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Take a picture, it lasts longer! But don't forget the audio!!!!

I remember hearing that phrase when I was a kid. You'd be looking at someone, what they thought was for too long, and they might yell out "take a picture, it lasts longer!".
Well it can be true, but it might not, at least not anymore. In all I've been doing to scan in all photos, convert all 8 MM film, VHS tape and Analog 8MM and Digital 8 tape home movies to DVD, I've found out that for a lot of it, its to late. The 8 MM film has held up well. The VHS tape has help up really well, for our tapes actually better than it was predicted to back in the early 1980's when it first became the medium of the future.
The big disappointment, and I may have mentioned this in an earlier post, is the Analog 8 video tape. Most of those are now difficult to watch with large bands of 'noise' across the bottom third of the video on playback. VERY disappointing because in addition to going to the 8 MM camcorder for its smaller size and lighter weight than the very heavy VHS camcorder, those 8 MM tapes were supposed to have a higher metal content that was supposed to make it last longer and better. Those experts were apparently wrong! And with so many of those "keepsake" kinds of family history, when it's gone it's gone forever.
Now, the audio I mentioned at the top. How many of you reading this have ever made an audio recording of friends or family? I remember it was a kind of big deal in the 'olden days' to talk on a tape recorder. My first recorder was a 'portable' reel to reel tape recorder back in the late 1960's. I remember I recorded some episodes of the original Star Trek TV series as well as us kids and other things. It was audio only, consumer video didn't really happen for us until the RCA Selectavision recorder/player in about 1978.
But back then when the tape recorder died all the tapes and stuff got chucked too. Then came cassette tapes, and even Micro-cassettes. My Aunt and my Mom took the time in the late 1970's and early 1980's to kind of interview my grandmother and grandfather separately over time. We as a family didn't take pictures like I did later in life and nothing at all like I do now with digital cameras. Oh how I wish I could go back and smuggle a good camera with me!
I wish many more pictures had been taken than there were. But the audio? I was able to take those audio tapes and put those on to CD. So those about two hours of recorded voice is all that's really left to be able to remember how my grand parents sounded. Even with the compactness of all this digital media, it still seems like audio is more durable than video. And people are less likely to act 'differently' with a small audio recorder over anything video.
How many "turn that thing off"'s have you heard trying to take a family movie? I've heard it many times!
But a small, like they have nowadays, digital recorder can easily be used to get stories or just talking that will someday be important as we all get older. Pictures are great, video can be fantastic, but most don't think about the simplicity of hearing how someone sounded.

Along this line I'm going to mention a new recorder I got. I've had and used small digital recorders for several years, I used to use them at work for reports or if it was a situation when an accurate recording might be needed to back up a he said, she said conflict. Actually in addition to video, many police officers carry and use recorders. You just never know it!
Anyway, I have been fascinated by some of the stereo recordings of some of the Podcasts I listen to. Theirs are very expensive but I read the reviews and got a pretty good one by consensus. Turns out so far they were right! In my first recordings, on playback with good headphones, it is incredibly a 3-D sound effect. Totally immersed in the recorded audio. I'd set it on the back deck rail and let it go for about 10 minutes. It picked up the wasp that flew around it as well as the neighborhood sounds, the birds, squirrels, dogs in the distance, and even the cars as they drove in the area. I easily thought that the buzz of the wasp was right by me! I can't really do it justice other than say if you're considering anything I've been mentioning to help remember family history, check out this too! Not just the stereo, but the recording quality is really good. Much better than all the recorders I used to use, and still have a few of them.
It is an Olympus DS-40 stereo digital recorder and it retails for over $100.00 and I got mine, brand new, from Amazon for a little over $50.00. Really, check it out! Incredible is all I can say.
Happy Trails!! Tad

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