Aug 12 2009
What’d we say?
As you know, this weekend a friend and I went up to Fresno to do some wine tasting and research the wineries in the area. Fortunately Mike remembered to bring his trusty, albeit ANCIENT, microcassette recorder. You remember the kind – their gray, about the size of your hand and claim to be voice activated? Anyways, I was glad that he brought it because inevitably I tend to be the person people turn to and say “can you write that down?”. And I usually do. The problem with that is that while everyone else is conversing, I’m jotting down notes that I may or may not reference again. So the tape recorder really allowed me to ask my questions without having to immediately write everything down.
So now we’re back in town and it’s time to transcribe the taped recordings. I sit down with the recorder next to me and a Word doc opened. Start the tape, listen and type. Stop typing, stop the type, rewind and listen again. Now
I remember why I didn’t use cassette tapes in college! Did he say “alicante bushe”, “alicante muse”, .. um, what’s “alicante” mean anyways? And, did I like it when I tried it? Inevitably all that listening effort results in my napping.
So here I am, about to tackle the cassette tape again and hope that I’ll understand at least 80% of the words that are said. If anyone out there has a better method of note taking, or of transcribing — please, PLEASE, share it with me because I’m not sure I’d volunteer to transcribe the tape next time.
In the meantime.. I think that making a cassette tape lamp is a perfect option for those tapes!
You could always try using something like Dragon Speak or another voice recording software – turn the tape up load, put on the mic to high sensitivity, and see what get’s transcribed. I don’t know how well it will work, but it might catch some of it.
That’s a thought. I’ve never used that type of software before, but I know someone who has it. Definitely worth a shot! Thanks Todd!
Oh and thanks for the tweet re: wordpress vulnerability. Because of it, I went and updated my version!
It’s always been a challenge for me too. I tend to take hurried notes and transcribe asap. Just the act of writing things down, as it did in school, helps me to remember. Then, because of this, sometimes I don’t need the notes at all.
After reading you and CDS’s blog I’m really interested in the wine you found…and tagging along next time!
Hi Eve! I’m like that as well. Usually once I write things down, it’s filed away in my memory bank for future reference. The key to retrieving it is usually just a few trigger words.
Can’t wait to share more about the wines we found!