Oral History Technology
Oral History Technology
This page is a companion piece to an article entitled "Brave New World: A Guide to Twenty-First Century Technology for Oral History," published in the 2017 edition of the Sound Historian. The links listed below, organized by section, mostly correspond to the italic text found in the article. Additional or alternative links will be provided over time as technology progresses. The hope is that this page will continue to be updated twice yearly so that recent trends can be fully represented. In general, please consider also consulting the wonderful resource website Oral History in the Digital Age (OHDA) for additional information and discussions on many of these topics.
Digital Audio Recorders
Preferred brands: Tascam, & Zoom
Entry-level professional recorder - Tascam DR-40x
How-to guide for setting audio levels
Smartphones as Recorders
Smartphone microphone attachments for iPhone: Zoom iQ6/7, Rode IXYL, Shure MOTIV line
Quality smartphone recording applications (iOS): Recorder Plus, ShurePlus MOTIV, & Voice Record Pro
Quality smartphone recording applications (Android): ShurePlus MOTIV, & Voice Recorder Pro
Long Distance Recording
AUDIO
List of iOS call recording apps
List of Android call recording apps
List of telephone audio interfaces
JK Audio QuickTap (landline)
JK Audio CellTap (cellular)
Olympus Telephone Recording Device (for recording cell phone calls externally)
VIDEO
Screen Recorder for Mac - Quicktime
Screen Recorder for PC - Xbox Game Bar (for Windows 10)
FreeConferenceCall.com - for WAV audio telephone calls or MP4 video conference calls
Skype recording instructions (automatic cloud-based recording now natively available in the app)
Zoom recording instructions (local for all, cloud-based for licensed accounts)
Facetime recording instructions (uses Quicktime screen recording on Macs)
Microphones
OHDA Microphone Selection Tool
Blue line of PC/podcasting microphone options
Cardioid Options - Audio-Technica ATR2100x (entry) & Shure SM7B (studio)
Shotgun Option - Rode NTG-2
Digital Preservation
BUIOH cost schedule/time commitment breakdown
Digital File Management
MetaX (Now supported as MetaZ)
Short-Term Digital Storage
Cloud Storage: Box, Dropbox, & Google Drive
Long-Term Digital Storage
Cold Storage: Amazon Glacier & Backblaze
Digital Processing
Audio-Visual Editing Software
Windows Movie Maker - As of January 2017 WMM is no longer supported by Microsoft, and therefore no longer available to download. If you do not already have a version installed on your PC, please consult this article for free alternatives.
Transcription Software
Dragon NaturallySpeaking - Oral History Review blogpost on this topic
Digital Tools for Access
Websites and Databases
PC Magazine's review of web hosting services
Online Content Hosting Options
The Oral History Metadata Synchronizer (OHMS)
Social Media
Waco, Texas History in Pictures Facebook group (requires you to be logged into Facebook)