Downloading British Library audio

Following a trip to Ratchford to pick up some book making equipment, I've downloaded the audio recorded at the British Library. Next I'm going to import the wav files into Acid and edit them down so that they become the final tracks. I've also decided that the tracks won't have titles but be identified by their running time. This is a reference to John Cage's silent composition known as 4'33" - although my recordings are far from silent. Some are pretty chaotic actually.

Reply from The British Library #2

Via email:

"Dear Daniel,

As long as it is a hand held camera with no additional equipment, that should be fine and will not require supervision. It will also be fine to record background noise but not any individual conversations, etc.

Hope that helps.

Best wishes,
Chloé"

So that's that sorted. I just need to find a suitable time to head down to London and get what I need.

Reply from The British Library

A reply from the British Library arrived this morning. If it looks a bit crumpled, then that's because the dog got to it before I did.

It basically states that they require a little more information before they can grant permission but it doesn't look like photography with a hand held camera will be a problem in the public areas (the use of tripods and additional lighting would require the supervision of a member of the library's press office).

With regards to the recordings, they again need to confirm what equipment would be used plus they need information about whether it would be for the interviewing of library users or "simply recording the sounds of the library". The latter response suggests that my request isn't going to met with confusion.

The letter also contains the email address of the Press Assistant requiring the additional information so I'll send my reply electronically and hopefully get everything confirmed.

New sound recorder

I also picked up a new piece of hardware today. Previously I've been using my dinky Olympus digital voice recorder but now I have this: the Zoom H4 stereo/multi-track recorder which records both wav and mp3 formats and comes supplied with Cubase LE4 software. And input for guitar and bass - although I can't see this function getting much use.

Anyway, it's a bit of a beast by comparison with an appearance somewhere between a Taser and a prop from Battlestar Galactica. I'm actually too frightened to switch it on right now.