Recording 98 year old grandpa

[brownm84]

I started off college as a history major and did some recording for interviews.  I found that if I set up NOS with a slightly less angle (75^o, about 3-4 ft gave a nice dynamic to the recording (XY would probably work) and it gave an emphasis on one channel for each participant but still a stereo recording that had both participants in each channel. Not particularly important as the information is priceless and just as valuable transcribed (as is often the case for academic works vs. personal recordings) if not more so for posterity, after all print never goes out of style but technology in sound changes every few years.  But it sounds nice for those of us who look for that kind of thing. My 0.02

edit: Did this work at time when I mainly patched shows and didn't use my own mics often, so it might be helpful to play around with mic configurations with a friend first to see what you prefer if relistening quality is very important.  But it sound good to my ears.

[crossthreaded]

cool, thanks for all the advice!

this is what got me thinking about the idea.  They were broadcasting NPR from Roanoke, va (my hometown) last week and the story corps people were here.

pretty cool, because not only do you get a cd of the interview, they also archive the recording at the library of congress.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4516989

glad to hear that other people have done it and had good results.  I will probably take my gear with me to thanksgiving etc. from now on and set it up over in the corner while everyone is sitting around bullshitting.

[Len Moskowitz (Core Sound)]

I will be recording my grandpa telling his life story in a couple weeks. ...what setup should I use for this?

For oral histories I'm very partial to doing binaural recordings.  A bunch of universities and museums (our customers) also use binaural mics for their oral histories.

It couldn't be simpler: mount one mic near each ear of your ears, set levels and hit record.  Played back over headphones, it'll be a very realistic "you are there" recording.

Even the lowest cost binaurals will do the job.

Alternately, you can use a binaural mic set as two lavalier mics, with one clipped to the interviewer's lapel and the other to the interviewee's.  You'll each end up primarily in one channel, and then you can handle the mix in post-production.  Recommended if you prefer stereo to binaural.