Signal acquisition

Successful sociophonetic analysis of speech depends on the quality of acquired signals to a high degree. Currently, there exists a great variety of recording devices and recording techniques, which makes it particularly difficult to choose a solution that works most reliably.

Quantificational evidence

An experiment was conducted (PDF) to see how three different field recording methods would influence acoustic analysis. The first two methods are very common in sociophonetic literature: (1) signal acquisition with a Marantz (or comparable) cassette recorder with a built-in microphone; or (2) recording speech with a MiniDisc recorder and an omni-directional lavalier microphone. The third method, still rather uncommon, involves (3) recording speech with a head-set, flat response microphone and a 24-bit digital recorder.

Recording fundamentals

1. Use a flat and broad response microphone.
2. Position the microphone close to the talker's lips
3. Avoid digital recorders that use data compression (e.g., MiniDisc, iPod, etc.).
4. An old-fashioned professional analog Nagra or Marantz recorder will work better than many new, digital recorders, such as MiniDisc players or digital dictaphones.
5. If recording in digital mode, use either a DAT recorder at 48,000 Hz/16-bit, or a hard disc recorder at least 48,000 Hz/24-bit.