When selecting a voice recorder for your oral history interviews, you don’t want this to be an everyday event. You want to do it once and kind of put it in the back of your mind and forget about it for a while. So, let’s look at what to consider when choosing a voice recorder
Durability
You want to get an oral history interview recorder that’s going to last you a while, like a long while. Not one that’s going to fall apart after a few weeks of use. Avoid recorders that have components that stick out but rather find one that is smooth with a compact design.
Buying a recorder is a sound investment, check out my post on The Four Best Voice Recorders for Your Oral History Interviews to help you get started. When picking the best recorder look for brand recorders such as Sony, Olympus, Zoom, Panasonic, Tascam, Roland, as they guarantee you long lasting usage of the recorder
Memory and Battery Life
Find a recorder that has at least 4GB of internal memory with an expansion slot for additional memory. You want to ensure that you are recording at the highest bit rate possible and that takes up quite a bit of storage capacity.
Choose a recorder that has the capability of recharging the battery via USB, this will cut down the cost of having to buy batteries for your recorder, you instead just plug into your PC or laptop and let it charge overnight. It is advisable however, to have extra batteries that serve as a just-in-case. Just-in-case you run out of power on your recorder, you can just fit in the batteries and not have to stop recording because you are low on charge.
Ease of Use
I am willing to bet that no one wants to own a complicated gadget that forces you to get someone else to help you operate it. Avoid recorders that are complicated and have too many buttons to get you started. Luckily for you, most recorders are easy to use. All you need to do with most recorders, is just hit the record button to record and the stop button to stop the recording.
That’s it for this post, I do hope you found it useful. Please contact us for any questions that you may have or any of your oral history transcription needs. Remember, always be kind, try to stay positive and learn to unwind.