File this under tools of the trade. With the new journalism job underway it was time to buy a new recording device. My old trusty handheld tape recorder works fine but frankly I wanted a Digital Recording Device because they are MUCH smaller and record the files as MP3s for easy transfer to the laptop and easy transciption. Also tapes (even Digital Audio Tapes – DAT) have greater possiblity of noice because of the inherent degradation of the tape itself as well as the contect of the recording heads to the tape. Trust me, when you are transcribing an interview the less noise the better. I have spent well over an hour stuck on a word that somebody mumbled trying to figure out what it was. The difference between say the word "hate" and "great" can impact the whole tone of an article.

 

Anyhow I decided on the Panasonic RR-US551 IC Recorder (see pic below). It’s a nice little 1 GB MP3 recorder with a fantastic "Zoom mic" built in for great clarity of voices over and against other background noise. I tested the recording quality at different distances from the subject because frankly people generally don’t like it when you push a microphone within a couple of inches of their face. The Panasonic records very clearly from within several feet. Very nice and all for a reasonable price. They offered 2 GB and 4 GB models but honestly the 1 GB model records more than 16 hours at its highest quality. If I ever have to do an interview that lasts more than 16 hours…well…shoot me now.

 

I also picked up several mechanical pencils and a decent hard-covered flip notepad. I have literally hundreds of very nice pens at home but I learned early on that a journalist should never use a pen. I was interviewing a subject on Parliament Hill and things were going fine. I had a nice high-quality Parker pen and felt like King of the Journalists. Then without warning it started to rain. Ever try to write with a pen on wet paper? You know what happens? Nothing…it doesn’t work. Results – terrible interview and I had to call the subject later and redo most of it. Pencils write on wet paper. Also a mechanical pencil needs no sharpening. All in all I’m pretty setup and love reporting so away we go…hopefully the new paper does well.