When I started my oral history project two years ago, I knew very little about microphones and recorders. I knew I had to get a decent quality recording so that folx can hear my narrators but beyond that I was at a loss. Conversations with other graduate students interested in working with in-person interviews revealed that we had similar queries: a) what kinds of equipment do we need, b) where/how can we get these equipment, and c) how do we get the best out of the equipment we have (i.e. best practices for recording)?

Googling led me to understand that I had to have some sort of digital recording device that could be elevated by having an external microphone attached to it. Generally, most digital recording devices (including your phone!) have a built-in microphone. What an external microphone can do is help better pick up voices and distinguish them. Depending on the type of recorder and the number of microphones, each speaker could be recorded on a distinct track, allowing for more options during editing. This can be further parsed into the type of microphones and the types of connections to the recorder you would like to use… At this point, I was pretty overwhelmed, do I need this much information for the project I am conducting? How do I know what is good enough for the project?