AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION: Tips on Better-Quality Audio Recordings

As an audio/video forensics expert, I see (or I hear, rather) countless audiotape recordings that are hampered by poor-quality recording techniques. You don’t need to be a professional sound recordist, but having an acceptable-quality recording is important when attempting to prove the “truth” or support evidence about a legal disagreement or other disputed issue via a recorded conversation. With poorly recorded audio, the “truth” can end up “distorted” in more ways than one. I would like to go on record (no pun intended) in saying the majority of tape-quality distortion situations I encounter can be avoided if persons making original recordings would follow basic recording tips.

My forensics work includes time (and money) to analyze, identify and compare voice samples and ensure that conversation recordings are intelligible. As part of those skills, it often requires labor and costly technological equipment to remove excessive background noise or increase/decrease volume levels to adjust for audible clarity. Costly hours may be devoted to enhance the clarity of, or even save, a poor-quality recording.

Here are brief guidelines to help create more desirable – and usable – concealed audio recordings. Following these tips may save labor, expensive lab work or costly studio-time fees.

TAKE HEED:
Laws regarding concealed recordings vary from state to state. You must check laws governing your state before making any type of concealed recording. If you do not, at the very least you could spend wasted time and expense making a recording you believe is “usable” only to have its use denied in court because it was made illegally. At worst, ignoring legal statutes could end up with you being the defendant in a lawsuit.

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