One of the best ways to ensure that you have all the materials you’ll need to learn a particular dialect is to make the effort to find someone who speaks with exactly the accent you have in mind and record them following specific guidelines. I’ve written two posts on this topic in the past: Finding a Dialect Donor and How to Interview a Dialect Donor. Today’s post written by recording engineer Tim Keenan of CreativeMediaRecording.com covers the final piece of the puzzle — the technical aspects of recording your donor.
Recalling my own awkward early attempts at recording donors outside of a studio setting, I asked Mr. Keenan to share some advice that can help ensure that you don’t have to make all of the mistakes I did before you can achieve useful recordings. Here’s what he has to say on this topic:
You don’t have to be a recording engineer to capture good quality audio recordings in any reasonably quiet environment and store them them on your computer as MP3s for future reference. If you don’t already own a portable digital recorder there has never been a better time to buy. Even the basic Zoom H1 digital recorder with a street price of $99.00 will do a decent job. It has built-in microphones or you can use an external mic. An added bonus is that you can even use this same device to record voiceover auditions, drag and drop the files to your computer and email them out as MP3s.
If you have the budget, take a look at the other models with more bells and whistles but a similar digital performance. Lots of equipment resources are out there but I like the folks at http://bswusa.com/ for their selection, helpful advice and pricing.
The two things to consider when recording at a remote location are the recording environment (where to set up) and the actual recording process (placing the mic, etc.).
The Environment:
First of all you want as quiet a room as possible away from kids, phones, animals and distractions. Looks for rooms with carpet, drapes and overstuffed furniture to help minimize room reflections. Make sure the person you are interviewing will be sitting in a comfortable place where they won’t move around much. Stay as far away from windows as you can and shut the drapes. The microphone will also pick up noises behind the subject as well so a good way to eliminate background noises is to position your interviewee with their backs away from windows, fans and other noise sources.
The interview subject should remove any noisy jewelry and bracelets. Try to minimize any paper they’ll be handling so you don’t have to worry about paper noise and hand fidgeting. All of those noises will detract from the final recording.
The Process:
I recommend a microphone stand to help you position the recording device as close to the subject as possible without being a distraction. Ideally you want the mic to be no more than 12 inches away (give or take) from the interviewee’s mouth.
*Very Important* Wear an ear bud in one ear to monitor the recording process. Listen for the sounds in the room – sounds like fans and other noises that will interfere with hearing your interview subject clearly. Wearing headphones is sometimes the only way you’ll actually notice these ambient sounds.
Pamela has some great tips for questions to ask to put your subject at ease. A good technique is to start by talking about local restaurants or recent movies to put your subject at ease and conversing comfortably. Use the first few questions to really listen and make sure the recording sounds clean and to note any distracting background room noises. Then you can then move into the meat of the interview.
Be sure to do some practice interviews with friends and family to get familiar with the equipment and how to best position everything to gain optimal sound. That way you’ll look like a pro when you go to capture the real thing and won’t waste any time getting what you need.
Tim Keenan is a long time recording engineer, voice talent and owner of CreativeMediaRecording.com an Orange County, CA based media studio specializing in voice recording and editing. On Twitter with tips & tricks for voiceover folks @tjkeenan and tips on recording & audio for video @Soundtrack_Pro
Pamela Vanderway's Dialect 411 