Q:  I am involved with an organization that is constantly holding seminars and one of the things we want to start doing is recording every one of our physical seminars.  I would like to know what your basic recommendation is. We do not even have a digital recorder.  We do have video camera with a microphone attached to that but we are wondering if you have a recommendation for a way we can get started in recording everything we do?

There is a simple way to get started.  It is not going to provide you the best quality of recording but at least you will be able to get up and get going.  When I first started speaking as a professional a number of years ago, I purchased an mp3 recorder.  The brand was Olympus and I am not sure what the model number is but now they obviously got newer models but it was an MP3 recorder. The thing I like about it and this is what you want to look for. You want an MP3 recorder that allows you to plug in an external microphone.

Then what I did was I purchased a real simple microphone from Radio Shack of all places. I think it was around $40 or $50 and it was a lavaliere microphone. What I did was I clipped my lavaliere microphone on my shirt and then that plugged in to my mp3 recorder that was in my pocket. Right before I would start my presentation, I would just press record and I was recording straight into my mp3 player.

That is real basic set up.  I think what you want to do is graduate to a solution where you a have a real microphone and you are recording straight into your computer.  That is where you are going to get the best quality recording.  That is what we do at all of our seminars.  We record straight into the computer itself from the sound system and the quality of the recording is really high.

Tags: event, live, microphone, mike, mp3, record, recording, seminar