Building Aural Histories

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Building Aural Histories

• Recording a dialect or accent and creating a
  sound file that can be submitted to the
  International Dialects of English Archive
• (IDEA)
• A presentation at the VASTA Regional Conference
• March 3, 2007
• Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio
• Charles J. Richie, Associate Professor. Acting
  Voice
• School of Theatre Dance, Kent State University
• Associate Editor for Ohio, IDEA

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Goals

• Assist in the Preservation of an important and
  ephemeral part of our culture and history
• Provide Important Resources for actors, voice and
  speech professionals, linguists, social and
  cultural historians and the general public
• Acquire Knowledge in the Recording of the voice
  and in audio technology
• Give Dialect Donors an Opportunity to share a
  part of themselves for future generations

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Topics

• What is IDEA?
• Identifying and selecting Dialect Donors
• Interviewing and recording the donors
• Creating a sound file of the recording
• Adding written documentation to support the aural
  information on the file
• Submitting the finished file to IDEA
• Final Thoughts

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What is IDEA?

• The International Dialects of English
• Archive was created in 1997 by Professor
• Paul Meier of the University of Kansas as a
• repository of primary source recordings.
• For detailed information about the archive,
• its collections, and how to navigate the website,
  
• please go to
• http//web.ku.edu/idea

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Identifying and Selecting Dialect Donors

• Sources Common sources include family, friends,
  colleagues at work, or if you are a teacher or
  professor, your students. International students
  are often a valuable source, and will donate
  their accent in return for subsequent assistance
  in improving their spoken English proficiency .
  Additional resources may be found by going to
  local historical societies and civic
  organizations in your area
• Requesting the Dialect Donation It is always
  important to be sensitive when asking someone to
  donate their dialect or accent. Our voice and the
  way we speak the language is a large part of who
  we are and how we identify ourselves. While most
  people will be agreeable, you may encounter a
  range of reactions to your request, from eager
  acceptance to flat refusal.

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The Session

• Setting up the Optimal Conditions for a
  successful interview and recording is important.
  You may have to work in less than ideal
  situations and not have the sound proofing and
  equipment available in a traditional recording
  studio. Do try to make sure that extraneous and
  unwanted sounds are eliminated to assist in the
  later editing of the sample.
• Making the Donor feel comfortable and at ease is
  critical to a successful donation. People will
  sometimes make attempts to change or correct
  their speech if they are at all self conscious
  and your sample will not be as authentic as a
  result. In addition, a comfortable atmosphere
  may encourage them to talk about themselves and
  their life at a deeper level. As well as
  unscripted conversation, be sure to record Comma
  Gets a Cure, printable from the IDEA website,
  which helps users identify specific
  characteristics of the Donors dialect.
• To obtain a recording that will be easy to edit,
  IDEA recommends you invite the Donor to begin
  with the words I was born and tell them you
  will not speak unless absolutely necessary. Then
  keep your interruptions to a minimum, using your
  own voice only to prompt them to continue.
• For Donors who are speaking English in the accent
  of their first language, ask them to speak or
  recite some text briefly in their own language
  and give you a written copy of that text to
  include with your submission.
• Obtaining Informal and Official Permission to
  record the Donor is required for the IDEA
  process. Let them know that the completed sample
  on the website will be anonymous, no names,
  addresses, phone numbers etc. appear, only such
  items as gender, age, occupation and general
  geographic information. Then ask them to fill
  out and sign the IDEA waiver/questionnaire
  (printable from the website).
• Make sure to check the recording before excusing
  the donor! If it appears to be usable, thank the
  donor and acknowledge them for their
  contribution. Let them know that if they wish,
  in a few weeks they will be able to log on and
  listen to their own sample.

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Traditional Tape Recorders
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Microcassette Recorder
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Recording Directly to a Computer
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Tapeless Micro Recorders
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Recording On An Ipod
Recording on an Ipod is a new option in which a
small attachment is added on to an Ipod (not a
Nano or a Shuffle model) that has a 1/8 jack for
a microphone and a built in microphone. The
built in microphone is suitable for voice memos
but not for archival recording. The microphone
jack with an attached good quality microphone
will produce a CD quality recording that is
output in a .wav file.
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Creating a Sound File

• Moving the recording to the computer
• Example Setups
• Sound Editing Programs
• Editing
• Creating an MP3 sound file

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Moving the Recording to the Computer

• Appropriate cable to come from the recording
  device to the input on the computer.
• Software to Record the incoming sound
• Note If, at this stage of the process, you are
  not comfortable proceeding due to lack of
  equipment or technical expertise, you can contact
  an IDEA Associate Editor such as myself, or
  contact IDEA directly, and either obtain
  assistance in the next steps or arrange to send
  the copy of the recording for processing and
  editing.

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Transfer Cables Tape Deck
1/8 inch to Stereo Phono plugs cable
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Transfer Cables Portable Recorder
1/8 inch to 1/8 inch patch cable or 3/32 inch to
3/32 inch patch cable
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Sound Editing Software

• Sound Forge 8 by Sony
• Logic 7.2 for Mac
• Audacity
• Plus many more are available

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Software

• Audacity is free, open source software for
  recording and editing sounds. It is available for
  Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other
  operating systems.

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Screen Shot
Easy to Understand Simple to Use
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• Available for download at http//audacity.sourcefo
  rge.net/
• Complete tutorials on Recording also available at
  above address
• Additional information at http//audacityteam.org/
  wiki/

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Exporting as MP3

• Audacity does not natively export mp3 for
  submission to IDEA.
• However on the same page where Audacity is
  downloaded there is another free software product
  that will.
• The Lame encoder should be downloaded and
  installed as well. There is information
  available to help with this process

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Written Documentation

• Required Forms and Materials include an original
  or facsimile copy of the signed IDEA
  waiver/questionnaire, a brief biographical
  description (age, gender, ethnicity, occupation,
  educational level) of the Donor, the full text of
  the unscripted conversation in regular spelling.
  Optionally, depending on your background and
  skill level, you may include a brief description
  of the dialect/accent characteristics that will
  be heard and a transcription of parts or all of
  the text file into the International Phonetic
  Alphabet (IPA).

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Submitting the Completed File and Documentation
to IDEA

• Sending a sound and text file (Word preferred)
  electronically from your computer is preferable.
• Sending an e-mailed text file and a hard copy of
  the sound sample on CD in the required format and
  file type is also acceptable.
• Sending the waiver via fax, scan or regular mail
  is required for the sample to become an official
  part of the archive.

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Final Thoughts

• IDEA samples submitted primarily by Associate
  Editors, but also by others, are listened to and
  used every day by actors, vocal and dialect
  coaches, and other voice and speech
  professionals.
• Building a Dialect Resource Network through IDEA
  and other such collections may help provide
  valuable information sharing.
• Building our Oral (Aural) History becomes more
  and more important as dialects and accents change
  over time, new ones develop and some even
  disappear altogether as a result of the
  evolution of culture and society and advances in
  technology.
• To become an Associate Editor, contact IDEA
• The future is in our hands and in our mouths. We
  have the opportunity to help preserve examples of
  and advocate for the continued use of the primary
  means that human beings have to communicate and
  turn themselves inside out The Voice

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Contact Information

• Charles J. Richie
• Associate Professor, Acting Voice
• School of Theatre Dance
• Kent State University
• PO Box 5190
• Kent OH 44242
• 330-672-0109
• crichie_at_kent.edu