Why I like audio recording

I like audio recording. This probably won't surprise you. It's something I spend a fair amount of time doing.

I'm particularly fond of on-location interviews that have enough background sounds to give you a sense of where you are without being distracting. If you hear the sounds of the seaside you'll get a different impression than if you heard the sounds of an exhibition hall.

But what I've not done until recently is give much thought to exactly why I like the recording and editing process.

I was editing an interview that I'd recorded with the CEO of a technology company in a hotel restaurant. As far as I can tell, PR people tend to treat hotel restaurants in the same way that the rest of us use offices. WiFi, coffee, other people ignoring you...

Anyway, I was listening back to the interview - fortunately no piano player, no china being dropped, just a little indistinguishable background chatter - and I started cutting out a few of the 'ums' and 'ers' that punctuated the conversation. Quite a few, actually. The end result was rather pleasing, even if I say so myself.

The conversation still flowed but it was tighter and - dare I say - more listenable than it was before.

Had I been doing the recording with magnetic tape, I'd now have a pile of off-cuts - each one an um, an er, a 'so' or - my particular favourite - 'that's a good question'. Over the course of several interviews I'd have accumulated enough for some kind of art project. Maybe a spoken version of Do Re Mi in assorted European accents.

Fortunately digital editing is less painful than its old-school equivalent. And I don't just mean mentally - I never was much good with a razor blade and a chinagraph pencil.

It was the editing process that got me thinking about why I enjoyed audio recording above its alternatives. If I'd been video recording, I wouldn't have been able to remove as many hesitations, phonic tics and repeated words. At least, not while remaining focussed on the interview subject. Yet if I'd been editing a written interview, I could have included all manner of incidental subjects and could even have rearranged the timeline. The audio interview seems - if you'll forgive the cliche and its associated pun - a happy medium. It's a slice of time, a snapshot, an experience. It's been polished a little, it's been put in a frame but it maintains its authenticity.

To put things simply, you know where you are.



[Recorded using the HiFiCorder Android app on a Google Nexus S mobile phone; audio version available on ipadio.com]