Oral History Service
In addition to writing, photography, and music production, I have the ability, experience, and equipment to make professional recordings of interviews or oral histories.
I began making recordings of my father a couple years ago, it has become some of the most important work that I have done.
He feels seen and uplifted when I record him. His stories are important to me and my family. I now have a permanent record of them, and that is priceless to me.
I figure this is a service that other people may want for themselves or a loved one. I am happy to provide this service for a nominal fee.
High-quality audio.
I employ a Shure KSM 44 multi-pattern large-diaphragm, dual-diaphragm microphone. It is a very sensitive piece of studio equipment. I would describe the recordings made with it as crystalline, but not harsh.
I do have two of them, so stereo recordings are a possibility.
The recorder is a Fostex FR2-LE, which has excellent preamps.
The combination of this particular microphone and recorder produces a result that is crystal clear, characterful, with a bit of air in the high-frequency range. I am proud of the recordings made with this setup.
Formats and conversion.
The uncompressed, native format is PCM WAV, recorded at 24-bit, 48KHz resolution.
I will provide files in lossless FLAC (compressed WAV) and MP3 256kbps formats.
The files will be lightly edited and uploaded to my DropBox in a named folder and shared to you via a private link.
Recording style.
We can record indoors or outdoors. I have dead-cats for the microphones which will cut out most wind noise.
During the recording I can ask questions, interview style, or remain silent, monologue/oral history style.
We can record one-on-one, or a conversation with multiple people.
Fee.
The fee for this service is $250.00, which includes up to three hours of recording time. The fee is flat, whether you record for one hour or three.
This is because in order for me to provide this service, I must account for and gather the correct equipment, drive to your location, unload and set up the equipment, do the actual recording, drive back and unload, import the files, edit them, render them to the appropriate format, upload and share them. It takes me the better part of the day to complete this process.
Payment methods.
We accept cash, check or card, tap-to-pay.
Multi-day recording discount.
If you record with me for three days, I will take fifty dollars off the total.
Veteran discount.
If you are a veteran, whether you saw action or not, I will give you a $30.00 discount on my Fee.
Areas served.
I serve the greater Bay Area, in California. If you live more than 20 miles from area code 94804, a travel fee of $2.00 per mile will apply, up to 120 miles, my maximum range. In rare circumstances I am willing to go further, please call me and let's talk about it.
Transcription services.
I provide transcription services as an add-on. I do not use AI, or LLMs I've found them to be inaccurate. For the sake of precision, I employ a three-pass manual transcription method. Typically, three hours of audio will take me about ten hours to manually transcribe. The result is usually well over 12,000 words.
Transcriptions will be provided in plain-text, Microsoft Word, and Adobe PDF formats.
Transcription is a flat-rate service billed at $350.00.
Confidentiality agreement.
Of course your recordings are yours forever, and yours alone. Once you download them, I will delete the files at your request. I will not publish them, make copies or speak of what we have talked about in your oral history to anyone. If you have a transcript made, I will delete the email thread after you receive your transcript at your request.
File backups and scheduled deletion.
Alternatively, I will keep your audio and transcript files available for you to download for up to one year, after which your files will be permanently deleted from my hard drives and cloud storage. It is your responsibility to make sure your files are downloaded and/or preserved in some manner before this time elapses.
Preservation for a hundred years.
If you want your files preserved for a hundred years or more on physical media, I can do that for you! I use a proprietary technology called M-DISC to burn tiny holes into a special disc with a laser. The disc consists of extremely stable inorganic layers. The discs adhere to the DVD+R standard, and are compatible with any DVD-player. We will ship to your address using USPS Priority mail. The discs hold up to 4.7GB of data, which is enough to store three hours of audio, uncompressed, and your transcript. This process is slow because the laser needs extra time to burn into the hard inorganic surface of the disc, the media is expensive, and a data-integrity check is performed afterward. So I do charge $75.00 per disc burned this way and delivered to you. I recommend storing your discs in a safety-deposit box for ultimate longevity.
Indemnity for lost documents and files.
As previously implied, I will make every effort to ensure that you receive your files for up to one year, but I will not be held responsible their deletion or loss after that. If you request their deletion earlier than one year, I will do as you ask assuming in good-faith that you have taken steps to preserve them in some manner on your own.