There are several areas to consider when selecting equipment for your project. Considerations such as cost, quality, effectiveness, and usuablity are key to successful recording.

Audio Equipment

Many types of portable audio recorders are widely available. Choosing the right recorder for your project depends on your budget, on the skill and expertise of your interviewer or interviewers, and what you plan to do with the recordings in the future. With this in mind and in consideration of the constantly changing availability of recording equipment, we can not offer firm recommendations except that Microcassette Recorders are NOT recommended. The recording is guaranteed to be poor, which may make the recording diffult to work with.

For more in depth information regarding audio recording equipment, see New Zealand's History Online Equipment Guide or The Vermont Folklife Center's Audio Field Recording Equipment Guide.

Microphones

A good quality microphone is vital to a clear recording. You should not rely on a machine's built-in microphone when recording oral histories. Instead you want to purchase an external microphone that can be placed on a stand between the interviewee and the interviewer.

For more information on microphones, see The Vermont Folklife Center's Audio Field Recording Equipment Guide on Microphones.

Video Equipment

Many oral historians prefer recording audio interviews over video interviews because audio equipment can be more portable, easier to operate, and less intrusive than video equipment. Depending on how you are planning to use the interviews, using video recordings can be a valuable way to document physical expression and secondary materials, such as photographs, that may be referred to in an interview.