Field Recording Equipment

At a recent meeting, I was asked by someone about what sort of digital devices exist for doing field sound recordings. The best online source for reviews of recording devices is published by the Vermont Folklife Centre on its Digital Audio Field Recording Equipment Guide, prepared by Andy Kolovos. It is by far the most comprehensive reviews page for field recording equipment, written specifically for those people who will be doing folklore and oral history field recordings.

While I am far from an expert on the matter, I have pulled together a little review. Note that everything that follows is personal opinion, and if you read the Vermont Folklife Center page, that author has varying opinions. Your best bet is always to figure out exactly what you will be using the recorder for, ask around and see what people are using for similar project, and to see if you can test out a recorder in a field situation before you spend your money.

I personally use the Edirol R-09 WAV/MP3 recorder. I bought it at a local music store over a year ago, and I like it. I’ve used it mostly for recording storytelling events, either by using the built in mic, or by patching it in to a sound board using an inexpensive cable and jack adaptor bought from The Source. The Edirol is roughly the size and weight of a pack of cards, and I find the interface fairly easy to use. I recorded the 2007 World Storytelling Day Concert using the Edirol plugged into the headphone jack of a professional soundboard, and was quite pleased with the quality of the recording. I am currently using it, with the built in mic, to record stories told by storytelling students here in St. John’s as part of an ArtSmarts project, and will post a link to those recordings when they are placed online.

Delf Hohmann is a singer, musician, folklorist and coordintor of the Cape St. Mary's Performance Series, who also uses the Edirol. He uses it for live recordings, fieldwork, and radio assignments. I asked him for his thoughts, and this is what he wrote:

It is small enough to fit in a shirt pocket, and it is an easy to handle, straightforward recording device with no extra knick-knacks. It works well with external microphones. The built in ones are fairly good, or good enough for recording of speech, yet, they are not good enough to make a high-end music/sound recording. The internal software version 1.3 (downloadable from the Edirol website) allows for the use of a 8GB SDHD card, which provides 12hrs of CD quality (16 bit, 44.1kHz) recording (with SanDisk Extreme III (6) 12hrs 50min). It takes Ni-Mh rechargerables or AA batteries. The only disadvantage is the machine's overall flimsyness. It is not very robust and needs carefull handling, i.e. I wouldn't suggest to drop it on the floor. The cover for AA-battery bay and the SD-card needs careful handling. In the slightly larger new version, the "Edirol R-09HR" this problem has been fixed by placing the battery bay on the back of the recorder - the "Edirol R-09HR" has an overall stronger casing.

Andrea O'Brien is a researcher and project officer for the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador. She is using the Zoom H2 Handy Recorder

When I first began my folklore studies back in the early 1990s, the hand-held cassette recorder was the way to go when it came to field recordings. While that compact gadget saw me through university, I lately realized that I would have to move into the digital age. After some searching, I recently bought a Zoom H2 and I’m impressed with its usability and recording quality. The Zoom H2 is compact, lightweight and has the capacity to record on four built-in microphones for 360 degree recording. Recording length varies by the size of the memory card you use and the format you choose (WAV or MP3). Recordings can be saved to a PC or Mac. The Zoom H2 comes with great accessories, including a tripod stand, microphone adaptor and wind screen. It also comes with an AC adaptor, but two AA batteries will provide 4 hours of recording time. I have used the Zoom H2 for voice recordings only, but it can also be used to record multi-instrument performances. The variety of menu options was daunting at first, but one read through the instruction booklet provided the basic knowhow I needed for voice recordings. For the student or researcher on a budget, the Zoom H2 offers great recording at a low price. I purchased mine at a local music shop for under $250.00.
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Hunting Dragons on St. George's Day

St. George's Day is not an official national holiday in Canada. The patron saint of England’s feast day is, however, a provincial holiday in Newfoundland and Labrador, where it is usually observed on the Monday nearest April 23rd (also Shakespeare’s birthday). This year the St. George’s holiday was celebrated Monday, April 21st.

The most well-known story of St. George concerns him slaying a dragon that had long ravaged the country of Libya. Every day the dragon demanded a sacrifice of a beautiful maiden. Terrified of the beast’s power, the local people had sacrificed their daughters one by one, till none remained except the daughter of the King.

St. George heard of this, and was determined to save the princess. He engaged the dragon in combat, but upon rushing upon the serpent, his spear broke into pieces against its impermeable scales. Falling from his horse, St. George rolled under an enchanted orange tree which protected him from the dragon’s venomous breath.

Rested, the saint attacked again, though this time the dragon’s breath crumbled his armour, forcing him back under the orange tree. A third time, the saint attacked, sword in hand. He rushed under the dragon and pierced it under the wing where there were no scales, so that it fell dead at his feet. The slaying of the dragon by the saint has similarities to similar legends, two notable examples being the conclusion to Beowulf, and the story of Sigurd and the dragon Fafnir.

In Newfoundland, St. George is one of the typical characters in the old mummering plays, historically performed over the Christmas season. Good St. George is often a character in the plays who undergoes a death and rebirth, rising from a mortal wound delivered by Saracen or Turk to fight another day.

In his article “Mummers in Newfoundland History”, George Story included the following introduction to St. George from one of the old Newfoundland Christmas masques:

I am the good St. George, from Albion’s cliffs I come,
The beauteous Isle of smiling fields – the fairest in Christendom.
I fought the Hydra-headed Snake – led Dragon to the slaughter,
I slew proud Egypt’s lordly King, and wed his royal daughter.

Personally, I spent my St. George’s Day holiday in Clarke’s Beach, Conception Bay, just a short drive south of Bay Roberts. I took my kayak out for a spin, and was rewarded with a sighting of two eagles, but there was nar dragon to be spotted anywhere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_George
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_George

Galoot of a Culture meets ICH

Last weekend, I did a radio interview with Angela Antle on CBC Radio's Weekend Arts Magazine, and they've placed the interview online.

The following is taken from the WAM website:

Dale Jarvis is well known to many of you as the man who walks the streets at night leading the Haunted Hike. Dale is also an avid storyteller and the author of several books of tall tales and ghost stories. Dale Jarvis has worked for years in various roles at the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador. Now he has a new gig there...one he says is a dream job. Dale Jarvis is the first Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Development Officer for the province. And maybe the only one in Canada. Listen to this audio feature.

Newfoundland and Labrador Hires First Provincial Folklorist

Newfoundland and Labrador has recently created a position for its first provincial folklorist. With the support of the provincial government, the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador (HFNL) has hired Dale Jarvis as the first Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Development Officer for the province.

Jarvis has worked for 13 years with HFNL, having completed his Folklore MA at Memorial. He brings to the position involvement in local storytelling festivals and events, as well as a wide knowledge of the local heritage community. Jarvis is the author of two popular books on Newfoundland and Labrador folklore and ghost stories, and a third book of world ghost stories for young adult readers.

“This is a dream job for me,” says Jarvis. “It brings together a lot of my interests, and I am very excited about the potential for this program. The living culture and tradition of the province is one of our greatest resources. I am delighted that I will be involved in helping document, conserve and encourage those aspects of our heritage.”

The position of ICH Development Officer is the fruition of six years of work in the province, drawing on the work of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), including its 2003 Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage.

In 2002, Dr. Gerald Pocius of Memorial University’s Folklore Department was involved in consultations on an early draft of the UNESCO Convention. Over the past six years, Pocius has been working with various provincial government agencies on policies and programs. Anita Best, another MUN Folklore Department graduate, worked for the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador in getting ICH as one of the main heritage priorities in the province’s “Cultural Blueprint: Creative Newfoundland and Labrador,” released in 2006.

During that same year, the Association of Heritage Industries organized its annual meeting in St. John’s around the theme of ICH, with speakers from the Smithsonian, the American Folklife Center, and the ICH section of UNESCO. Memorial University’s Folklore Department continues to conduct a pilot inventory project in cooperation with the provincial government, and has committed to assist in developing training and documentation programs for the province in the future.

“The ICH program for Newfoundland and Labrador has great promise,” Jarvis enthuses. “ICH is all around us, in everything we do: in our stories, our languages, the songs we sing, the crafts we produce, and in the knowledge people have about the land and sea that our history and culture is based upon.”

Jarvis has started an internet blog site to keep people informed on the work of the provincial folklorist position, which can be found at http://doodledaddle.blogspot.com/.

“What is a doodle-daddle, and what does it have to do with folklore and intangible cultural heritage?” Jarvis asks with a laugh. “Check out the blog, find out, and share your stories!”

The new provincial folklorist can be reached by telephone at 1-888-739-1892, or by email at ich@heritagefoundation.ca

What is a doodle-daddle?

Doodle-Daddle:

loodle-laddle (n) also doodle-laddle, oodle-addle. A contraption; esp a deliberately humorous or evasive name given to an object in order to puzzle a child. C 71-94 When a man was making something and some curious boy asked him what he was making the man always told him that he was making an oodle-addle. P 245-77 Do you know what we call that drain pipe? We call it the oodle-addle. P 30-79 My mother used to tease me by saying that a doodle laddle was a machine for catching wild ducks. - quoted from the Dictionary of Newfoundland English Online

When I was a kid the way I first heard the idea of “thing-a-ma-jig” was “doodle-daddle for stirrin’ doughb’ys.” It was always like that, the whole phrase, and it came out together like one long word. If my father had something in his hand like a big bolt that I didn’t recognize, and I asked him what it was, and he didn’t care to go into it, he’d say, “This is a doodle-daddle-fer-stirrin’-doughb’ys.” I understood that what he meant is the same as “thingie,” but I must have been 20 before I separated the words out in my head and understood the word “stirrin’” as “stirring” and started to get an image of a utensil stirring dumplings -- a doodle-daddle for stirring dougboys. - Lara Maynard, Torbay, 2008.

So now that you know what it is, why doodle-daddle? I've chosen the word as the blog title in part because of its wonderful, poetic alliterative quality, in part because it is one of those old Newfoundland expresions that in themselves are worthy of conservation as pieces of our intangible cultural heritage, in part because it is the type of word that generates discussion, stories and smiles, and in part because it is a word about words, which links the things that we create with the culture that creates, shares and transmits the ideas about those things.

Do you have a memory of someone using the phrase "doodle-daddle"? If you do, post a message below, and share your story!