I enjoyed conducting an audio interview because it was something I’d never attempted before. I found that I was easily able to apply the silent responses to encourage my interviewee without verbally sabotaging my recording. It was a smart move to record the interview in her own home and wait until she had warmed up to me over dinner and conversation.
I realized quickly that in order to extract a natural-sounding story I needed to let her go and refrain from asking redirecting questions. My questions must have been too formal sounding, or perhaps it made her feel as if she had said something wrong. Also, it didn’t work to just jump into questioning as soon as I turned the recorder on. She froze and was unable to even state her name without stumbling.
It was very challenging to pry for additional information after the anecdote had been told. My subject became very robotic and technical in her descriptions. It was also challenging to save my file in Audacity as an MP3 file. I spent at least two hours struggling with that program.
Next time I would plan the interview earlier in the day and ask a few warm-up questions after I had turned on the recorder. I would also try to be alone with my interviewee, her daughter seemed to ignite some nervous tendencies.
I would like to know more about the ins-and-outs of Audacity and how to add music and fade in and out with the sound.
