Raw Sound: “Home on the Range,” performed at the University of Texas 2009 Commencement, 23 May 2009. Also, as a warning, this post talks about gear.
I’m pretty sure I’m not violating an NDA by saying this: the iPhone 3.0 software update due out next month includes a handy voice recorder application. I have the new software now (legally, owing to a development I’ll post more about later), and at my sister’s graduation, I found occasion to use it. There was a choir singing the iconic song, Home on the Range, in a way I didn’t expect; so I whipped out the phone, hit record and held it in the air.
Most of y’all know I’m a fan of Marantz when it comes to audio. My PMD620 lives in my camera bag and has served me well. But I hafta say, this iPhone thing is revolutionary. While it lacks the quality of the 620, it’s no worse than the M-Audio recorder I had to buy at the end of my Brownsville trip. And then there’s this:
Built-in editing and posting. From my seat in the audience at commencement, I was able to trim off the handling noise at the beginning, cut out at the end of the applause, then upload to drop.io and post the audio on my Twitter feed.
Maybe that’s kind of silly and frivolous, when it’s just found sound you grabbed at a family function. But imagine the possibilities for insanely mobile awesome reporting. Even if it’s not immediate, imagine you’re out shooting something and you don’t want to carry a sound recorder. If you have a phone with this kind of technology, there’s no longer an excuse for not having audio.
I’m not huge on gear; I say, use what works and focus on the other thing. But the day before yesterday, when I heard something, recorded it, edited it, uploaded it and shared it from my damn cellphone, it occurred to me: this works.
