I've never worked with the myself -- but I've head GREAT things about the ease and usability of the Flip Video Cameras. ....and Tech Soup is offering a two-for bundle, -- two cameras for $175 (normally they're about $150 each).
See: http://home.techsoup.org/stock/pages/category.aspx?category=FlipVideo - David - David Lewis, Curator Aurora Regional Fire Museum www.AuroraRegionalFireMuseum.org -----Original Message----- From: James Keeline <keel...@yahoo.com> To: Museum Computer Network Listserv <mcn-l at mcn.edu> Sent: Wed, Jan 5, 2011 12:05 pm Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Digital recorder for teacher/classroom use Last July my wife and I organized and hosted a successful convention to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Tom Swift series of books about a young inventor. The first five stories were published in 1910 and since that year there have been 105 books in five series. The first three of these series were produced by the Stratemeyer Syndicate, also responsible for Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys among many others. As part of this convention we produced two live performances based on a book from each of the first two series. Tom Swift and His Airship was from 1910 and public domain. Tom Swift and the Visitor From Planet X was from 1961 and in the public domain because the owner failed to renew the copyright. The shows had voice actors from San Diego's WriteOutLoud (http://writeoutloudsd.com) and the script, direction, and sound effects were accomplished by the talented and resourceful Scott Paulson (http://ScottPaulson.info). Scott engages in performances like these to provide sound effects for stage performances like the recent It's a Wonderful Life at the Cygnet Theatre in Old Town San Diego for the Christmas season. In this version, the performance is a 1940s-era radio show with a live audience, voice actors who step up to the vintage-looking microphones, and Scott as sound effects artist on the side of the stage. He has also provided sound effects and movies for silent films through his Teeny Tiny Pit Orchestra. Recently these have been shown at New Village Arts in Carlsbad in the northern part of San Diego county. In these, as with many of his performances, he gets the audience involved by passing out noise makers and then gives direction to how and when to use them in the program. Some of these are cheap items which can be given away and others are vintage sound machines that he collects at the end of the performance. In our Tom Swift and His Airship show, bubble wrap was used for gunshots and cellophane for crackling fire. As usual, he also had machines that made ratchet sounds and other devices for use in the program. Here are a few clips to give an idea of how this worked: 2008 clip about Scott discussing sound effects devices http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szyht9jc8PE Tom Swift and His Airship performance at UCSD library http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M88EuLHIfWg The performances of Airship and Visitor from Planet X were highlights of our convention. Looking at your project, it appears that you initially asked for an audio recorder to gather the sounds and build your performance. Of course, many phones, including the iPhone, come with voice recorder apps which are fairly effective and save files in .WAV format. This is useful because it is not compressed at this stage and easier to edit with free tools like Audacity. Another device I own which could work in this fashion is a voice recorder. Mine is an RCA model number RP5030A. It was purchased at Fry's Electronics some years ago so I don't know what the current offerings are. It also stores audio in .WAV format. For my purposes, one of the key features is that the USB plug that connects to the computer. It shows up as a USB mass storage device on my computer (Mac) so I can simply copy the files over and then use them in an editing program like iMovie or Audacity. Probably Garage Band could be used on the Mac as well if that is available. Some voice recorders have a limited frequency response so it may be well to look into this. Looking at the offerings of Frys today on Voice Recorders I see one in the $30 range that saves files as .MP3 (a compressed format which loses some data) but it does use USB so the key would be whether it shows up as a mass storage device or requires special software. In the community which is interested in sounds for model railroad layouts, they generally recommend using a video camera for audio recordings. The quality is often sufficiently good and the devices are more generally available than dedicated audio recorders. The additional advantage is that you get to see the source of the sound and this can help with identifying clips. It could also be a benefit to the participants and their families to see them actually performing the sound effects. For this reason, I have found the Sanyo Xacti line of cameras (~$200) to be good ones. I have the CG-9 model. This one records standard definition video but there are HiDef models. The video is stored on an SD-HC card and the card can be inserted into a card reader on the computer or the USB cord can be used for transfer. The .MP4 video files are compatible with iMovie (important for my workflow) as well as other programs out there. One of the special features of Wal-E talks about special effects and many old devices are shown in action. James Keeline 100th Anniversary Tom Swift Convention (July 16-18, San Diego) http://TomSwiftEnterprises.com http://www.CafePress.com/TS100 > We have a series of education "trunks" that go out to schools around the > state with props and curriculum for schools to build a lesson around. One > of the ideas we have is for an old-time radio trunk. One of the features we > would like to have is to allow the instructor, with script and props, to > record students creating a radio show. They would then transfer the > recording to a computer to make a CD of the program. > > The questions are: Has anyone done anything like this before? Does anyone > have any ideas for digital recording devices that would be easy to use by > teachers, but also durable enough to be out on the road in a variety of > classroom situations? Any ideas or suggestions are welcome. > > Jason Bondy > Exhibit AV/IT Systems > Oklahoma History Center > 800 Nazih Zuhdi Dr. > Oklahoma City, OK 73105 > 405-522-0783 - Office > 405-522-5402 - Fax > > <http://www.okhistory.org/> http://www.okhistory.org _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/
