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My Approach to Recording Concertina Classes

The first few days of the first class I attended I only turned on my recorder when directed to do so. But class questions and comments stimulated many things that I wished I'd recorded, such as when Noel Hill launched into a series of examples contrasting the styles of various popular concertina players. Of course by the time I knew I wanted to record something, I'd already missed much of it.

In the second class series with Noel I recorded large blocks of each class session, but still managed to miss a few things so in the third class series I recorded every moment of class, including all the 'dull' parts. I simply started the recorder when class began and let it run, only shutting it off when the class ended. I've since used the same approach in workshops and classes with John Williams and Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin.

The change in my approach was in part related to the technology I was using. For the first class series I used a standard minidisc recorder with no compression options so it captured a little over an hour of content per disk and a box of five disks was good for about six hours of recorded content. We were spending close to three hours in class each day and I didn't want to run out of disks, so recording selectively seemed the way to go.

In late 2003 I picked up a newer Sony minidisc recorder that permitted over four-hours recording time per disk through the selection of compression options. A box of five disks used with this recorder allowed me to capture well over 20 hours worth of material and disk changes were infrequent. A single box of disks now exceeded the needs of a five-day class, so this worked out well.

The Benefits of Complete Recordings

While clearly some of the content from classes isn't of interest for retention, once the recordings are made I'm free to chose what I want to listen to and can skip or delete the parts that aren't of interest. Along with the standard classroom material, my recordings of classes and workshops also contain renditions of concert quality tunes played by the instructors, often with special adaptations to tie into class topics. The performance of these tunes in class was for the most part unplanned and incidental, most typically the result of questions about the application of techniques. Regardless of their inspiration, it'd be a shame to allow such performances to be heard only once and they deserve to be captured in a format where they can be easily listened to on demand.

I go through all my class and workshop recordings, index and edited them and then put the results on CDs and usually an iPod as well. I delete a lot of content, but also I find and save many gems mixed in with the dull bits. It's a bit tedious to work through, but worth it in the end I think. I now have rapid access to all the class demonstrations of tunes as well as to related segments of discussion and other content I found to be of value.

I've commented elsewhere on having "missed" some things while in class. Regardless of why I failed to note and grasp the information when it was first presented, it's all in the recordings and I find that when I go back and listen to material from old classes I catch things I didn't grasp or relate to the first time. Elements of technique, fingering approaches that were too complicated for me in the early classes, chording and ornamentation are examples.

Recommendations on Making Recordings

I recommend the following approach to recording instrument workshops and classes.

Take a conveniently sized recorder capable of making good quality recordings and equipped with a microphone sensitive enough to pick up words spoken at normal volume from across a fair sized room. Likely you'll not need to use this level of sensitivity in a concertina workshop, but it's good to have the capability.
Insure you have an adequate supply of batteries (or a charger and access to an outlet) and sufficient recording media to cover all the hours of the class.
Give some thought as to placement of the recording equipment so that it can pick up room sounds well but won't need to be moved around frequently during class (with the result of recording distracting scratches and bumps).
Turn your recorder on at the start of class and off only at the end. You may want to use the LP or lower quality setting to maximize the available space (at some expense to quality), but be sure to use a high quality level for any concert recording you may wish to make. To aid in initial indexing, use a pen and paper during class to note the recording time indicator in relation to class events. It doesn't have to be detailed, and simplest thing to note while in class is just the time/counter reading at the start of each point of interest.
I find the best time to flag tune demonstrations is immediately after the class session in which they occurred. Using the fast-forward function it only take a few minutes to rapidly scan through an hour or two of material. Concertina music stands out over conversation during the fast-forward so it's easy to find such segments without having to listen to the entire content in "real time." Once their location is flagged or otherwise noted, the demos can be easily found for use while practicing.
Completely index your recordings after the class series or workshop is over, noting the start of every major topical area. Aside from actual tune demonstrations it may be difficult to categorize much of the content but try to gather things under meaningful labels, if only in a very general sense. Here's an indexing example for illustration, showing the time marker (in minutes and seconds) from my recorder and my final labels for the content segments:

14:23    Introduction to Bohola Jig
14:57    Bohola demonstration at normal speed
17:48    Class comments on tune
18:31    Bohola slow speed demonstration
26:02    Advice on fingering
34.48    Class plays Bohola
41:19    Class discussion of workshop progress
If you don't intend to process your recordings beyond basic indexing, be sure to preserve a copy of the content index along with the recordings. If you have doubts about being able to keep the two closely associated with each other into the future, record yourself reading the complete index onto so that you will always have it available for reference.
Look for opportunities to edit out the content that adds no value. In the above example, having listened to it once to know what it held, I deleted the class comments, group performance and discussions at 17:48, 34:48 and 41.19. If you are not going to delete content, I suggest highlighting the segments of special interest on the index so that it stands out from the less pertinent material.
With modern recorders you can do considerable editing on the device, but take your time. If you accidentally delete something you had intended to keep, it's likely not recoverable. On that topic, it pays to make friends in class and find out how to keep in touch so that if you later fumble-finger your way into losing something, you'll have a hope of getting someone else from the class to make a copy of their recording for you.
If you transfer recordings to a PC or "Mac" for editing, look for opportunities to improve on the recordings by taking advantage of sound adjustment capabilities too. Long sequences of quiet discussion can be boosted in volume to make them easier to listen to. Much of what you can do depends on the equipment you have and the capability of the software installed on it, not to mention the time you have available to devote to the project. If you don't have sound editing software, Audacity is a good place to start, it is free and there are versions for both PC and Mac.
Store the final version in a manner that will make it easy to access. Putting file content onto CDs with tracks divided into named segments will permit you to use portable CD and mp3 players as well as car CD players to listen to them. In the latter case you can then make use of your work-commute time to build familiarity with the sounds and conceptual aspects of playing and techniques. You can also put the files onto iPods, iPhones, iPads and any number of other modern devices so that you can quickly and easily access them on a whim.

An important final comment on this subtopic. Class recordings are essentially snapshots of the creative efforts of an instructor. Under no condition should you consider making copies of your recordings for others or loaning your personal copies out. The class instructor contracted to teach you alone when you purchased admittance to the class and you were charged accordingly. As part of your attendance you were granted the privilege to make recordings for your personal use, but not a license to distribute them.

Recording Equipment and Editing Process

I'll start off with a few paragraphs on the topic of the old school approach to recording, that is, tape based recording media. Not too many people use that now but there are still some good units out there and they do the job of capturing sound. The limitations come in when you want to start editing or moving the captured material to other media.

To move the recorded content from a device (like a tape based recorder) that doesn't permit digital transfer to a computer it is necessary to hook a conventional analog cable between the headphone "out" jack of the recorder and the sound "input" jack of the computer and then essentially "play" the disk from the recorder while using recording software on the computer to capture the output. The choice of computer software is up to you, it just needs to be able to take input from the microphone jack of the computer and capture it to a file on the computer.

For files transferred via analog cable, track indicators/separations will not be carried over to the computer so they will need to be reestablished on the resulting computer media files. I load the sound files into my audio editing software and break it into segments based on my original indexing, then save each segment under a name appropriate to its content. Then I reload each segment, review it for final editing and adjust the sound levels if necessary before doing the final save in mp3 format. There are a lot of audio editing programs on the market that permit one to burn CDs, create mp3 files and make jewel box labels with content indexes and cover photos and most will work for this purpose.

After the final versions of segments are complete, I look for ways to reorder their sequence to better organize content. Often topics are revisited in subsequent classes, as are variations on tunes from early classes. Gathering these into ordered groups will allow you to better focus on each concept when listening to the recordings on a CD. Depending on the software you use, you should be able to establish this new order of play through either adding a track number at the start of each segment name or through the use of 'play lists.'

Recording Devices I Use

Technology keeps offering better choices and old favorites drift into the past as the manufacturers discontinue models and they become obscure. When I first composed this material in 2004 it was full of text related to the use of minidisc recorders, one of the best portable technologies of the era. While mini-disk recorders were the preferred favorites of many then, as of 2011 you'd be hard pressed to find them in stores now or the media for them for that matter. I think Sony still offers one, but it is clear that their day is past. In early 2010 I purchased a Sony PCM-M10 for my class recording use. I chose it in large part because it has Sony's "track mark" function that permits you to lay out and revise your own tracks on a whim within a recording segment. Of course it has a lot of other good points too:

Built-in stereo microphones and good recording quality in a variety of formats.
4 Gig of internal digital memory that's expandable by inserting the appropriate memory chip.
The ability to edit individual recorded files, dividing as well as trimming unwanted material off the start or end. The software permits you to be very exacting in choosing your editing points. You can not change the order or combine recorded files on the unit, but that's not something you're likely going to need to do in a workshop setting.
A-B looping (to replay a selected segment) and a good digital speed control so that the playing speed of recordings can be changed as desired. Combining the two functions to slow down and repeat a particular segment is very useful when trying to learn a passage of music "by ear."
A five-second recording buffer, which means that you can set the device to record in pause mode and it will continuously capture and hold the most recent five seconds of sound in buffer. When you hear something you want to record, you have five seconds to un-pause the unit, at which point the most recent five seconds of sound will be included in the resulting recording.
A small speaker built in so that headphones aren't needed.
Several other features that are useful in various recording settings, but not pertinent to this discussion.

The only fault I find with the unit is that the speaker is really only intended to let you verify your recordings and not intended for long term listening so the volume is low and the sound quality is only fair. Of course, if one plugs in a set of headphones you have full access to the high quality sound of the recordings. To be clear, I use the unit's speaker when working on learning tunes and find it satisfactory, but that speaker is not something you'd want to use to show off the high quality recordings the unit actually captures.

More recently I purchased a Sony ICD-UX512 (a smaller cousin of the PCM-M10) for my wife to use in her harp classes. While it doesn't offer a five-second recording buffer, it offers all the other features I use most often on the bigger unit (stereo recording, A-B looping, track marks, track editing and digital speed control) and despite its smaller size, it has the advantage of a better sounding speaker with a lot more volume. You can also extend its 2 Gig of internal memory by adding the appropriate chip. It features a built-in USB connector for computer connecting the unit to transfer recorded material and if you use a rechargeable battery (provided), it will recharge directly off the USB port of the computer. You can also use a non-rechargeable AAA battery so you can keep going if the rechargeable battery gets low.

I should clarify that while the speaker has a surprising amount volume available, it's still tiny so you shouldn't expect much in the way of deep bass notes to come through it. Hook it up to an external set of speakers though and you'll find it does a pretty good job of capturing sound and playing it back. I find it does just fine for workshop settings with the built in speaker, capturing and delivering all I want in the way of sound for me to learn from and not unpleasant to listen to.

Both of these units feature one other thing I like, a nice softly lit screen so you can see what you're doing in dim lighting. I hate to bring the age factor into this, but as I get older I am finding the small screens and small print on handheld devices harder to read than I used to and screen lighting helps considerably with this. Both units include built in stereo microphones and both have jacks so that you can plug in your own microphones or use headphones.

While I don't doubt the larger Sony PCM-M10 is the superior unit for making the highest quality recordings, I have to say that the unit I prefer at this point is the Sony ICD-UX512. It's about 1/3 the size of the larger unit, offers much more playback volume via its speaker and fits so easily in a shirt pocket that you have to check to see if it's still in there. I don't have a photo handy of the ICD-UX512, but I have this one of my Sony PCM-M10 beside an older cousin of the ICD-UX512, the Sony UCD-UX200. The latter is the same size and very similar in appearance to the Sony ICD-UX512 but doesn't offer the track-mark or external memory upgrade capability.

As I said at the start of this section, time and technology marches on and so I can't predict what will be available when you read this text. As of July 25th of 2011 I see that Amazon.com is offering the Sony PCM-M10 for $229 and the Sony ICD-UX512 for $76.41 with free shipping. If I didn't already own both and was trying to decide which to purchase, I'd get the Sony ICD-UX512. Aside from the attractive price it's small, it does everything I need for workshop classes and I find the quality of the recordings it makes to be just fine for my purposes.

"PC and "Mac" Compatibility

Those of you that are wondering if the devices work with either "PC" or "Mac," the answer is "Both." A clearer answer is that the devices function independent of a computer except when you want to transfer files to your computer. Both have USB connection capability and come with the necessary hardware to connect to a computer. The Sony PCM-M10 comes with a cable, while the Sony ICD-UX512 has a slide out connector so you can plug it straight in to the computer's USB port, plus a short extension cable for those computers that have their USB ports in a position such that the device can't plug in directly. Once connected, both PC's and Mac's see the device's memory as a connected drive, much like a "flash" drive, and you can freely move files to your computer.

After you've moved the files to your computer you can listen to them, move them to other devices and edit them within the capabilities of your software. If you don't have sound file editing software already on your computer, it's readily available for both PC and Mac. I don't recall if the Sony PCM-M10 comes with any software but the Sony ICD-UX512 comes with a free sound editing program that runs on a PC but not on a Mac. I never bothered to install it however since I already had other software installed on my computer for this purpose, and I imagine you might be in the same situation. If not, Audacity is a good place to start, there are free versions for both PC and Mac and it works. Check it out at this link.

Summing up, there are of course many other audio recording units on the market and I don't pretend to be familiar with all of them. I don't claim the ones I've discussed here are the best, just that they are what I have experience with and that I like them. If you have an interest, try an online search to see what prices you can find. Regardless of your final choice, I suggest that you take the time to look at the user's manual for it online before you purchase, that'll help you understand the device's capabilities and what's involved in operating it. Most can be found as online PDF files with a simple search, as examples, click the links to see the manuals for the Sony PCM-M10 and the Sony ICD-UX512. These links both work as of July of 2011, but if they don't by the time your read this just search online for the device name and "manual."

Now, in closing out this section, I'll leave you with a thought on stepping up a level for class recordings. When I started recording classes in 2003 video cameras were still pretty big and bulky. In the last few years a number of small and inexpensive ($80 to $200) shirt-pocket sized digital video recorders have come on the market such as the "Flip Ultra" and Kodak line. While they may have their limitations when compared to the more expensive models on the market now, they work well for capturing video in decently illuminated rooms. I recently purchased a Kodak Playsport ZX5 model for my wife to use at her harp lessons, and I'm going to try using it at the next concertina workshop I attend. Digital storage media is getting cheap and you can fit quite a bit of good quality video on a chip these days.

If you're wondering why the Kodak Zx5, there's two reasons. First, the Zx5 claims it's designed to withstand a drop from five feet high, and it's waterproof to a depth of ten feet. Next time my wife goes snorkeling it's going with her.

So How Much Recorded Material Will You End Up With?

I imagine that if you've read to this point you're wondering just how much sound content I actually retain out of five days of classes. The 2004 workshop with John Williams ran five days at two hours per day. Out of ten hours of material I ended up with about 90 minutes of edited demonstrations and selected comments that I consider to be high quality content. Out of about 15 hours from my 2004 Ireland class with Noel Hill, I ended up with over four hours of material from the classes. One shouldn't attempt to extrapolate a quality assessment of the two instructors from this since the two events had a different structure and focus.

Also one shouldn't take the volume of retained material to suggest that the the bulk of the time in the classes wasn't of value, rather just that these recordings are a highly selective distillation of premium material that I judged to be of special interest to me. There wasn't a moment of either class that I would have skipped or cut short as it happened.

I have to acknowledge that it takes a fair amount of time to go through all the steps I've outlined in handling the recordings, but in partial justification of the time invested, I find that while listening and editing I'm picking up details and perspective along the way. I think the long term benefit and enhanced usability of the recordings makes the time and effort worthwhile.

One could skip much of what I do with the recordings and still end up with great material, the important thing is to capture the material and be able to quickly find it again without great difficulty. If it isn't quick and easy to get to, it likely won't be used.

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Updated July 26, 2011