I’ve finally finished a story using the alternative recording and editing tools I’ve been testing lately. I created a couple of other pieces, but this is the first one I felt was good enough to submit to the NPR-PRI member station I work for, KUAR-FM. It aired this week and is posted online here. (Wouldn’t you know it, the station is converting to a new hosting service this week. I’ve saved you the trouble and posted it below. Click the icon to listen.)
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Here are the Goals, the Rules, and the Results:
The Goal: I wanted to learn firsthand if the Hindenburg Field Recorder on my iPhone could really act as an alternative to the Marantz PMD-660 recorders that are the standard at our station and in broadcast journalism.
The Rules: I purposely left the Marantz back at the station and went to my primary interview with just my iPhone and a few written questions. I had already purchased the iPhone app and learned the basics on how to use it. I also chose not to use an external mic, just the one on the phone.
The Result: Overall it worked great. It’s not studio quality, but it’s meant to be for field recording. The Marantz can capture studio quality audio, but that depends on mics, amps, etc. For what I needed the iPhone app worked great.
Now, I did not try to use the editing functions on the phone app for this story. I can see how quick thinking reporters comfortable with small screens could do interviews, pull quotes, record wraps, edit the parts together and even type up a lead to be e-mailed along with the audio file attachment. I was doing a longer feature, not a news story, so it would not have worked well in this case.
The Goal: Much of the value of Hindenburg Field Recorder is realized in the DAW software they built for the Mac and Windows PC platforms, so I had to learn how to use Hindenburg Journalist software.
The Rule: Use only Hindenburg Field Recorder for audio editing and export/bounce of final files.
The Result: I did it, but it wasn’t easy. I created a couple videos that I’ll post detailing this a bit more, but it was tough since I have access to (and plenty of experience with) ProTools, CoolEdit Pro, Sound Forge and Audacity. There were many times when I thought, “I have a deadline and I already know how to do this faster in …! Why am I punishing myself by doing this?”
The answer is that the ProTools setup is not mine and will soon be inaccessible. And while I know how to fly in CoolEdit, let’s face it, the program is no longer supported and I need to find an affordable alternative. (No, I personally don’t think Adobe Audition is a worthy upgrade.) Audacity is free and can work, but it is just not built for reporting and the session files are not standard.
Bottom line is that Hindenburg Journalist is a great tool for its intended market! ProTools is probably expensive overkill for most broadcast journalists, and while all the DAW’s filling the space between are likely fine, they seem to me to be cheaper alternatives to ProTools and they all require more learning. Now that Avid has come out with ProTools version 9 (that can work without an interface attached) I may be back in the market for it, but I have to save up a bit before making that plunge. Truth be told, my years of experience on the industry standard DAW is worth a lot more than the cost of the software, so I have to take that into consideration too.
The Goal: Record all story elements from home using simple tools I can afford.
The Rule: No station owned or other borrowed equipment allowed.
The Result: Nope, not yet. I did have success with my opening interview using Skype and Audio Hijack Pro. I had intended to make a trip to see the interviewee, but time and distance would not allow it. I am pleased, though the sound is a bit tinny. I tried using one of the Skype plugins, but the quality was just not sufficient.
I happened to catch the second interviewee on the phone while I was at the station and didn’t know when I would get another chance. I recorded her with the Telos One single hybrid box we have in the news cubes.
As to my voice over, I tried recording it with the iPhone and even attempted to cheat and use the ProTools MBox with a client’s Shure SM86, but it just did not work at home. I owe the station a good VO that fits their standards and the best way to assure that was to go into the studio and voice it on one of the EV RE-20′s they have there. I may be in the market for a USB mic I can use at home and based on what I’m reading the Blue Yeti may actually be good enough with a bit of EQ to make the grade for the station.
[...] posted the produced audio from the tiny house story along with comments of my experience in “Alternative tools for radio reporting.” I’ll link to the audio again below so you don’t have to bounce around to get [...]