From the field to the archive

1. From the field to the archive D. H. Whalen Haskins Laboratories and The Endangered Language Fund Symposium on Best Practice LSA, Boston, MA

2. Written in the wind • Until the invention of recording devices, language was “written on the wind.” • Now, it is possible to hear speech at a remove of distance and time. • Recordings are not meant to last forever, so they need to be digitized and then migrated. Symposium on Best Practice LSA, Boston, MA

3. Early recordings • One of the earliest recordings, made in lead, is still playable • http://www.tinfoil.com/cm-0101.htm • Edison disks can still be listened to. • Here is a site with some Omaha speech: • http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/omhhtml • Still fragile, however. Symposium on Best Practice LSA, Boston, MA

4. Many formats • Wire recordings, magnetic disks, vinyl long-playing disks (LPs), Dictaphones, cassettes, reel-to-reel tape, DAT, videotape (Beta and VHS), mini-disc, MP3 recorders, and a wide variety of systems for digitization to computer disk. • DAT, video and computer files are the most useful for linguistic purposes. Symposium on Best Practice LSA, Boston, MA

5. Make a good recording • The digital version you preserve can only be as good as the original, so make a good original. • Label everything. • See other works for recording suggestions. • E.g., Ladefoged, “Phonetic Data Analysis” (2003) • http://saussure.linguistlist.org/cfdocs/ emeld/workshop/2003/Bartek-demo.html • Consider using video (cf. http://www.mpi.nl/DOBES/index.html) Symposium on Best Practice LSA, Boston, MA

6. Preserving your recording • First, make a copy in the same format. • This will seem like a big waste of time and money until the first time you lose a tape. Then it will seem brilliant. • Next, get it onto computer. • For DAT, this is a transfer. • For video or cassette, it will require using your computer’s audio board. • Be ready to exercise your data! Symposium on Best Practice LSA, Boston, MA

7. Get digital • DAT is already digital, but needs to be transferred to computer • Video and cassette can be digitized with the computer’s sound card. • Digitizing makes the continuous discreet. • The more often you sample, the closer your digital version will be to the original. Symposium on Best Practice LSA, Boston, MA

8. Dynamic range • There are two ways you have to make your recording digital. • The first is the amplitude of the signal at each time point. • This is called dynamic range. • Expressed in decibels (dB) in analog, number of bits in digital. • Old systems had 8 bits • New systems have 16 (or, less typically, 24). Symposium on Best Practice LSA, Boston, MA

9. Sampling rate • The number of times you look at the amplitude each second is the sampling rate. • Expressed in kilohertz (kHz) • Usually just called “k”, as in “44.1 k”. • Higher rates needed to record higher frequencies • 22 k adequate for many speech sounds. • 44.1 is the “cd” rate, but is also most typical. • Less than 20 k is not enough. Symposium on Best Practice LSA, Boston, MA

10. Get going on your markup • Once the sound is in the computer, do as much markup as you can. • This is true even if you do not intend to make it public right away. • At the very least, get a transcription and a free translation into an interlanguage. Symposium on Best Practice LSA, Boston, MA

11. Exercise your data! • Just having the digital bits does not guarantee longevity. • Make sure you can still listen to your files. • Be prepared to translate them into new formats. • Keep multiple backups. Symposium on Best Practice LSA, Boston, MA

12. Keep uncompressed data • Most digital formats are uncompressed, and these are the most useful for careful analysis. • Compression schemes like MP3 degrade some aspects of the sound and are not as easy to migrate. • It is often best to use compressed for easy downloading, uncompressed for permanent storage. Symposium on Best Practice LSA, Boston, MA

13. Get out there and record! • The first step is getting your recording, so get out there and record. • Languages are dying before our ears. • Let’s preserve what we can, support where we can, and keep it all for future generations. Symposium on Best Practice LSA, Boston, MA

14. References • Derry, R. (2002). PC audio editing. Woburn, MA: Focal Press. • Huber, D. M., & Runstein, R. E. (2001). Modern recording techniques (5th ed.). Woburn, MA: Focal Press. • Ladefoged, P. (2003). Phonetic data analysis. Malden, MA: Blackwell. • Pohlmann, K. C. (2000). Principles of digital audio (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Professional. • Rothenberg, J. (1995). Ensuring the longevity of digital documents. Scientific American, 272(1), 42-47. • Whalen, D. H., Wiley, E. R., Rubin, P. E., & Cooper, F. S. (1990). The Haskins Laboratories’ pulse code modulation (PCM) system. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments & Computers, 22, 550-559. Symposium on Best Practice LSA, Boston, MA

15. Thank you. • Work supported by NSF EMELD grant. • Further support from NIH grants HD-01994, DC-00493 and DC-02717 to Haskins Laboratories. Symposium on Best Practice LSA, Boston, MA