Lilke no place any of you have ever been...
Interviewing great aunt Louise on her 100th birthday. I've been trying to get info on microphones for an MP3 recorder and a nice kid at a musicshop suggested that your industry was closely aligned with what I'm trying to accomplish.
I need to get some recommendations on equipment for voice recordings.
Oral History Inerviews are typically conducted with older folks in the 70-90 year old range, and they HATE to talk into a recorder; and would leave the room if I pulled out a camcorder. The mixing boards and pre-amps i've been looking at are just right out for these interviews.
I have an Archos Gmini 120 MP3 player. While I think that it's great for getting rid of CD's and backing up data files, I'm not sure it's the right device for voice recording. But it would be cool to go directly to a digital file instead of messing around with tape. I'm not even sure if it has a mic in jack. I bought a cheap mic from radio shack. No go. I bought a Sony ECM MS907 microphone because I was told to get a pre-amplified microphone and the salesman at Good Guys is an idiot. The built in condernser mic is the best so far, but I can't stand all of the background noise that it picks up. (A/C, TV, wind chimes, cats. - The goal is to make these people feel comfortable so they will talk, so I can't always get rid of the background noise. Oh, and i just can't find a good source for Sodium Pentathol since Jimmy Carter started liberalizing black ops)
I think the Gmini will only record from a line level source. Can anyone confirm this? Archos doesn't have the balls to reply to my email.
Is there a setup that will allow me to have two mono lavs (one for me, one for the interviewee) go into a stereo jack? Should I leave the Gmini out of interviews and look at another device? Is there a small preamp that could go inline with the mic I have.