Family Oral History Equipment Store
Also: USB devices to bring sound directly from a microphone to your computer. A post about some USB devices here, and the USB device section of the Family Oral History Equipment Store.
Correction: I said that the 4GB flash memory card would hold about 7 hours worth of full resolution CD stereo quality sound. Wrong. It’s approximately 6 and a half hours, not 7.
In the interview, I also mentioned some aspects about interview techniques:
Interviewing: Keeping an attitude of curiosity and non-judgement, and when you ask open-ended questions, here’s Why I don’t recommend using the word “Why”
What do I ask? Interviewing family using major life events
Deborah Tannen and different conversational styles and how they might affect interviewing.
Oh, and I’m a bit late in getting a post up on my site about the Genealogy Gems podcast episode. I had a computer owwie, with mysterious (and devastating) computer crashes. The first time, I thought, Oh, that was just bad. I recoverd from that (yay for regular backups!). Then I launched iPhoto to find photos from Jamboree. Crash. Again. Hard. And rearranged my schedule for the week (culprit: A bad USB cable). So now I am back and finally offer this podcast companion post.
Here’s the recording kit. The microphones were the luxury expense, and the bendable gooseneck structure makes it possible to have one person talk into one of the mics and the other speak into the other one. I hope that the “stereo spread” in both ears wasn’t too weird to listen to—I didn’t have a chance to remix the sound before I handed it over to Gemologist Lisa Louise Cooke.
If you came here because of the Genealogy Gems podcast and found any of this information useful (or you have any questions) I’d love to hear from you. Please leave a comment (below) or send me a note using the Contact link.
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Posted by Susan A. Kitchens on October 06, 2010 in
• Genealogy
• Interviewing
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