Use Tape Recorder...Yes or No

[BNWriter]

I admit to being horribly old fashioned. I have been doing this freelance job for almost 30 years and didn't start using a tape recorder until about 9 years in.

Now, with new forms of recording being used, I am still using a cassette recorder. I don't trust myself with anything else. I discovered I am not alone. I met another sportswriter who felt the same way. That got me to thinking: How many others of us out there are not trusting of new technology when it comes to getting every quote. Just curious. Thanks for voting and discussing.

 

[Clerk Typist]

Cassette recorder. You can save a tape more readily than save digital by transferring to a laptop or whatever, and if the hard drive goes, you still have the tape. There's nothing old-fashioned about preserving a quote if necessary.

 

[Rhody31]

The problem with cassette and older digital technology is if it's windy and you're outside, there's a good chance you're losing everything.
I don't know why the "older" generation doesn't trust technology. It's no different than buying a DVD player instead of using a VCR, or using a microwave instead of heating up food in the stove.
Honestly, i don't trust your notes. I'm willing to bet most of the time a lengthy quote isn't verbatim. You're missing a minor word that doesn't affect the quote, but that one word makes it not accurate. I've ready plenty of stories by guys I saw using a notepad and the quotes never matched. I'm not talking small-time guys either; guys from the Globe, ProJo and others. It's not a big chunk of a sentence, just a "that' or an 'an' someplace, but it still makes the quote inaccurate.
Go digital. Get a recorder that has a USB link. Download all your recordings to your computer and back them up on an external hard drive. It's smaller and easier to do than keeping piles and piles of notebooks.

 

[nck228]

I've had an RCA digital recorder for about four years now, and I have no complaints about it. Simple to use, all my recordings come out clear, and the pop-out USB lets me upload my interviews onto my computer (which I then backup onto my external hard drive for safekeeping... when my computer kicked the bucket two years ago, I was able to re-upload them from there and didn't miss a beat.)

 

[Sue]

Buy an Ipod Touch instead of your average recorder. Itunes is an easy way to name and store old interviews. The recording quality is above average and it's a music player. The newest version will also record video.

 

[RobRVR]

I don't use a tape recorder anymore.

I use my iPhone now to tape interviews. One of the best apps for taping (other than the built-in recorder) I've found is ClearRecord - saves automatically to iTunes, filters out background noise and very easy to use.

 

[jr/shotglass]

Honestly, i don't trust your notes. I'm willing to bet most of the time a lengthy quote isn't verbatim. You're missing a minor word that doesn't affect the quote, but that one word makes it not accurate.

Rhody, as an editor, I'm a LOT more concerned by a writer being so married to verbatim quotes that he uses quotes which are so stunted you can't understand them.

The speaking language doesn't translate to paper perfectly.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I covered a coach early in my career where if you didn't get every quote EXACT, he'd call you on it.

I'm talking down to the pronouns and conjunctions. He talked fast too, so it was tough... It got to the point that we would quote him off the quote sheet after late games and sometimes the PR staff would get a word or two wrong. When that happened, we got a wake-up call.

Ever since I covered that guy, I recorded EVERYTHING.

 

[Rhody31]

Honestly, i don't trust your notes. I'm willing to bet most of the time a lengthy quote isn't verbatim. You're missing a minor word that doesn't affect the quote, but that one word makes it not accurate.

Rhody, as an editor, I'm a LOT more concerned by a writer being so married to verbatim quotes that he uses quotes which are so stunted you can't understand them.

The speaking language doesn't translate to paper perfectly.

If you're not married to verbatim quotes, then you're not quoting a subject - you're paraphrasing them.
That's all and fine, but you can't quote someone if it's not verbatim; it's not honest.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

We did this once when I was covering the coach who was obsessed with every word that left his mouth.

Four of us transcribed a 30-40 minute press conference. A member of the PR staff also transcribed it. We then printed them out, swapped them and we watched a video of the press conference. All of the journalists had between 15-20 words wrong and the PR guy had about 40 wrong. Almost all of the errors were things like pronouns or conjunctions or changing a word.

It was enough to make your head explode.

 

[jr/shotglass]

I wish I could think of some examples right now, but I just believe sometimes a writer can lose the sense of what the subject is saying if he's obsessed with chronicling the imperfections and uneven delivery of his speech.

 

[Rhody31]

I wish I could think of some examples right now, but I just believe sometimes a writer can lose the sense of what the subject is saying if he's obsessed with chronicling the imperfections and uneven delivery of his speech.

I understand what you're saying and I agree with you; however, you can't quote something like that. If the person you're speaking with can't grasp the english language, your choice it to quote them or not. I ran quotes this year during Little League where kids were saying things like "Funner." I could have changed it, but that's not what the kid said.

 

[jr/shotglass]

OK, I think we're closer on that than we think. Best thing is probably not to quote somebody in that case.

 

[Versatile]

Cassette recorder. You can save a tape more readily than save digital by transferring to a laptop or whatever, and if the hard drive goes, you still have the tape. There's nothing old-fashioned about preserving a quote if necessary.

I can't agree at all. Tapes decay, for one. And if you lose a tape, you're screwed. In addition, if you're trying to preserve every interview, you've got to buy a decent number of tapes. Also, cassette recorders produce significantly worse quality than a good digital recorder or iPhone recording app.

Get a good digital recorder, ideally one with the USB port built-in. If you don't trust your computer hard drive (which seems very odd to me unless you're concerned with long-term storage), then find ways around it. Get an external hard drive., or email the recording to yourself. If you don't have Gmail, get gmail. It has enough storage for your needs. You can theoretically keep files for years on it, and you could even create an account specifically for recordings.

In addition, you never have to worry at a media day or long press conference that you're going to hear that awful little "pop" sound in the middle of a press conference while your recorder is way up on the front table.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

At this point, if you're not using a digital recorder, there's something wrong with you.

 

[brandonsneed]

Digital recorder. Used tapes in college. Hated it. With digital, you can transcribe a million times quicker, if for no other reason than you can upload the audio files and then play them through iTunes or QuickPlayer or whatever your computer's music player is. Need to pause a second to catch up? The pause button's right there on the keyboard. Freakin' great.

I carry a backup cassette recorder. Had to use it once. About lost my s— transcribing that interview.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

When I had a digital recorder, I downloaded everything I recorded to iTunes and was able to catalog it if I ever needed to go back and listen to anything.

 

[Versatile]

Digital recorder. Used tapes in college. Hated it. With digital, you can transcribe a million times quicker, if for no other reason than you can upload the audio files and then play them through iTunes or QuickPlayer or whatever your computer's music player is. Need to pause a second to catch up? The pause button's right there on the keyboard. Freakin' great.

I carry a backup cassette recorder. Had to use it once. About lost my s— transcribing that interview.

My only story where I was accused of misquoting someone and couldn't immediately play it back was my first year on the college paper, when I was still using a tape recorder. About three days and two interview sessions with the same team (and SID) after publication of a relatively controversial story, the SID said one of the players believed he was misquoted. He asked me this after a game and the ensuing press conference. I had already taped over the interview.

I went out and bought a digital recorder (at the time, one that didn't transfer files to the computer very easily) the very next day. Haven't had to delete a recording until weeks after the article was published since.

My backup recorders are all the $40 digital kind, like that first one I bought. They don't have easy transfer to computers, but they work much better than tape recorders and don't require tapes. I generally keep at least two and usually three or four recorders with me at any interview session. My tactic for mass media sessions where multiple people are being interviewed at once has typically been to put a (labeled) recorder down on a table where a lot of people are, then wander over to someone who isn't as busy, where I can actually get questions in or even a one-on-one, if possible.

 

[Shoeless Joe]

Digital recorder. I average about 3-4 years out of a recorder just because I drop them, etc. The last one I got was digital for no other real reason than it was smaller and looked easier to put in my pocket. I love it.

I don't save interviews. Once it's transcribed and the story is written, I have no further use for interviews.

 

[playthrough]

Cassette recorder. You can save a tape more readily than save digital by transferring to a laptop or whatever, and if the hard drive goes, you still have the tape. There's nothing old-fashioned about preserving a quote if necessary.

I can't agree at all. Tapes decay, for one. And if you lose a tape, you're screwed. In addition, if you're trying to preserve every interview, you've got to buy a decent number of tapes. Also, cassette recorders produce significantly worse quality than a good digital recorder or iPhone recording app.

Get a good digital recorder, ideally one with the USB port built-in. If you don't trust your computer hard drive (which seems very odd to me unless you're concerned with long-term storage), then find ways around it. Get an external hard drive., or email the recording to yourself. If you don't have Gmail, get gmail. It has enough storage for your needs. You can theoretically keep files for years on it, and you could even create an account specifically for recordings.

In addition, you never have to worry at a media day or long press conference that you're going to hear that awful little "pop" sound in the middle of a press conference while your recorder is way up on the front table.

I email stuff to myself all the time, from interviews to notes to story drafts. That <i>is</i> my external hard drive.