From: Peter K. Austin
Department of Linguistics, SOAS
24 August 2009
The Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR), based at SOAS, has recently published two new articles on the Endangered Languages Project website that may be of interest to readers of this blog:
- Bernard Howard's detailed review of the new Zoom H4n audio recorder. Bernard puts the machine through its paces and concludes his review with the words:
"Overall, compared to its similar-priced competitors (such as the Edirol R-09HR or Olympus LS-10) the Zoom H4n is our current favourite due to the flexibility of being able to use fully professional microphones via its phantom-powered XLR sockets."
- Stuart McGill and Sophie Salffner's ELAR advice document on Power solutions in the field: solar power for laptop computers. Based on their extensive experience with using solar power in Nigeria, they present a practical "how to" guide to setting up a solar power system in the field, and offer advice on how to, and not to, support laptop use in linguistic fieldwork. Readers may also want to look at Tom Honeyman's blog post from 2007 and the links and references in it as well to complement what Stuart and Sophie have presented.
Both publications include lots of images of various sizes and links to relevant web materials. Other ELAR publications are available, including David Nathan's ever popular advice on microphones in sound recording.