Digital Recorder Woes

[HeinekenMan]

I was still a little groggy this morning when I decided to pull a few old quotes off my new digital voice recorder to use in a story on a coach. I tried to delete an old gamer interview, and I must have tapped the wrong button. Suddenly, I see "erase all" flashing. Then the file number went to zero. I lost one key feature interview. But I can fix that with notes and, perhaps, a quick phone call. What I can't replace are the two hours of audio I recorded for a book I'm writing. It's just gone. I can go at it again, but there's little chance that my material will be the same.

I just want folks to be aware of this. You can erase everything if you're not careful. I still prefer using the mini-tape recorders.

 

[Bears00]

Same thing happened to me about four months ago. Thankfully, I didn't lose anything substantial besides one half-hour feature interview that I was able to do again a few days later.

 

[jgmacg]

Heinie -

Oy. That's awful. I send my sympathies and empathies. Is the machine a flash memory, or itty-bitty hard drive? Because the files might still be retrievable if they're on a hard drive.

I just made the switch to digital, and download my stuff to my laptop as soon as I get in, to prevent this very thing, which is all too easy. Scares me to death. Do you have some file transfer software and a USB rig for your recorder? Might ease your mind next time out.

 

[Norman Stansfield]

I was still a little groggy this morning when I decided to pull a few old quotes off my new digital voice recorder to use in a story on a coach. I tried to delete an old gamer interview, and I must have tapped the wrong button. Suddenly, I see "erase all" flashing. Then the file number went to zero. I lost one key feature interview. But I can fix that with notes and, perhaps, a quick phone call. What I can't replace are the two hours of audio I recorded for a book I'm writing. It's just gone. I can go at it again, but there's little chance that my material will be the same.

I just want folks to be aware of this. You can erase everything if you're not careful. I still prefer using the mini-tape recorders.

I'm right there with you. There's something comforting about watching that little red light blink every time your interview subject says something, and then being able to hold the tape in your hand afterward.

 

[WSKY]

I got an iriver and I download it straight to my laptop. It opens and saves right into Itunes.
I then can delete, or save from there as needed. Sorry about your loss, though. Maybe you should go this route.

 

[PalmettoStatesport]

once had an interview with wayne gretzky. used the tape recorder or so I thought. Got back to the office only to find out that the damn thing never picked up because the batteries were dead. Needless to say I always carry spares when I have the recorder now.

 

[PTSportsWriter]

use an iPod and a recorder attachment.

Just started using this and wish I had sooner.

1) It saves the file on computer
2) Makes for easy rewinding/fastforwarding
3) No more poor sound quality if music or something is in the background. Most of those newer iPod recorders are equipped with automatic gain controls and even in a noisy gym with rap music - the interviewee's voice is crystal clear..

 

[ColbertNation]

Hate to state the obvious here, but that's why I go old school with the pen and paper.

 

[Write-brained]

I had a job where all reporters were required to tape their interviews. If a quote was in dispute we were subject to having our "tapes pulled" by the editors - and presumed to be making it up if the quote wasn't on the tape. I escaped ever having any of that happen to me because I take good notes or was wise enough to call the subject back. I can't tell you how many freakin' interviews I did with the pause button on, the batteries ran out or the little ******* tapes malfunctioned.

Now I occasionally use a digital recorder with me but it's sure nice not being required to use it.

 

[donaugust]

I never delete from my digital recorder using the buttons, for that very reason. I always plug it into my laptop and delete the files from the recorder after I've downloaded them.

 

[henryhenry]

I got an iriver and I download it straight to my laptop. It opens and saves right into Itunes.
I then can delete, or save from there as needed. Sorry about your loss, though. Maybe you should go this route.

does it transcribe voice into text?

 

[EStreetJoe]

Hate to state the obvious here, but that's why I go old school with the pen and paper.

Glad to see someone else be sensable about this.
Before my promotion to the desk, I'd hold the pad and tape recorder in one hand and a pen in the other. That way incase the recorder ate the tape, the batteries died, or some other calamity happened I'd have the handwritten backup.

 

[SteveThePirate]

Hate to state the obvious here, but that's why I go old school with the pen and paper.

Glad to see someone else be sensable about this.
Before my promotion to the desk, I'd hold the pad and tape recorder in one hand and a pen in the other. That way incase the recorder ate the tape, the batteries died, or some other calamity happened I'd have the handwritten backup.

Spot on. My hand-written notes aren't always good or complete, but they've saved me more times than I can count when my recorder went dead, wasn't picking up a voice, whatever.

Doesn't seem like a chore at all when you consider the alternative. I know this has been discussed here before, but I cringe every time I see somebody just holding their recorder out and nodding.

 

[spup1122]

Just and FYI for all your digital recording fans out there...

Be careful putting your digital recorder and cell phone in close quarters together. If your phone rings much while they're in the same pocket or a bag or coat (even on silent) the cell phone could erase the recordings for you and make the recorder nearly impossible to use.

I worked in a computer lab in college and people came in with floppies, zip disks, and thumb drives that were all erased and unusable after being in a bag with the cell phone too much. We had a few people with digital recorders come in and we couldn't fix them. We at least had software to fix the disks.

 

[scribe21]

like the mini-cassete myself and pen and paper.

 

[satchmo]

I do both — I take notes and record my interviews using one of those fancy Olympus recorders that I can import onto my laptop because it's also a flash drive. That said, my editor brought up an interesting point the other day. He was going through a story by one of the reporters at my paper on one of the "big" beats and he said it was all a bunch of meaningless dictation. I asked him what he meant and he told me that he never uses a tape recorder because it always ends up being long, rambling quotes when a paraphrase would do. I asked him how he knew what to right down when he was interviewing someone or if he had great shorthand. He said, "If it's good enough that I right it down, that means that I knew it was good enough to make it into the story. If you can't remember it two minutes after your interview, there's no way it's good enough to make it into print." Thought he had a valid point. Writers don't paraphrase enough, either. You think Joe Blow cares exactly what Coach Smith said, or the gist of what Coach Smith said?

 

[jgmacg]

I do both — I take notes and record my interviews using one of those fancy Olympus recorders that I can import onto my laptop because it's also a flash drive. That said, my editor brought up an interesting point the other day. He was going through a story by one of the reporters at my paper on one of the "big" beats and he said it was all a bunch of meaningless dictation. I asked him what he meant and he told me that he never uses a tape recorder because it always ends up being long, rambling quotes when a paraphrase would do. I asked him how he knew what to right down when he was interviewing someone or if he had great shorthand. He said, "If it's good enough that I right it down, that means that I knew it was good enough to make it into the story. If you can't remember it two minutes after your interview, there's no way it's good enough to make it into print." Thought he had a valid point. Writers don't paraphrase enough, either. You think Joe Blow cares exactly what Coach Smith said, or the gist of what Coach Smith said?

No, but Coach Smith's attorney does.

 

[EStreetJoe]

I do both — I take notes and record my interviews using one of those fancy Olympus recorders that I can import onto my laptop because it's also a flash drive. That said, my editor brought up an interesting point the other day. He was going through a story by one of the reporters at my paper on one of the "big" beats and he said it was all a bunch of meaningless dictation. I asked him what he meant and he told me that he never uses a tape recorder because it always ends up being long, rambling quotes when a paraphrase would do. I asked him how he knew what to right down when he was interviewing someone or if he had great shorthand. He said, "If it's good enough that I right it down, that means that I knew it was good enough to make it into the story. If you can't remember it two minutes after your interview, there's no way it's good enough to make it into print." Thought he had a valid point. Writers don't paraphrase enough, either. You think Joe Blow cares exactly what Coach Smith said, or the gist of what Coach Smith said?

No, but Coach Smith's attorney does.

I think the point was does Joe Blow care if you just paraphrase coach Smith without quotes or if you quote exactly what he said. For instance, which would Joe Blow want to read more:
-- "Jones gave us a strong effort out there," coach Smith said. "He was playing through some pain after getting hurt early in the game, but he still came through big-time for us."
OR
- Coach Smith said that Jones played through pain to give the team a winning effort.
(and then mention the injury in the previous paragraph or the next paragraph)

And in the above examples, I don't think Coach Smith's attorney would care which one you used either - the exact quote or the paraphrasing.

 

[jgmacg]

I do both — I take notes and record my interviews using one of those fancy Olympus recorders that I can import onto my laptop because it's also a flash drive. That said, my editor brought up an interesting point the other day. He was going through a story by one of the reporters at my paper on one of the "big" beats and he said it was all a bunch of meaningless dictation. I asked him what he meant and he told me that he never uses a tape recorder because it always ends up being long, rambling quotes when a paraphrase would do. I asked him how he knew what to right down when he was interviewing someone or if he had great shorthand. He said, "If it's good enough that I right it down, that means that I knew it was good enough to make it into the story. If you can't remember it two minutes after your interview, there's no way it's good enough to make it into print." Thought he had a valid point. Writers don't paraphrase enough, either. You think Joe Blow cares exactly what Coach Smith said, or the gist of what Coach Smith said?

No, but Coach Smith's attorney does.

I think the point was does Joe Blow care if you just paraphrase coach Smith without quotes or if you quote exactly what he said. For instance, which would Joe Blow want to read more:
-- "Jones gave us a strong effort out there," coach Smith said. "He was playing through some pain after getting hurt early in the game, but he still came through big-time for us."
OR
- Coach Smith said that Jones played through pain to give the team a winning effort.
(and then mention the injury in the previous paragraph or the next paragraph)

And in the above examples, I don't think Coach Smith's attorney would care which one you used either - the exact quote or the paraphrasing.

Point taken with the paraphrasing and I completely agree.

I was addressing the "never uses a recorder", portion of the editor's theory, which is fairly idiotic. As if the recorder was the mechanism that generated the "meaningless dictation."

Long, rambling quotes don't put themselves into the paper, after all. A reporter has to learn what to pull off an interview tape and work into a story. That's why most of us, I think, take notes while we make a recording.

 

[EStreetJoe]

jgmacg -- for every one reporter you see taking notes while making a recording you'll see 2-3 others just holding out the recorder and not taking any hard-copy notes.