Audio Data Acquisition:

Making Quality Field Recordings

LING 680: Advanced Field Methods
Presented by: Roderick Fish
November 30, 2016
Recording Workshop Goals
1. To discuss the NEED for quality field recordings.

2. To demonstrate QUALITY PROBLEMS in recordings.

3. To establish BEST PRACTICES in field recording.

4. To demonstrate RECORDING EQUIPMENT USE.

5. To establish CRITERIA FOR PURCHASING the

appropriate recording equipment.

6. To discuss a LIST OF RECOMMENDED EQUIPMENT for

field recording with specific recommendations.
1. The NEED for quality field recordings
 Q: “Why should I buy quality equipment for field recording?”

 A: Surprisingly, the general level of quality of recordings

collected by field linguists and found in published data
archives is often mediocre or low (examples to follow later).

 Additionally, poor recordings are often not fully useful for

analysis, or can even result in a incorrect analysis of the
data.
Background: Sound waves
 AMPLITUDE: roughly equivalent to (but not identical with)
volume
 FREQUENCY: number of oscillations per second
Background: Digital Signals
 Continuous and discrete signals (analog vs. digital)

 Image Source: Johnson (2003: 20).

Background: Sampling of Digital Signals

 44.1 kHz CD-quality

 48 kHz Typical of television and radio broadcasts
 96 kHz Standard for music recording studios
 Image Source: http://www.practical-music-production.com/images/digital-audio-technology.jpg
Background: Digital Signals
 Bit Rate/Resolution: concerns how many different levels of
voltage (which equate to levels of amplitude) from an
incoming signal a computer can encode into bits of data
(more is better).

 8-bit, 48 kHz recording sample:

 16-bit, 48 kHz recording sample:

 Background: Digital Signals
 Higher sampling rates and bit resolutions create larger files:

 16 bit 44.1 kHz mono, 60 min. 302.81 MB

 16 bit 48 kHz mono, 60 min. 329.59 MB
 16 bit 96 kHz mono, 60 min. 659.18 MB

 24 bit 44.1 kHz mono, 60 min. 454.22 MB

 24 bit 48 kHz mono, 60 min. 494.38 MB
 24 bit 96 kHz mono, 60 min. 988.77 MB
Background: Digital Signals
 Recommended equipment and software
settings:

 Sample Rate: 44.1 kHz or higher (96 kHz often

recommended by documentary linguists)
 Bit Depth/Resolution: 16-bit minimum or 24-bit

 Save all sound files as .wav (the standard lossless

format), NOT .mp3.
2. QUALITY PROBLEMS: Clipping
 Recording with NO CLIPPING made with gain set
appropriately (peaks are below 0dBfs)
2. QUALITY PROBLEMS: Clipping
 Recording made with gain set too high (peaks above 0dBfs)
 Clipping occurs when the signal exceeds the capacity of the
circuits of a recording device.
 Results in distortion of sound:
2. QUALITY PROBLEMS:
Gain set too low
2. QUALITY PROBLEMS:
Noise floor too high
 EXAMPLE: noise floor around -24 dBfs (too high)

 COUNTER-EXAMPLE 1: noise floor around -57 dBfs (good)

 COUNTER-EXAMPLE 2: noise floor around -67 dBfs (good level,

but evidences artifacts from bad-quality effect processing).

 NOTE: This low noise floor is uncommon, but theoretically possible in

field recording.
2. QUALITY PROBLEMS: Quantization error

 Type of digital noise

 Digital "rounding up and down" of signal levels, which causes
a robotic-sounding noise

 Happens when the bit-rate and sampling settings are too low
 Example: 5 seconds of silence recorded at 8 bit resolution

 Counter-example: 5 seconds of silence recorded at 16 bit

resolution
2. QUALITY PROBLEMS: Quantization error
 Quantization errors are created when either the sampling rate is too
low (below 44.1 kHz), or when the bit-rate is too low (below 16-bit).

 Image Source: http://www.prosoundtraining.com/site/synaudcon-library/digital-audio-at-last/

2. QUALITY PROBLEMS:
Electrical noise
 Electrical (50 or 60 Hz) hum: Constant low buzzing sound
from a ground loop

 Can be from inside the electrical devices, or from lights,

especially florescent lights

 Other types of electrical and mechanical noise: computer

towers, refrigerators, air conditioners, etc.

 Example : background mechanical noise (a fan?) with level also

set too low
2. QUALITY PROBLEMS: Other noise sources
 Unwanted reverberation
 Example:

 Handling noise
 Try to avoid adjusting or touching the microphones while you are
recording.

 Wind noise
 from environmental wind or from loud breathing or whistling into
microphone. When you are recording whistling for tone analysis,
move the mic farther away than the position it is normally for
recording speech.

 Example (without wind noise)

3. BEST PRACTICES:
Recording environment
 What are the elements of an adequate recording space?
 Recording outdoors is often a good option.

 When possible, try to record on days when rain or high wind are
not forecasted, even if you are recording indoors (noise from roof
and windows).

 Remember that insects such as cicadas are louder in the

afternoon, and crickets are often louder at night.

 In remote locations, the whole neighborhood might show up

to watch, including the elders.
3. BEST PRACTICES: Signal levels

 Your signals on the meters on your recording device of

software should be . . .

averaging around -18 dBfs

(decibels Full-Scale).
 Your signal should be . . .

peaking between -9 dBfs and -3

dBfs, preferably toward the low end
around -7 dBfs or – 5 dBfs.
3. BEST PRACTICES: Mic positioning
 Example: Recording of mic too far away AND level set too
low:

 One possibility for mic positioning is to mount a lavalier mic

on a headset.

 Headset mics should not be placed directly in path of

exhaled air from the nose or mouth. This will certainly result
in wind noise in the recording that cannot be removed.

 PROXIMITY EFFECT: a general increase in low frequencies

as the distance between the mic and source are decreased
 Generally around 300 Hz and lower, but mostly 150 Hz and
lower
3. BEST PRACTICES: Mic positioning
 Microphone polar patterns:
 cardioid ("heart-shaped") family of polar patterns (on left)
 omnidirectional polar pattern (on right)
3. BEST PRACTICES: Equipment
 With proper techniques, quality recordings are attainable,
even with modest equipment.

 BUDGET SETUP (NOT recommended):

Sewell USB sound box and AudioTechnica AT3350 mic

 BETTER SETUP, BUT STILL COST-EFFECTIVE:

USB-Pre and Audio Technica AT899 microphone
4. RECORDING EQUIPMENT USE:
Technique Demonstration
 1 or 2 Mono channels, NOT stereo
 1 mono channel for recording language consultant only

 OR . . .

 2 mono channels for recording language consultant on Channel

1, and interviewer on Channel 2.

 Using the Zoom H4N Pro recorder

 Using the Tascam USB 2x2 audio interface

5. Criteria for PURCHASING equipment:
Features of the devices
 Dynamic and condenser mics
 Dynamic range
 Phantom power (24V, 48V)
Condenser mics are strongly
preferred for analysis recordings.
5. PURCHASING equipment:
Checklist of items:
 Portable recorder OR computer audio interface
(look for phantom power capability on either one)

OR . . .

Purchase a module that uses a battery for the phantom

voltage ($30-40)

 Headset OR lavalier (“lav”) mic

 Second mic for interviews (recommended: Shure SM58 or
SM57)
 XLR cables or adapters (depending on what comes with your
headset or lav)
5. PURCHASING equipment:
Checklist of items (cont’d):
 Storage media (SD cards, external hard drive, etc.)
 Quality headphones for playback ($35 - 85 USD/CAD)
 Optional but highly recommended: portable Bluetooth
speaker, ideally one that is IPX7-rated (waterproof) ($40 or
more)
 Any other power adapters, batteries, wires or connectors
required for your equipment (this will vary: check the user
manuals).
6. LIST OF RECOMMENDED EQUIPMENT
for field recording: Specific recommendations

 See page 3 of the handout.

RECORDING SOFTWARE USE

 Recording: Audacity or Wavosaur

 Analysis: Speech Analyzer and Praat

Final Thoughts

 Summary

 Backup, backup, & backup

 How do I store the recordings once I have acquired them?
 Online backup solutions: Dropbox, Google Drive, AmazonDrive,
etc.

AND . . .

 Physical backup (hard drive DVD-R, BD-R (Blu-Ray), etc.

 This means you have the data in two separate physical devices.
References

 Johnson, Keith. 2003. Acoustic and auditory phonetics, 2nd

edn. Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons.