Language Documentation Training: Audio & Video Recording Tips 2023

[00:00:02]all right folks so I am delighted to introduce  Olivia Waring who is a PhD student at the   University of Hawaii at Manoa and she's going  to be talking to us about recording today so   take it away Olivia thank you so much Anna it  is great to be here um I'm very very excited to be presenting to you today um let me go ahead  and share my screen um and we'll get started in   one second share hopefully you can see a periodic  table is that is that what you can see amazing um   and then we'll go ahead and start the slideshow  all good here thumbs up see can see me hear me   perfect um welcome everybody it is great to have  you here for this uh webinar on audio and video   recording specifically for language documentation  and revitalization as Anna mentioned I'm Olivia um   I am a PhD student at UH Manoa um so this is me  and I currently live here in beautiful Hawaii   um I also do some research on a language spoken in  Alaska the Eyak language which is right over here   and the Tiwa language um which is spoken in Assam  so those are India and Alaska are uh are my two   two uh spots in the world where I do my research  um but let's get started with audio recording   first um so there are so many reasons that one  might create a recording of linguistic data a   a theoretical linguist perhaps or a documentary  linguist is interested in linguistic analysis   finding things out about how the language works  of course from a more applied perspective you have   teachers that want to create pedagogical resources  for a language and preservation being able to   look back on recordings of legends, folktales,  poems, songs, all that sort of things, so numerous   reasons for making a recording. Oops. In terms  of choosing a recording environment uh oftentimes   you can't control for your environment you do the  best that you can um sometimes the circumstances   are less than ideal and that's perfectly all right  but you want to try optimizing your setting um to   to uh optimize the quality of your recording and  that includes trying to minimize background noise   um and what's funny is oftentimes you might not  perceive background noise in your particular   environment uh as you're just existing in it  but then when you listen back to the recording   suddenly you can you can really hear the sound of  the fridge for example and that's that's a pretty   common one that crops up in recordings. So just  to give you a a sort of indication of things that   might be more audible than you expect after  the fact, fans, kids, animals, background chatter   cell phones beeping and and ringing, yeah  electrical appliances, fridges tend to have   this sort of low rumble that you can often detect  in in audio recordings, snacks, sometimes people   are prone to tapping the table or you know  clicking a pen, that can happen, traffic noises   again not all of these are avoidable and that is  perfectly fine you just want to be sort of aware   of the different factors that play into your  recording quality, so in terms of an ideal   recording environment, indoors is best and  you're ideally going to create for yourself   what's known as a soft room. When you're surrounded  by a lot of hard surfaces sound waves can sort   of bounce back and forth off those hard surfaces  leading to echo which is never a good thing in a   recording, so you're going to want to dampen  those echoes by having a soft surrounding   if you've ever been to a recording studio you'll  notice they have a lot of foam on their walls, you   can recreate this effect in your own home with  towels, blankets, even egg cartons, some people like to record in in closets or even in their car  that tends to create a nice ambiance for sound um   best if the windows are closed. I live here  in Hawaii right now I'm in my room and it is is   the gorgeous sound of bird song, and we love  birds, but they can interfere with your language   data, same with fans and appliances. Kids, kids are  amazing sometimes a little noisy so you know   try to, try to ask them to maybe go play  in another area if you can. Just all sorts of   things to think about as you're crafting  your perfect environment and it's best if   possible um to minimize the number of people um  that are that are occupying the room with you and   the space with you um of course you know not to  the uh to the extent that you compromise any of   the language data it's wonderful to have a lot  of people in a setting talking with one another   chatting and conversing and sharing knowledge um  but just just something to think about um let's   talk a little bit about audio recording equipment  so I've shown here three pictures of sort of your   typical dedicated audio recorder um we've got  a Tascam here that's a that's a common brand   Zoom recorder as well is something that you'll  encounter quite a bit in the field these tend to   run about $200 us um although you can certainly  find find some for Less um they run on batteries   which is great um they don't uh you know kind of  have that electronic rumbling sound and they have   built-in microphones um but you can also equip  them with external microphones that can allow   you to sort of tailor uh the sounds that you're  capturing and to that end I want to talk to you   about um the different types of microphones um  but first let me let me sort of address why you   might not wish to record just with your phone or  with the um the innate capability of your of your   computer for example to uh to make a recording  um computers and phones are equipped with uh with   inbuilt software to filter certain frequencies  they also are designed to remove background noise   and I put remove in quotes um because uh while  removing background noise is is a great capability   um it's better to do that in post production so  that you're not inadvertently removing anything   that's actually useful um to your recording  so you don't want to do that upfront um and   computers themselves create background noise um  I have an old computer that I'm presenting from   right now and you probably can't hear it but  it is worring like a jet engine about to take   off so that's you know that's never a sound  that you want in your recordings per se okay   um and so if you are recording with a phone  or a computer we'll talk more about that in   a little bit um you can get exponentially better  audio by um attaching an external microphone so   let's talk about what those look like um we've  got uh sorry my skipping slides here types of   microphones um these are sort of three basic  types um you have your shotgun microphone uh   which you might recognize from seeing movie sets  right this is the kind of microphone that people   hold up above the actors um as they're as they're  performing a scene your typical handheld mic um   which you'll see at at concerts or um or other  big events and then a lapel mic or a Laval mic a   lav mic um which pins onto your clothing um right  around here so that it picks up sound as you speak   um this is very tragic so tragically chosen name  unfortunately um so oftentimes as you're speaking   um the P's and T's and other plosive sounds will  will create a popping effect in the recording and   you want to minimize that and the way to do  that is to use a foam wind screen which has   very unfortunately acquired the name dead cat uh  in the in the audio recording industry um because   I suppose because it's sort of like fluffy and  and Limp I'm not sure but very unfortunate for   uh for all the cats out there um but that will be  very helpful for you in terms of minimizing those   those unpleasant popping sounds you can see one of  those foam wind screens right here on that shotgun like um microphone directionality is another  thing that you're going to want to think about   um so microphones come in a in a variety of of  different forms and pick up different types of   sounds um so a unidirectional microphone is going  to pick up sounds in One Direction only so we've   got I've got two examples for you here um this  darker outline tells you sort of where around   the microphone that sound is going to be picked up  um so you have your cardioid shape here cardioid   because it's kind of a heart shape I guess you  could say and if you have your microphone situated   right in the middle here that's going to pick  up sound from this area right in front of the   microphone a super cardioid um uh polar pattern  that's another word for this directionality is   again going to pick up things right in front of  the microphone with with sort of a a narrower   angle so if you really want to capture just one  person let's say and sort of eliminate all the   noise um that's from the surroundings that's a  great choice um an omnidirectional microphone   as you can see over here has a spherical  polar pattern so it picks up noise equally   from everywhere around the speaker and that's  great if perhaps you have a conversational   set setting you place the microphone right in  the middle of your interlocutors and everyone   is chatting around and all of their voices get  picked up equally um and finally a bidirectional   microphone picks up sound directly in front of  the microphone and directly behind the microphone   so this is a great choice if for example you're  conducting an interview um and you have two folks   that you want to pick up their voices um but  ignore some of the surrounding sound from the sides um seems to be skipping for me sorry about that  um so we did mention before that recording from   a phone is um is a great idea a very viable  option um particularly if you're going to   attach an external mic things you want to keep  in mind while doing this is you want to position   either the phone itself or the microphone about  four to six inches away from the speaker um best   practice is to make a practice recording um and  then listen listen to it with your headphones to   make sure that everything is sounding as it  should that you've positioned the microphone   properly that you've minimized background noise um  I would not use headphones while you're actually   recording because that can have uh some unintended  side effects some unintended consequences changing   the settings of your recording so use the  headphones to test uh a practice recording   but otherwise keep them uh keep them away from  your phone um the phone should be placed on a   a soft and level stable surface you want to  avoid the phone rattling around while you're   recording um and if possible Elevate the phone  so that it is level with the speaker's mouth or   the microphone is level with the speaker's mouth  and put it in Airplane mode um so that it doesn't   you don't get any any surprise calls or texts uh  while you're while you're in the midst of your   recording it's very important to check your sound  levels um when you're conducting audio recordings   unfortunately once you finished a recording  and you're listening back if it's too quiet   or too loud uh both of those can can really be  devastating for recording quality certainly not   insurmountable there are there are ways you can  fix uh fix each of those problems but um better   to to nip them in the bud beforehand um so with  your traditional audio recorder the Tascam or the   zoom that I showed you before um the way you'll  do this is you will press the record button once   and the record light should start blinking so it  hasn't started to record yet but it's kind of the   preliminary phase so this is the point at which  you're going to want to check your your levels um   there will be a knob nearby um and this is going  to vary from recording device to recording device   so you'll want to want to check your manual but  there'll be a little knob that allows you to   adjust what we call the game um and so I've pasted  in some some images here um you're going to ask   your speaker to start saying some test sentences  and as that happens these little green bars are   going to sort of jump up and down in response  to the speaker's voice so when they speak louder   those bars are going to uh extend higher uh along  along this axis um and when they're softer they're   going to they're going to go down a little bit  and so your goal is to have the green bars be   as high as they can be without what we call  clipping so uh if the green bars go off this   scale you'll see that they'll start turning yellow  and then orange and then red um and that's called   clipping that means we've basically exceeded the  record's capacity to uh to capture that sound so   you want your um your recording levels to be  as high and as green as they can possibly be   um extending into the yellow is okay um but you  want to make sure you're avoiding that orange and   that red space uh so have your have your speaker  try talking at a lot of different volumes um and   adjust that knob to make sure that even at the  very loudest you're not expending into the red range um basic recording procedure um so with  your recording device whether it be an external   um handheld audio recorder or your phone or  your computer you're going to want to access   your settings um and again consult your manual  it'll be different for each individual device um   but the best settings for um audio recording are  uh 44.1 KZ sampling speed and this is the um the   same sampling rate as your typical audio CD so  any CD that you play in your car which has great   audio quality and is professionally produced  um that's the same quality that you'll achieve   on your own recording device uh with 44.1 kertz  with 16 bits um and you can save your audio in   multiple different formats um but a wve file is  uh is probably your best option because this is   what we call a lossless format um and it's going  to be a big file because it's not going to try to   compress any of uh of your audio or or try to make  the files smaller by you know deleting certain uh   certain aspects and portions of your audio so this  is really a a high fidelity um file type that that   preserves every every aspect of the recording um  so you're gonna want to use that as I mentioned   before you'll hit that record button once you're  going to go ahead and your test your audio levels   make sure you're not clipping there's no uh  there's no red space up there um you're going   to adjust the gain for that Goldilocks level of  sound right not too loud not too soft right in the   middle there press record to begin again and then  you're off to the races it is very good practice   um to record 30 seconds of comparative silence um  so and again this might capture some background   noise some buzzing of your refrigerator or you  know some bird song things in the background this   is called the room tone so what you're doing here  is no one is speaking you're just capturing uh the   organic ambient sounds of the room and that can  be really helpful later in postprocessing if you   want to sort of subtract those sounds out of the  final recording um so that's audio recording do   we have any questions before we begin our section  on video recording any any pressing questions or   maybe we'll defer them all to the end uh and I'll  just carry on here um with video recording so why   why do we bother to make video recordings instead  of just relying on audio as I'm sure you you all   are linguists here and and language practitioners  you know that language is a lot more than just   audio a lot more than just spoken speech um  languages that are spoken as their modality   um make extensive use of facial expressions and  gestures for example if um I as a speaker want   to refer to something that's close to me I'll say  this something that's far I might say that um and   all of that is valuable data that can be collected  about a language of course sign languages right   which I feel often get short shrift when we're  talking about language documentation but are   so so important um they are it's crucial to to  capture video recordings of sign languages um   video recordings allow us to see the language  used in context see the discourse context uh to   see facial expressions um and to see the manner  in which speakers interact with one another all   of which is useful data and they provide a really  Dynamic resource for language communities so for   example if you're if you're making a video of  someone um uh showing a traditional craft or you   know perhaps making a a a showing the weaving of  a fishnet you want to be able to actually see that   as it's being described and that's just a really  valuable cultural artifact um and pedagogical tool   of course everything uh you know there's other  sides of the coin so video has its downsides it's   very expensive to acquire professional video  recording equipment um and it does results in   much larger file sizes right you're capturing  more and more Dynamic data um video recording   sometimes is distracting for participants it can  be a little a little freaky to have a a video   camera trained on you right it's it's hard to um  it's hard to ignore that presence when it's just   an audio recorder sitting next to you sometimes  you can just kind of forget that it's there but   a video recorder is a little bit harder to put  out of your mind um so this can result in you   know speakers being very aware of of where they  are what they're saying what they're doing um   and after you've you've collected did your video  footage it often requires um different expensive   softwares to fully utilize and edit and we're  going to try to circumvent some of those issues   um as we talk today about different possibilities  um but first let's just talk about the mechanics   of video recording so when you record video you  want to position that camera ever so slightly   above the speaker or right at their eye level  um you certainly don't want it to be coming from   below so ideally a little bit above and pointing  downwards um and if you are going to attach an   external microphone you're going to situate that  just above the camera typically what we'll do in   a language documentation context is have a video  recorder going that video recorder has a built-in   microphone which will also be collecting the  audio but then you'll also for for you know   extra bang for your buck you're going to have an  external audio recorder going at the same time   so what you'll eventually end up with is one one  video file and two audio files one from the video   camera and one from the dedicated audio recorder  um and it's it's always great to have redundancy   in your recordings um and we'll we'll talk a  little bit about what it means to align those   um in just a bit when you're setting up your uh  your shot your video um you are going to want to   keep a few principles in mind about framing um  make sure that your video camera is quite stably   situated and so often that will involve using a  tripod uh to make sure that it's it's very level   very steady um and wide shots are best you're  not going to want to zoom in too close on the   speaker's face um you want to include their upper  bodies and you you're going to want to test before   you start video video recording um that there's  sufficient space around the speakers for them to   extend their arms in all directions so my framing  is not great right now in the zoom screen because   you can't see um everything that I'm doing if  I if I wave my arms around the reason that you   want to have that little bit of extra space around  your speakers is you know perhaps they are like me   and they gesture very broadly um you want to make  sure none of that data is is left uncaptured um   at the end of your recording it would really be  a shame to get back from your recording session   and realize that that you lost certain certain  aspects of the conversation you'll use your camera   to adjust the focus doesn't need to be fancy  oftentimes cameras have a an autofocus feature   which is perfectly fine for these circumstances  um and again you'll you'll want to avoid um kind   of fiddling with the camera during the recording  you're probably not going to want to zoom in and   out or move the camera around really steady stable  simple um is what you're going for with your video recordings um so here's some examples of bad  framing so you have your your subject just kind   of out of the shot sort of halfway out this  framing is coming from a little bit too high   up right you're going to want to have it be a  little bit more level with the speaker's face   um and over here again she's a little bit um too  far to the right of the frame um here's some good   framing right very level the speaker's face lots  of space around uh the speaker for her to gesture   um good framing here for a pair of speakers now  you'll notice in this case um there's not as much   room around the speakers you you kind of have to  optimize for um being close enough to capture all   of their facial expressions and being far enough  away to capture all of the gestures it's a it's a   little bit of an art um and and you can make  that judgment call as to what seems best but   this would be this would be a very good example  of framing lighting is another consideration uh   you'll want to avoid filming in backlit settings  um so right now I'm sitting in front of a window   which casts some nice light um right on my face  if I were if I were facing away from the window   if the window were behind me you would just see  my Silhouette so that's something that you're   going to want to avoid um oftentimes you know you  might be in an indoor space uh with lots of lamps   try to avoid uh any lights that cast Shadows so  you're going to want to try to assess for um for   that before you start recording Shadows tend to  uh decrease the quality of your video you will   want to make use of any lighting sources that you  have to the subject's face on torso that's that's   really the target of the video um if you do know  in advance that you're going to be shooting in a   low light setting uh you can choose your camera  accordingly there are cameras out there that are   optimized for low light settings um they have  they have a a wider lens and they capture at a   different frame rate so those uh those can be  very useful if that's something you know ahead   of time um otherwise it's a great idea to try to  record on an overcast day or in the late afternoon   those tend to be sort of soft lighting settings  uh um and another thing you're going to want to   think about is What's called the white balance if  you've ever seen a video where the the subjects um   coloring seems a little bit strange maybe they  appear a little orange-ish there's something   that seems to be off that means the camera wasn't  properly calibrated in terms of color and the way   you can fix this is by holding up a white object  you're going to typically want to use a piece of   white fabric because you don't want anything  too glossy um and just double check that in   the video it shows up as a as a pure white color  um if it shows up as orange or green or something   else you're going to want to go into your color  settings and and adjust just to make sure that   everything is is is true to life um in your final  recording some examples of bad lighting oh that   would be a shame uh you have this beautiful video  of a speaker doing something wonderful and then   you're unable to see their facial expressions you  want to avoid that um here's some good lighting   right it's it's it's soft Shadows are minimized  um the the faces are fully lit um oops all right   so one of the things that you're going to have  to do after you uh finish recording both your   audio and your video is you're going to have to  synchronize those two files um so as I mentioned   before it's very good practice to have a video  camera going which is also recording audio and   then have a separate audio recording device that  can be your phone or it can be an external audio   recorder this is really useful in cases where um  the camera is situated a little further back from   the speakers in order to capture the whole scene  but you want that audio recorder to be closer   so that it captures their voice more directly um  also video camera uh mics the inbuilt microphones   tend to be omnidirectional if you remember  talking about those polar patterns so they   tend to capture all of the sound and you might  want a more focused sound for your audio track   so that's another reason to use a dedicated  audio recorder and then use the camera audio   as backup never bad to have backup um and so  in order to synchronize all these different   recordings that are going on you're going to  get in touch with your inner movie star you're   going to do what we call slating your audio um  and if you've ever watched an old timey film   being made you'll have seen those those little  um chalkboards with the with the uh the piece   of wood that you hit I'll show you a picture in  the next page but what they're doing is they're   is they're slating their audio and you can do  this too by just clapping three times um two or   three times in front of the video camera so you  want to make sure that your hands are visible in   the shop clapping and that'll also generate this  really sharp um Spike of sound and what that lets   you do is um in post production it allows you to  synchronize those files so here's that that sort   of a slating device that you'll see um directors  using and as you're syncing your audio files every   time you you clap you'll see this really tight  narrow Spike of sound in the waveform and it's   really nice to see those because that allows  you to kind of very beautifully align um the   audio files from separate recordings and you can  also align that with your video recording because   you'll be able to see the moment at which your  hands come together and that corresponds to the   spike of sound um this just a kind of a quick  and uh cheap trick for for aligning your um   recordings you can also use software to do  this um tends to be a little bit expensive   uh a little bit memory intensive so this is a  really quick way to do this um oops my apologies here [Music] um okay so let's talk about  a recording checklist very quickly um so   as you're setting up your recording equipment  you're first going to think about the location   as we discussed way early on in the presentation  is this going to give me good audio is it a soft   space without any hard surfaces for the sound to  bounce off of is very enough light our external   sounds and noises minimized then you're going to  set up your dedicated audio recorder and ideally   your external microphone and you're going to  think about these questions of polarity um are   the mics picking up all the voices that I want  to he have I chosen a mic that's that focuses   on One Voice or that picks up many voices you're  going to go ahead and you're going to check those   levels right to make sure that even at the  loudest possible levels your speaker isn't   um isn't clipping the audio isn't going into that  Red Zone you're going to then situate your camera   on a nice steady tripod you're going to make sure  that it's level with the speaker faces pointing   slightly downwards everyone's in frame gestures  are able to be captured you'll check that white   balance to make sure the coloring is true to  life um lighting you don't want to be back lit   you want speaker space is illuminated check the  gain levels and the volume on the cameras in bu   audio recorder as well then you're ready so  you're going to go ahead and you're going to   start that audio recording press the record  a second time then you'll go ahead and press   record on the camera so this is a neat little  trick you're going to want to start your audio   before you start your video and then when you're  done with your recording you're going to end your   video and then finally end your audio um I  saw uh someone give this presentation and   she had a very cute analogy she she said the  the audio recording gives the video recording   a hug right so the audio recording is going to  be a little longer on either end than your video recording um in terms of video converting and  editing so so most of your um of your cameras   are going to record in in all sorts of different  file types MTS abchd all these kind of fancy terms   um the best uh file type to edit in however is MP4  and so often times you'll need to convert whatever   file you pull off your video recording device  into and there are dedicated softwares that can   do this there are three softwares um handbreak  is one such program um I can send these slides   out later on all of these links are included  if you want to go check out these softwares in   terms of post production editing there are tons  of free options out there and I've named just a   few um and included their link there are um some  very fancy professional quality paid options um   including Adobe Premiere sometimes you'll be able  to obtain an Institutional license um through an   institution with which you're Affiliated so  it's definitely worth checking out um some of   these some of these softwares have a rather steep  learning curve um but they do allow you to do very   professional quality post production all right um  I want to very quickly dive into some recording   techniques that don't rely on this expensive  external equipment right we have incredibly   powerful technology at our fingertips we're all  using perhaps phones or computers right now to   join this webinar and that alone um will suffice  to produce some pretty high quality um recordings   uh so on Zoom we we live in the era of Zoom  recordings and it is possible to actually get a   very high quality um audio and vi video recording  from Zoom by just toggling a few small settings   that you might not even have known were there  so high definition recording um which means uh   720 pixels of resolution or higher is possible  with zoom um but the resolution is very much   going to depend on the quality of your internet  connection so you're going to want to make sure   you're in a place where you have a very stable  um high quality internet connection to maintain   uh that that uh high resolution recording if your  call involves two people um that's perfectly fine   you can go ahead and for free record in high  definition if it has more than two people on   the call you will need a paid account to access  that feature um and I'm just going to show you   this delve deep into the settings pages of of  Zoom um with you sorry for my for my face on the   screen there as I was practicing um if you're  on Zoom right now you'll see um a a sort of a   menu bar on the bottom of your screen um and  there will be audio and video settings that   you can access um if you click the little arrow  next to video uh and click video settings it'll   pull up a screen much like this um and let's  check out the video settings first so right now   it's using a built-in camera in my computer and  that's perfectly fine if I wanted to be um extra   sophisticated in my recording techniques I might  attach an external video camera and I'd be able   to uh to set that preference by just clicking  this drop down menu here the really relevant   Point uh for our purposes is this HD check box  so um by default it is unchecked um so you're   going to want to go ahead and check that if you  are uh recording um uh high quality um and then   there's all these other little features that you  can make use of touching up your appearance is   just adjusting the colors and the lighting a  little bit you can adjust for low light um and   I'd be happy to talk to you about some of the  other settings that are here and what they mean   but it's really nice you know that that these  uh these options are natively included in the   zoom platform I certainly didn't know about them  until I I started exploring there's also an audio   settings tab which is extremely useful I've just  shown a snapshot of it here there are more um more   settings to to play with um but you can use as  I mentioned an external microphone and if you   do attach an external microphone to your computer  you would change that setting in this drop-- down   box right here um you can automatically adjust  the microphone volume so that um it it changes   to accommodate the the speaker's volume level  and that's a really nice way to avoid clipping   um so the speaker suddenly uh speaks very loudly  or laughs loudly the the volume will auto adjust   to reflect that um and zoom also provides um  inbuilt background noise suppression um and so   so the default setting is an auto uh suppression  but if you if you like if you have for example a   very noisy environment um you might wish to uh  to check the High background noise suppression   box which um which does uh a very good job of  filtering out most background noise but unless   you're in a really noisy environment  that might be Overkill that might be unnecessary um and finally we've got some  recording settings um so you can do all sorts   of things um like specify where you want to save  that recording um on your own hard drive um record   video during screen sharing display names um so  these are all just things you can play with uh as   you as you explore the possibilities of recording  with zoom recording with voice memo on your on   your iPhone or other device is another very very  useful technique this is just for audio recordings   but sometimes um if if you just want to take a  very casual recording you're sitting and having   a conversation you just put your phone on a table  um near you and your friend as you're chatting Um   this can be a very low stakes method of recording  so you're going to go ahead to your voice memo   app on your iPhone and it's it's as easy as just  hitting this big red button um and then it will   start recording whatever you're speaking whatever  whatever uh uh whatever it hears you're going to   again want to abide by the guidelin um that I that  I laid out earlier in the presentation in terms of   microphone placement in terms of the the room uh  and and um other sound quality considerations um   but in general this is as as easy as can be  you'll then click stop to end your recording   um and then you'll see your recording here you'll  want to go and change the file name if you want to   then export that file to let's say a computer for  further editing that's very very easy to do um you   just hit that little those little three dots on  the side of the recording and it'll lead you to   a screen that allows you to share that recording  um various options will appear um perhaps one of   the best options is to email that recording to  yourself so you'll just go ahead and click this   email icon um and then you can type in your own  email address the recording will be included as   an attachment and then in your email is a is a  lovely voice recording um that you were create   created with just your own um your own iPhone  or your own recording device um I would again   highly highly recommend um if you if you only have  a little bit of of a budget to improve the quality   of your recordings my recommendation would be  to purchase um a cell phone compatible or a   smartphone compatible um external microphone you  can get them for about $50 and it will radically   change the quality of your recording recording  um so this is something that plugs directly into   your smartphone um and then you can usually clip  it onto um the speaker lapel um and for for just   that $50 investment it's going to really really  improve the quality it's pretty pretty high bang   for your buck so if you are only going to buy one  piece of specialized equipment that would be my   recommendation finally in the last five minutes  we have here want to talk to you a little bit   about metadata um as you are creating all of these  recordings over the course of your fieldwork um   you're going to find that very very quickly they  add up you're going to you're going to generate   quite a lot of recordings and uh you want to make  sure that you can keep track of them all because   because very quickly um it it starts to become  uh a little bit unwieldy with all the files that   you'll be having so making sure to keep track of  metadata which basically means information about   the recordings themselves um has a number of very  uh very useful useful feature is it situates the   recording in context um of the of the particular  uh setting in which in which you've you've made   the recording it makes your recording much  much easier to find at a later date so if   you've perhaps recorded hundreds of files and you  say ah I need to find the one that was recorded   under the avocado tree on a Tuesday um you'll  you'll need some extra information to help you   help you tease apart uh all of the recordings  that you've created and it provides some really   crucial information about the contents of those  recordings so some items that you're going to want   to include in your in your metadata are the names  of the speakers involved the name of the language   that you're recording the date of that recording  the location um the names of the elicitors so   that would be you that would be the the the folks  that are um are making the recordings setting up   all the equipment asking the questions um the  genre of recording whether it's a it's a word   list elicitation um or or storytelling or songs  um and then just a little bit about the general   contents of the recording it's it's usually a  great idea to keep all of this in a spreadsheet   where you list the file name and then all of the  associated metadata um and that way you'll never   have trouble identifying the recording that you're  that you're interested in file naming conventions   are also very important um if you're like me  you will have written a paper at some point   where you'll you'll name the file uh you know  paper final version and then you'll go back and   you'll edit it again and then it will become final  version for real and then it will become no really   I mean at this time the final version um so to  kind of Forstall that uh you're going to want to   have a really systematic way of naming your files  um and making sure that the file names themselves   include um useful metadata um so proper naming  conventions will give you the who the when and   the what um and so I've just given a few examples  here my poem. wve doesn't really tell you much   about whose poem it is when it was recorded  um ST1 again doesn't actually offer that much   information some good file names however provide  let's say the name or the initials of the speaker   they'll also provide the date that the recording  was made in some format the format itself doesn't   matter um and then a little blurb or a little  bit of information that gives you uh gives you   some context for what the recording contains and  as always consistency is key so once you once you   establish a a naming convention you're going  to want to stick to that naming convention all   throughout um ISO codes you may have encountered  these in the course of your language work um they   are unique three letter identifiers that uh  that identify each of the world's languages   um and in some cases various dialects as well um  and you can you can look these up at s.org you   can find the iso code um for your particular  language that can be a really valuable piece   of information to add to your file name there's  also something called the Glad code which is a   which is a similar concept and finally archiving  is absolutely crucial you know regardless of how   and when and where and using what equipment you  collect um your files you're going to want to   make sure that they are stored for posterity um  and so materials that you collect in the field   can be uploaded to a variety of institutional  archives um at the University of Hawaii which   is my home institution we have an archive called  Kon and it has its own metadata conventions And   archiving standards and you can sort of read  uh read all the instructions for how to upload   files to that database any archive that you use  will have its own standards and instructions   and conventions that you'll want to abide by um  but that means that now an institution is um is   accountable for holding on to your data and and uh  keeping it for posterity you'll also want to do so   on your own end as well so make sure that you have  multiple copies of all of those files um stored on   various hard driv ideally in multiple locations  um stored on the cloud as well you can you know   you can never account for Hardware failures or um  other sort of catastrophes that that cause loss   of data so you're going to want to have as much  redundancy as possible built into your archiving   system so that is it in terms of content from me  but I would love to uh to entertain any questions   that you may have or any comments um and if  you have audio or video recording expertise   to share you're so welcome to do so we would love  to love to hear from you as well so thank you so much I see some all right folks I have  shared your chat questions with Olivia   and if you have questions you would like to  ask uh on video you can just raise your hand I'm going to go ahead and and address some  of these excellent questions in the chat um   so one is the the names of the audio recorders  that I showed um in that image and I can I can   hop back to that page as well um so two of the of  the most commonly used audio recorders are called   Tascam t c m and zoom audio recorders zo M just  like the the the zoom software we're using now um   and you can find those at really any audio store  on Amazon um they're they're quite quite widely   available um so so a quick Google search should  uh should point you in the right direction to   those to those tools um very interesting question  are there cell phone recording programs that show   levels so you can check the volume I believe  there are um I don't know the names of them   off the top of my head but there's a number of  different smartphone apps that you can enable on   your phone um that are a little more sophisticated  than that that simple voice memo app that I showed   you um and that's a great idea actually to to be  able to check for clipping and and gain levels um   uh on your smartphone itself um let's see yeah so  there's a really great question that's raised um   I'll read it to you the problem with lighting  is it is impossible to manage it in a remote   area where there's lack of lighting when important  cultural practices are being held absolutely and I   think you know in all of your recording Endeavors  um making sure to to prioritize uh respect for   for the community and for you know the the um the  cultural observances is absolutely Paramount um at   all times and so in that situation what I would  suggest is perhaps um prior to uh to going out   into the field would be to to invest in a camera  that has is optimized for low light conditions I   think that could yield some some pretty pretty  great dividends in in your work um metadata ah   okay metadata softwares yes so there are quite  a few um software programs that will help you in   collecting and storing and managing all of your  metadata as I mentioned um sometimes I go old   school and just keep it all in a spreadsheet uh  but the software that I have seen used and that   is extremely helpful is something called lameta  um l m which is a free software um and can be   extremely useful uh just for for keeping track of  all of those metadata items so that would be my   recommendation um great question about ISO versus  ISO versus glot codes which are more commonly used   um that's I'm not sure about more commonly used  I do know that glot codes are um are perhaps more   uh are are more commonly updated Anna I don't  know if you if you have um thoughts about that   I think a lot of codes um tend to account for for  dialectical variations and and you know other sort   of nuances that perhaps ISO codes don't account  for um yeah I'd say at this point ISO codes   are more widely used by more organizations and  companies and linguists and all that stuff but   but I think glotto codes like Olivia said are more  comprehensive so some languages may not actually   have an ISO code but they do have a glotto code  and so glog is a lot more inclusive of different   varieties of languages and they do update their  standard more often so if it tells you anything   uh ELP is currently switching from ISO codes to  glotto codes so I don't know which one is still   more widely used but we are moving towards glotto  codes here at ELP that's that's great feedback   thank you Anna um I see a few more oh um here's a  really interesting one for achieving more natural   speech do you tend to hide recorders in any way  it's a really interesting question and I'd again   be interested in hearing Anna's thoughts um folks  tend to myself included I tend to forget that the   record there after a little while you know it can  be sitting on the on the table right in front of   me and and over time I just become more more  comfortable and and uh you know start speaking   as as though I'm not being recorded um you you  know it is it's not a bad idea to uh to try to   keep it in a slightly more discret location um  but but you don't want to compromise the quality   of your recording um so it is a little bit of a  of an optimization problem Anna do you have any   thoughts about that yeah no I'm with you Olivia  people tend to get used to the recorder after   a little while but also just we shouldn't have  to say it but don't ever hide the recorder and   record someone without their knowledge always make  sure that they know that you are recording yes yes   absolutely um and receiving informed consent is  also an incredibly important part of the of the   recording cont uh recording process absolutely  thank you for bringing that up Anna um and then   another question do you think researchers can  depend on AI generated audios regarding accents   and spoken language in the face of problems  or absence of real life authentic voice data   that's an incredibly interesting question  and especially you know as we have all this   burining AI technology which is Raising ethical  questions and and procedural questions um I'd love   to hear more more about that question from from  whoever asked it if you'd um if you'd like to hop on hi actually um I uh I just psted that question  the thing is yeah uh the idea in my mind was that   like um like these days a lot of you know AI  generated things are coming into our lives in   our research and our teaching and learning so uh  my question is that is there any possibility or is   there any kind of uh way of citing or referencing  of these kind of recordings which we can use in   our research generated by the EI AI absolutely  it's it's you know the the idea of or the the   concept of AI in this sort of research is is so  interesting and and just getting started um I was   recently reading about um uh the use of AI in uh  in recordings of sign languages to perform um Auto   transcriptions of those sign languages So based  on the movements and the gestures um to to be   able to translate those into sort a written form  um which is absolutely fascinating and uh you know   I think um I think the the field is just beginning  I think that a lot of these the possibilities that   you mentioned are are very much in the pipeline  um and it will be really interesting to see you   know AI generated speech and to what extent that  maps on to um to to authentic speech by speakers   I I think we need to tread a little bit carefully  in that domain right to make sure that um as as   linguists um that we are are are centering our  work around around the speakers themselves and   their needs and their values um but I you know to  the extent that that AI can be a useful tool for   for making this process more efficient uh and  more beneficial to all I say utilize it to its   maximum extent there there may be in this room  oh of course thank you for your question there   may be folks in the room who are who are more AI  savvy than I am so I welcome you to uh to chime   in thanks a lot I would just add when using  any AI tools for underresourced languages be   very cautious um AIS tend to fill in gaps with  what they think goes there and it may not have   anything to do with how the language actually  works so we've seen a lot of Articles and cases   recently of AI tools being applied to indigenous  or minoritized languages and just coming out with   garbage that makes no sense so be very cautious  if you're going to use AI tools we're still in a   phase where they kind of work enough to trick  you but they don't really work that well for a   lot of languages so use what you can see how it  goes and don't expect it to be 100% accurate at   this point in time that's a fantastic Point yeah  several grains of salt with with you know all sort   of sort of AI generated results and I think um to  Anna's Point um a lot of the AI models um are are   based on machine learning algorithms that train on  languages such as English right so they're they're   going to be searching for english-like patterns um  that may or may not exist in the languages you're   working on so yeah so they can they can they can  generate some things that look very authoritative   but are are nevertheless totally wrong so you  want to be a little bit careful um use it as as   a tool but not as a standin for linguistic  analysis absolutely thank you so much of course um let's see the synchronization of  audio and video um oh and the sound of the   video is bad yeah so um the this the sound  of the that's recorded by the video camera   is probably not going to be going to be  very good unless you attach an external   mic which is why we recommend using an  external recording device and in terms   of synchronizing those there are yeah there  are tons of free softwares um and I'd be happy   to send out links to all of those um after the  we inar um be very very happy to send a little list and then we do have a question about is  it conventional to uh secretly record people   by hiding recorders somewhere Olivia do you  have anything to add definitely not no no   it's it's extremely important to to ensure that  um that all all parties are willingly entering   into this into this recording um relationship  and um and actually that that brings me back   to um to a really interesting question that  was posed at the beginning which is sort of   um security of of data and you know where are  these recordings going to be posted who's going   to have access to them um a lot of times there  might be very very sensitive information that is   conveyed in these recordings and you want to  be um you want to be incredibly cognizant of   of the privilege that you as the recorder have  of of you know being privy to this information   um so it's very important that um that the the  folks you work with sort of are aware of where   those recordings are going to go and who will  have access to them and there are some really   interesting platforms coming out now that um for  sort of um uh a restricted access to information   so the one that comes to mind for me is a is a  um a site called mukatu mukur Tu and I can send   that out um where uh based on your um your how  you identify within the community as as an elder   your gender whatever it happens to be um you  may or may not have access to to different uh   different items in that archive and that can all  be be stipulated by the community who has access   to what um and so access is restricted based on  your demographics in accordance with Community   wishes so um so there's there are people giving  thought to this about you know you've made your   recordings you know we we often think that broad  dissemination is is the best possible outcome of   these recordings but that's not always the case  and it's really important to to confirm with   your um with your speakers and your subjects  um what they're comfortable with in terms of dissemination okay security problems with online  recordings oh that's interesting question I have   not encountered um to my knowledge any any  security issues with recording online Anna   is that something you you run into yeah so  I think unfortunately A good rule of thumb   whenever you are doing any kind of language  work is if you are using the internet to do   something there is a possibility that someone  will be able to access it especially depending   on what country you live in uh what the context  is like if you know your government wanted to   access your Zoom call they probably could unless  you have a whole lot of digital security skills   so be mindful just you know so most people don't  have any interest in the language recordings you   are doing but just always assume there is  some kind of possibility that what you're   doing could be accessed by someone else if  you're doing it online and if you're really   worried about keeping your recordings secure  uh do it in person with uh an audio record   order that is not a cell phone but again in  most contexts most governments or police or   whatever don't have very much interest in your  language work so I wouldn't worry about it a lot great point about Network inst  stability yeah yeah that's a that's a big one any other questions well I see this one about uh is AI having any  effect on the way language documentation is done   nowadays oh interesting yeah yeah that's you know  that's a it's a great question um I think AI has   yet to um to to reach a point at which it's  it's really um viable for for lesser spoken   or lesser studied languages um uh simply because  of the absence of of data um but I think we're I   think we're reaching that point um I think uh you  know there's a lot of interest in um developing uh   developing tools that will take a stream of  recorded sound and automatically transcribe   that say in IPA right so that you can you can get  past what we call the transcription bottleneck in   linguistics where it you record all this amazing  data but then you have to sit down and transcribe   it on IPA and it takes you know an hour to do  five minutes uh and so certainly AI can can go   a long way in just making our our protocols  more efficient I think um and so those are   those are things that are certainly in the works  we'll have to learn a lot of orthography that's true and AI can also be useful in managing your  files right if if you have developed some sort   of system for naming your audio files I think  there are AI tools that can just look at the   file information and then rename all of it like  okay I know that this file was recorded on this   date at this time and if it's on your phone maybe  this location so you can just automatically rename   all of your files using that convention using an  AI tool it's a tiny tiny bit of help oh but that   could save so much time no you're so right yeah  really any any process that that you can automate   um you know so you can maximize the attention  that you're focusing on on on speakers and on   working with those those really interesting  facets of language yeah use use AI to your advantage oh Anna I might I might give this  question to you it's it's such a great question   um about uh paying speakers for for recordings  and sort of the the mechanics and ethics of of um   remuneration yeah i' love to hear what you think  yeah thanks for this question Pas I suspect this   is a slightly rhetorical question given given your  public speaking about this topic in the past but   personally it depends on the context that you're  working in right there might be times when it's   not polite or even disrespectful to offer to pay  someone for sharing language with you there are   also lots of cases where it's really respectful  and really good to compensate people for their   time because they're they're taking time out of  their day to talk with you to make this recording   uh maybe they've traveled to meet with you so I  generally prefer to pay people rates comparable   to what like I don't know a school teacher makes  in the area because that's what folks are doing   they're teaching you um if there isn't any funding  then it's up to you to have a conversation with   the folks you're working with about what they  think is fair and respectful and shows reciprocity   even if it's not giving them money directly maybe  you know you can go help with some project they're   doing at their home that weekend in exchange  for their time recording with you it doesn't   have to be money necessarily but make sure you  find ways that people are getting as much out of   this relationship as you are right you're getting  language data what are they getting in return even   if it's not like cash find some way that it can  be something that they get out of working with you absolutely I think yeah context and  communication are are really the keys there   what would you say Pas I'm sure you have advice  for people yeah actually you you I think you've   said it you've said it in a in a very nice way  Anor I just wanted to probably find a way for   this point to go through that you know we should  recognize that people have you know this is this   is a resource that people have the ability to  speak a language and we should not just take it   for granted so that even if there is no funding  as you say one should find ways to show gratitude   for for getting all that information from people  so I think you've said it the best way one could   ever say so thank you so much yeah thank you Pas  and I will remind everyone here that if you would   like other good advice on your language work Dr  pumu is a highly regarded documentary linguist   who is able to talk with you for free through the  ELP revitalization mentors program so I will put   a link in the chat to make a free appointment  to talk with pasas thank you Anna thank you yeah I see a question in the chat from Sama and  then and then um a couple raised hands as well um   there's a there's a question question about  um capturing yeah Best Practices when there   are you know child's voices and other chaotic  situations that you that you can't control for   which is perfectly all right and very common and  you know and sometimes you know it's important to   include um the the context of the recording and  you you don't necessarily want to uh to eliminate   all of that that background information I guess  my suggestion for getting the highest quality   audio there would be um to be to be cognizant of  of the microphone that you're using and if you're   if you're really keen on capturing just a single  voice um think about those those directionality   patterns right and and try to get a unidirectional  microphone or um a microphone that Clips a a   so-called lapel microphone that that can capture  just that really you know U uh narrow stream of   speech uh so just you know giving a little bit of  Prior thought to your recording equipment um Can   can go a long way so I see um vipin and and vipin  first yes hi am I audible yes you are thank you   okay hi uh first of all thank you for the session  there a lot of like these little things that you   know that would not have crossed my mind that  I had to make a note of um but I just want to   know can you give us like some very like not not  I know you probably won't be able to share like   real language data but you know you explained us  to the as the importance of like how to you know   the importance of gain and you know clipping and  all that but if you could give us like certain   examples where not having these settings in their  optimal condition could like you know Miss out   certain sounds in the language like maybe like a  click or a GLT stop that you know so it just would   help us like it it would help for us to understand  um why exactly these settings are important right   like on paper you can see okay you need to set  gain and you need to do all of that but I I guess   it would help if if we have like an like a very  specific example where it will tell us like you   know if you don't do this this is how you'll mess  up right if you can tell us something like that   thank you so much of course I mean I would be  happy to after this webinar send out um a few   a few links or a few a few little files um I think  there's a Google Drive uh that that show you sort   of what can go wrong in audio recordings um with  clipping specifically um once you reach that Red   Zone what You' basically done is the you have  exceeded the microphone's sensitivity um and so   any anything else will will be perceived as just  kind of this sort of like popping roaring sound   um and it will obscure it will obscure the rest  of your of that portion of your recording but um   Vian I agree with you I think just uh seeing it  in action and hearing some of these examples is   probably is probably the best way to internalize  it and so I can um prepare some examples for you all I think um I think bi's had a hand um my  question was about uh I think you have already   partially answered that about the uh you know  the Sounds in the environment my my question was   particularly about like in South Asian countries  like India Pakistan and Bangladesh and like in   that region the cities are not planned so we  have like within residential areas we have like   businesses which which create a lot of noise even  at the dead of the night so like we we we can hear   like uh barking or Machines working or welders  working on there so in these settings what has   been your experience as you have explained that  you have worked in Asam could you please share   some of your experiences absolutely um yes so I  I totally agree with you that that's been that's   been my experience as well and and as I mentioned  before you know sometimes it's it's a it's an   asset adds to the Ambiance and and you know the  understanding of the of the the setting um uh as I   mentioned I I tried to use directional microphones  to um to uh uh to sort of correct for that I also   you know making sure you're in an enclosed space  can be really helpful um the filtering out of   background noise is is important as as I mentioned  I would not do this um uh beforehand by which I   mean that sometimes your audio recording itself  or your computer will have a built-in background   filter setting and I would not use that um and the  reason is that you want to record things with as   High Fidelity as possible so that you have a  really faithful copy and then you can sort of   mess with it and change it at the end um but this  is where that uh room tone comes into play so that   30 seconds of sort of Silent audio where no one's  speaking and you're just collecting sort of the   ambient sounds so maybe you'll hear you know  rumbling traffic in the background if you can   collect that then you sort of have data that shows  you ah here's what here's what the the waveform   for that rumbling traffic looks like and then in  an audio processing software um later on you can   actually filter out those exact frequencies  from the from the file um so that throughout   your entire audio recording you've now removed  that traffic noise and so this is good for um for   sort of noises that are more sustained I would  say um you know for things like kids or or uh   or um you know the occasional honk of of traffic  you know these are things you can't control for   and that's totally all right you know your your  your your job here is to is to just make sure   that you're Faithfully capturing language data  so as long as it's audible um and and parsable   um you know the other things are just are just  sort of gravy so I wouldn't worry too much thank   you so much thank you thanks question I have seen  some interesting projects to build cheap easily   portable recording booths like a little a little  soundproof recording booth you can take with you   when you travel I don't think they're available  commercially yet I know that there were some   people working on this as like a hobby so if those  become commercially available or they put out   a blueprint for making a cheap little recording  booth I will share that as well I have seen people   using umbrellas so you know they'll they'll  actually open up an umbrella and kind of get   under it you create this sort of sort of enclosed  space uh to capture those sound waves so there's   there's closets cars right there there are various  small spaces you can use to try to optimize the sound oh Laura I want to Echo your  your statement always keep copies   of your original recordings yeah you're G to  you're going to end up editing them but you   never know when you'll you know you want to go  back to that original so um yes highly highly recommended is see a hand froma yeah hello can you hear me yes um I have a  question about the management of data afterwards   so if you work for example affiliated with the  university uh is it the elicitor the recorder   who judges the quality of a recording and if  it's good to keep it or not or is it someone   else from the University or someone else I don't  know external who can judge the quality and tell   the recorder okay this recording is not really  good we have to redo it or we cannot we don't   have the chance to redo it so we have to throw  it away excellent question get a defer to Anna   on that one um because I you know I've only  just started uploading my files to various   archives yeah that's a great question I think it  really depends on your archive and sort of the   perspective of the people running it uh at Kone  the the University of Hawaii archive it's a very   fieldwork oriented archive and so they understand  that you're not always going to get perfect audio   quality uh sometimes you have a noisy or or  sort of muted recording and that's fine they   don't generally judge based on audio quality as  to whether it goes in the archive I think the   only thing that would keep a recording out of  the archive is if it were recorded unethically   or you know there were some other really  big issue with how it was made uh I don't   know how it might be at your University I would  recommend contacting whoever runs the archive   archists are usually very excited to talk about  their archival practices so just ask okay thank you interesting question about zooming in and  out while recording um I think I think it's   contextual you're right um that that there can  be circumstances es where where maybe zooming   in might be appropriate on perhaps uh something  that the the speaker is doing with their hands   or or um if you just want to get you know a  really closeup shot I think that should be   used somewhat sparingly however because um  that the process of adjustment can kind of   can kind of shift your your settings a little  bit make things a little bit unstable um then   maybe you're focusing more on getting you know  this sort of perfect video footage than than on   the the sort of the language that's uh that's  that's being elected um and also you you know   that sort of wide shot is very deliberately um  intended to to capture as much of the speaker and   their surroundings as possible while still while  still honing in on the important things so um my   my advice I think would be to to use that feature  sparingly right we we are um I'm sure many of you   are are expert videographers but we're not we're  not making a documentary so to speak necessarily   maybe maybe you are that would be amazing too  but if it's just purely for language data you   know that that sort of consistency and um and  stability is is really important um although   Anna Do you have do you have other thoughts  about that no I agree I don't know if you also   were trained in this but I had a professor who  would just tell us you're not making an action   movie you're not trying to be flashy here you  just want to capture what's happening yes so it   depends on your individual goals if you're trying  to make something really entertaining that people   in your community will watch for fun go for it  creative but if you're just trying to record   language data that you can use later try and  keep it pretty steady this is such a great Point Anthony oh hi Olivia thank you thank you for your  talk it's very interesting um just a question a   technical question about you're talking about Zoom  earlier and um I've noticed the the free part if   you don't have a membership or you you don't pay a  license you're limited to 40 minutes for recording   in is there a way to make that longer or is it  just just 40 minutes I you know I've bumped into   this um so what I did when I encountered this  issue was um I was able to obtain uh uh access   through my institution um and so now I have uh  I didn't have to pay anything and I have sort   of the the uh higher tier of of Zoom access where  I can I can record unlimited amounts um you know   be beyond that uh you know I just sort of made  do with 30 9 minute increments right you just   kind of kind of do your best um I yeah I I don't  know all that much about Zoom policies Anna is   that I'm sorry to keep throwing to you but is do  are you aware of other extenuating circumstances   I think the unfortunate answer is yeah you you get  40 minutes for free they may have uh if you have   a registered nonprofit organization that you're  affiliated with I think they do offer nonprofit   licenses at a big discount or maybe free so look  into that but otherwise like Olivia said just make   35 minute chunks and restart the call yeah yeah  you kind of have to have to Cobble together these   sorts of things yeah yeah thank you thank you  for that thank you for of course Anthony thanks prot H audacity is excellent yeah I can I can  send out a link audacity is one of my favorite   I should have mentioned it one of my favorite um  uh audio editing softwares it's free it has sort   of a very intuitive uh feel when you first get  started it's also very powerful it has you know   uh hidden hidden features that I haven't even  begun to explore um but yes I do most of my   audio processing in audacity and I will happily  send out the link afterwards oh and I just sent it yeah there are lots of great softwares out  there for editing your video and audio data   some of them can be challenging to get started  in but with a little bit of practice once you've   done a few edits you'll be amazed at how fast it  starts to go and how intuitive it becomes so if   there's a lot of interest in audacity training  send me an email and I'll see if we can find   a volunteer from ELP to lead a little mini  audacity tutorial because it's a super useful software oh Gail yeah Gail makes a really  good point about um you know recording   zooming in on on the mouth and the and the  tongue as you're as you're recording so that   you can get more uh more concrete sort  of phonetic data that's that's a really   interesting point I haven't thought of that  yeah that's a great Point Gail there there   is a good reason to zoom in sometimes if you  want to really show what somebody's mouth is doing training for video editing yes that's  a great Point um we have had some internal   trainings at ELP for video editing let  me see if we have a recording of any of   those but it would be nice to just have a  basic video editing session so uh thanks   I will put that on the schedule for sort  of extra optional sessions if y'all are interested all right any other questions for Olivia about recording all right Olivia you answered every  single possible question good job I'm I'm happy   please please feel free to reach out um by by  email I'll paste it in the chat um if I can if   I can help in any way or answer other questions  or just direct you to someone who knows more   than I am I do which is most people um here's  my email um in the chat was great talking to   you all yeah thanks everybody for being here so  join us next week we're going to get into some   linguistic linguistic stuff we're going to start  talking about phology which is a fancy term for   the system of sounds in your language and we're  going to talk a little bit about orthography   or writing systems for writing down all those  sounds in your language so we'll see you next   week same time same Zoom link and if you have  any questions in the meantime please reach out   to Olivia or me have a great weekend everybody  thanks everyone bye everyone stay safe take care