Keeping up with speeding particles

David Kestenbaum is the NPR science reporter I talk about often in class. He's always cited by public radio people as an example of a great storyteller, who often works with less than compelling source material. As we debated whether to include the story about the Hadron particle accelerator in our mock newscast, I got to thinking that if Kestenbaum was telling the story, I'd definitely want to hear it. Here's a story he did back in April, as the project was just getting revved up.

Compact Flash Cards and Olympus Recorders

Tonight, QU tech wizard Nancy Hall gives our class a tutorial on how to record sound using the Marantz digital recorders, and how to get that sound on ProTools for editing. We'll need to learn how to use ProTools to produce our projects in class, and the Marantz is one of two approved ways to gather sound.

If you want to use the Marantz in class - remember that Quinnipiac has 48 hour sign out rules. You'll also need to purchase a compact flash card to keep your sound on. Newegg.com is a great place to find cheap computer stuff. You can get compact flash cards for as little as $8 on the site right now. By using the Marantz, you'll be able to use the audio you've gathered directly on ProTools.

There are more steps involved if you want to use your own machine. Newegg.com also has the preferred Olympus recorder for about as little as you're likely to pay (if you look hard, you might save $5). If you decide to buy the Olympus, you'll need to download a file converter onto your home computer, to turn the WMA file you've recorded into a WAV file to use in ProTools. You can easily download dozens of these, but Download.com always works. You'll then need to get that file into ProTools, by thumb drive, cd or some other means.