digital recording equipment

ali-t

I am on the hunt for cheap recording equipment for undertaking group discussion for a research project. I would have posted this on the 'I wanna...' board but I don't even know what it is that I need.

The quality needs to be good enough that I can e-mail the content to a company for dictation.

What specifications are required for doing this? Is a standard dictaphone ok or does it require extra microphones? Ideally I am looking to spend as little as possible or pick something up second hand off ebay.

jayme1

yeah a dictaphone should be ok, I know a standard CD/cassette recorder works fine as a friend used one for a focus group once.

I would even say a mobile phones record function should work ok.

But I would say is you have to (sound) test your recording before the focus group (be sure to simulate the distances people will be sitting)

Richie-from-the-Boro

Work back to front [ filesize to e-mail ], any setup whether cheap or expensive that leaves you with a file format that's too big to go through the email system is a no go from the start, and you will have wasted all that money / time / effort.

Many people have come to a sticky end with modern expensive voice recorders for just this reason. Some record in a propriety format that's inconvertible.

Hope this helps.

ali-t

Richie-from-the-Boro wrote: »

Work back to front [ filesize to e-mail ], any setup whether cheap or expensive that leaves you with a file format that's too big to go through the email system is a no go from the start, and you will have wasted all that money / time / effort.

Many people have come to a sticky end with modern expensive voice recorders for just this reason. Some record in a propriety format that's inconvertible.

Hope this helps.

Thanks but it doesn't mean anything to me as I have no idea about file formats or what can or can't go through e-mail. I don't want to come to a sticky end

googler

Do you have to use e-mail to send it in? If not, you could;

Use analogue equipment, which may be cheaper.

OR

Use digital, and send the files either by physical means - copy to CD, USB drive, etc and mail it manually; or put the files on file-sharing site; or bit-torrent them peer-to-peer.

Lots of variations possible, need to know more about you and what you need for a definitive answer.

ali-t

Ok, here is what I need it for. A piece of research for a dissertation. The timescales required for turnaround will be fairly short hence my thinking that e-mail would be best so I can send it to a transcription agency to get it typed up.

It will be for focus groups with around 6 participants (probably most of them with fairly strong regional accents) so quality needs to be good enough that someone who wasn't there can pick up the content.

I am not very technologically oriented so something very simple is required, a plug and play sort of effort! I do have an analogue dictaphone lying about that uses the wee cassettes but would be wary of putting the only version of the audio in the post incase it goes missing.

Thanks for all the input received, it is really appreciated to help me get my head round what I require.

closed

use a laptop?

ali-t

closed wrote: »

use a laptop?

how? I didn't think I was this dense in relation to technology but don't know what you mean. Can a microphone be plugged into laptop and this be used to record?

closed

yes, some also have one built in.

record with audacity or sound recorder (if you have vista onwards)

Richie-from-the-Boro

googler wrote: »

Do you have to use e-mail to send it in? If not, you could;

Use analogue equipment, which may be cheaper.

OR

Use digital, and send the files either by physical means - copy to CD, USB drive, etc and mail it manually; or put the files on file-sharing site; or bit-torrent them peer-to-peer.

Lots of variations possible, need to know more about you and what you need for a definitive answer.

Overnight turnaround from India [ timezone ] send it 9pm UK and its in the UK printer 8am. Uk £60 per hour scale / India peanuts per hour scale.

michbright

I would suggest you find a transcription agency and get advice from them.

That way, you can find out which formats they will accept and can often advice on what equipment you should use.

With regard to seding the file, most agencies have a system whereby you upload it to a server for them to retrieve, so no emailing of audio files involved.

As a transcriber myself, I would recommend you use good quality equipment and, as another OP said, try and do a sound check beforehand to make sure all participants can be heard clearly.

Hope this helps.