Audio theory and practice for Language Documentation
Australian Linguistic Society Annual Conference
Australian National University, Canberra
When: Sunday, 4th December 2011, 9:30am - 12:30pm
Where: Coombs Ext. Seminar 1:13

Convenor:

David Nathan
Endangered Languages Archive
Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project
SOAS, University of London

What makes a good audio recording for language documentation?

What equipment and techniques should I use to make good audio recordings?

How do I make good audio language documentation in noisy environments?

If you have asked these questions, this workshop is for you. The workshop is in two parts. First is a theoretical discussion where we consider what criteria can be used to decide if a recording is "fit for purpose" for language documentation. It is crucial to decide, for a given context, what makes a good recording before thinking about how to make one. The second part is practical, approaching learning about recording techniques by learning how to listen to the different capabilities of various microphones and configurations in simulated field situations. Special attention will be paid to recording in noisy environments, and to the benefits of capturing spatial information by recording in stereo.

Venue: Coombs Ext. Seminar 1:13

Participation

The Workshop is open to all people registered for the ALS conference, but we can only handle a maximum of 15 participants due to the practical nature of the workshop. Therefore, pre-booking is strongly recommended. To pre-book, email David Nathan (djn@soas.ac.uk) with your booking request. Please use the Subject line "ALS-AUDIO". In your email , please write 1 or 2 lines about your experience in audio language documentation, and describe what you would like to gain from this workshop.

Note: as of 30 November, this workshop is now full.

Recommended reading

1. Please read this paper before the workshop: Sound and unsound practices in documentary linguistics: towards an
   epistemology for audio (published as David Nathan. 2009. “The soundness of documentation: towards an epistemology for audio in documentary linguistics.” In Journal of the International Association of Sound Archives (IASA). Vol 33, June 2009)
2. See numerous links in the Sound recording section of Online Resources for Endangered Languages.
3. Here is the powerpoint file of the first session: Download powerpoint file

This page was last updated on 4 December 2011