Interesantisimo.
Between February 1971 and July 1973, President Richard Nixon secretly recorded 3,700 hours of his phone calls and meetings across the executive offices. Currently, approximately 2,371 hours of these tapes have been declassified, released, and made available to the public. Neither the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) nor the Nixon Presidential Library have produced official transcriptions or made the complete audio files available online. Instead, they have left this monumental task--a task that NARA once estimated took 100 hours of staff time to transcribe 1 hour of tape--to individual researchers and scholars.
nixontapes.org is the only website dedicated solely to the scholarly production and dissemination of digitized Nixon tape audio and transcripts. We have the most complete digitized tape collection in existence--approximately 2,300 hours spread over 2.5 terabytes of hard drives that contain more than 7,000 audio files.
SOME SUGGESTIONS BASED ON TRIED-AND-TRUE EXPERIENCES
The cardinal rule: When in doubt, CONSULT THE ORIGINAL AUDIO.
“Perfect” transcripts from the presidential recordings are impossible because the source audio is, itself, far from perfect.
Noise reduction software, while sometimes useful during initial transcription, is not a panacea. When dealing with single channel audio from an analog original, noise reduction also entails sound reduction and distortion. After 2007, the Nixon Tapes Group made only limited use of such software, relying almost entirely on the unadulterated digital audio.
When properly executed, group efforts are always better than individuals working alone since transcripts benefit from the use of more than one ear (to catch “unclear” and errors) and head (to provide subject-area expertise). (The potential downside is groupthink)
When there is any disagreement on what is being said, safe editorial practice dictates marking segments as “unclear” or “unintelligible.” This is the procedure NARA used when it was required to produce transcripts prior to the general release of the recordings.
Use good equipment. Since the average office is actually a noisy location, invest in some good noise canceling headsets, which block room noise without altering the original audio.
Multiple reviews are a must. The revised system at the Department of State tracked every conversation in every volume to ensure that each was reviewed a minimum of 5 times by at least 3 different staff members, including one subject area specialist. This is a standard that has yet to be eclipsed by any other institution in the world that works with Nixon Tapes.
Longer conversations, historically significant conversations, or those with audio problems require yet more review than regular transcripts.
Take breaks every 20-30 minutes. Listening for hours straight will lower productivity and degrade accuracy.
Don’t blast the volume. This hastens tone deafness, not to mention actual deafness.
Question what you hear, and what you read, especially when you are confronted with nonsensical statements. (See summaries of errors below: 670-13 | 720-4)
It is a natural inclination to “hear” what you “see” on a page because people are suggestible. Learn to avoid this tendency.
Embrace technology. Using a computer with digital audio, it is possible to fast forward and rewind hours of tape almost instantly. It is possible to isolate and repeat small sections. Electronic finding aids are easily searchable, and spreadsheets with time codes can help an experienced researcher immediately identify where to look for the relevant audio, especially when there are close to 3,700 hours of Nixon Tapes.
When reviewing a transcript, after completing the initial transcript, set it aside and review it again the next day.
As a corollary to embracing technology, use the best quality audio you can acquire. Transcribing off digital audio is light years ahead of using analog audio. Although the actual difference is only 10-15% compared to analog, a good deal of tape work takes place on the margins.
Use a cost-benefit analysis. Try to keep things in perspective, balancing resources. Is it really worth spending an hour trying to enhance 10 minutes of audio? Remember, tapes are often repetitious, so unless you are dealing with the only record of a significant event or a “Smoking Gun” type of conversation, it might be worth tracking down another conversation with similar content from the same time period. Similarly, does a conversation need another review, or is listening to it 7 times over really enough?
When doing a final review, go off the unaltered audio. An accurate transcript should be able to be verified without noise reduction software or any such technological crutches.
Use common sense. Ask yourself if a troublesome passage makes any sense. There are frequent non-sequiturs in transcripts. The recordings are what linguists term “natural conversations,” so in many cases, the participants do not speak in complete sentences. Some people stutter and have verbal missteps. Others mumble or have accents. Frequently there is shared knowledge and speakers use verbal shorthand that can make the meaning opaque. Nevertheless, if something just does not seem right, be sure to check it as many times as necessary to confirm or mark the segment as unclear. Better ten “unclears” than one “cuddling.”
Context is key. Knowledge of events, geography, etc. is invaluable. One Department of States historian managed to render invaluable help to the Nixon Tapes in spite of the fact that he wears hearing aids because of his unmatched subject-area knowledge. Inexperienced transcribers should not hesitate to ask for guidance from their more experienced colleagues in dealing with the plethora of verbal tics found in the Nixon Tapes (such as Nixon’s familiar refrain, “and so forth, and so on”).
Check your ego at the door. We all make mistakes.
To reiterate the cardinal rule: When in doubt, check the unadulterated audio—then check it again.
. No en serio. En esa pagina hay transcripciones en ingles, pero se advierte de que pueden no corresponder exactamente con la realidad.
