Recording outside the sound booth

Plantronics dictation mic

The iMac G5 has a USB dictation microphone attached to it, which can be useful for informal recordings outside the sound booth. To use it:

• Make sure the mic is plugged in to the USB port on the computer
• Launch Praat, and select "New->Record Mono Sound"
  • The Plantronics microphone should be selected as the input source, and when you talk, you should see it reflected in the meter bar
• Select your sampling frequency, and press "Record"
• After you record your sound, give it a name in the text box at the lower left, and click "Save to list" to put it into your Praat objects window. From there you can edit it, save it, measure it, etc.

Griffin iMic

The lab has a Griffin iMic, and a simple desktop dictation microphone that can be attached to it. This is especially useful for teaching, or recording a group of speakers (since it is more omnidirectional, and also more portable)

• As with the Plantronics, the procedure is simply to plug it in to the USB port and select it as the input source in Praat.
• There is some online support for the iMic

Etc.

There are also some handheld microphones in the lab, which could be plugged in to the USBPre box for recording (for example as another channel on recordings made in the booth) if the need arose.