The objective of this activity is to enable the educator to gather audio samples systematically in ways that prioritise quality and reusability. This entry is based on principles of language documentation This entry of the guide can also be useful if you’re instructing your students to make recordings (of themselves or others) as part of the language studies.

Making a good audio recording comes down to being confident and well prepared. Unlike photography or video, where using a high-end camera ensures a higher quality picture, having the best microphone in the market only ensures higher quality sound if it’s used correctly. For this reason, most of the time and attention in this entry are spent on the preparation sections.

Note: Before getting started on collecting audio samples, we recommend that you read up the activity “Data collection: Plan of Action”.

1. PREPARATION – EQUIPMENT (from one to several hours)

There is a wide range of audio recording equipment available in the market. Nowadays, anyone can access professional-grade microphones and recorders and they are becoming ever so easy to use.  We recommend that you budget carefully and build your equipment slowly as you learn. 

Here we introduce examples of three set-ups that can be used in the safe environment of the classroom or outdoors and that should suit different needs. (You can refer to the Equipment Glossary for more technical information.)