Contents

This document contains instructions for use of the TightKnit Audio Recording feature along with best practice tips regarding the notion of recording audio in general. It is organized as follows:


1. TightKnit "Record Audio" Feature Quick-Start.

2. The Value of Recording One's Natural Voice.

3. Audio Recording and Interviewing Tips and Best Practices

  • Pre-Recording Set-Up Tips
  • Recording Tips
  • Post Recording Tips.


1. TightKnit "Record Audio" Feature Quick-Start

The “Record” comments feature can be found on the same screen where you can “Write” comments, which appears when ever you are viewing a page within a TightKnit Story Album. The “Write” comments window appears as a default. To view the “Record” comments, click on the “Record” tab on the upper right.


Do a “1 – 2 – 3 Test”

Before you start a session, do a one-time “1 – 2 – 3 test” to make sure everything is working properly…

 

Press “record” and do a brief “1 – 2 – 3 test” audio check…


Press “stop”….


Press “Play” to confirm it sounds good…


If the test is good, press “clear”


Did it sound good? If so, you are ready to go.  You do not need to repeat this test unless you change your recording set-up. For example, if you choose a different device to record with or record on a different day.

Did not sound good? If dissatisfied with the results, please refer to the “Pre-Recording Set-Up Tips” in the “Audio Recording and Interviewing Usage Tips and Best Practices” section below.


Quick Start Recording Steps

To begin, click the record button. You can record for up to 10 minutes.


To stop recording, click the stop button.


Your recording has been captured, but not "Added" (saved) yet. Before you “Add” it, click on the “Play” button to play back the first couple seconds of the message just to make sure you are good with it. If not, click “Clear” and re-record.


If you are satisfied with your recording, click “Add”, and go on to the next comment!


You have 10 minutes of recording time with each recording. With approximately 1 minute left, you will see the following advisory:


With approximately 30 seconds left, the advisory will turn red:


When 10 minutes is reached, the recording stops and the system will wait for you to “Play”, “Add” or “Clear”.


2. The Value of Recording One's Natural Voice


TightKnit allows users to have conversations around photos in two ways:

  • Written by typing;
  • Recorded by capturing the user’s natural voice.

 

Both methods work well at asking questions, capturing memories and sharing stories. However, capturing this information in the user’s natural voice can be wonderful – both for the user (it is generally faster and easier to talk than to type) and for those listening to the recording (it captures the tone, natural inflections, pauses, emotion, and most importantly, preserves the voice for future generations). These recordings become a keepsake as well, as we all have ancestors that we would love to hear how they talked, told a story, laughed and sighed.

 

Recording is also a great way to capture oral history in the form of a conversation. For example, between a family member and a family elder. Have you ever sat down with an elder to look at an old photo album and the stories just pour out? Now, do that with TightKnit! Step through a TightKnit Story Album and as the photos trigger memories and stories, capture those in your family member’s natural voice. The recording feature encourages the natural back and forth flow of the conversation without having to slow things down in the way that note-taking by typing a comment will.

 

 

3. Audio Recording and Interviewing Usage Tips and Best Practices


The following is designed to provide you with some best-practice tips for the set-up, recording and post-recording of TightKnit audio messaging to help all enjoy these and other family/friend treasures in TightKnit. Over and above all tips, is the recommendation to test the record function before you start your recording.

 

Pre-Recoding Set-Up Tips

The technology you use. The actual TightKnit screen for recording a comment will hopefully look familiar to you as it uses standard buttons such as “play” and “stop” to control the recording and playback. However, there are multiple options when it comes to the other elements needed to record and playback. The key items are:

  • The device being used (e.g. a phone, tablet or computer);
  • The browser being used on that device (e.g. Safari, Firefox, Edge, Chrome);
  • The microphone being used for the recording (e.g. an internal microphone or external one as part of a headset or ear buds);
  • The speaker being used for playback (like the microphone, either internal to the device or external).

 

Do a test. What you have may work just fine. How do you find out? Do a test recording. It is easy! Do the test on the device of your choice. Our recommendation is to try it with the device’s internal microphone and speaker as we found in our testing that they generally performed the best. TightKnit’s “Record” feature has been set up with testing in mind. When you record with TightKnit, you follow this procedure:

  • Go to the top of TightKnit’s “Comment” area (right side of the “Story Viewer” screen) and click on “Record” to show the recording controls.
  • Press “Record” (the red round circle - insert symbol) and begin recording.
  • When finished or when ready to take a break, press “stop” (the red square - insert symbol) and that recording will end.
  • At this point, the recording has been captured but not added (saved). Your options at this point are to:
    1. Play it back by pressing “Play” (white triangle – insert symbol). If this was a test record, listen to it to make sure it is satisfactory. Even if not a test recording, it is recommended that after every recording, you play back a couple seconds of it to make sure it is satisfactory. For example, sometimes a dog barking or other un-wanted noise occurred that distracts, so you may want to record the comment again;
    2. Was this a test? Or, was this a recording you want to do over? If yes, then delete the recording by pressing “Clear”. You will be returned to the “Record and Comment” screen.
    3. Was this a keeper? If yes, then save the recording by pressing “Add”, and the recording will be saved.
    4. Once “Added”, any person with access to that Story Album will be able to click “Play” to listen to it. Then, they can ask questions, make comments and continue the conversation!

 

Did the test recording sound good? If yes, then you are ready to roll!

 

If the sound quality was poor (for example, sometimes there might be clicking or popping), or if it did not record at all, here are some things to try:

  1. Stay with the same device but try a different browser. For an Apple device, always try Safari (Apple’s browser) first. If you have an issue with that, Chrome or Firefox are options as well. On Windows computers and Android devices, we found that Firefox in general worked the best, but Chrome and Edge worked too.
  2. If the above did not improve things, try a different microphone / speaker combination. As noted above, start with the internal microphone and speaker. If those did not work satisfactorily, or if you just want to use something different, plug in anything else that you might have. For example, a set of ear-buds or head phones. Some devices will recognize the different microphone and speaker and automatically make the internal switch. In other situations (for example, on some Windows 10 PCs), you may have to go into your PC’s “Sound Settings” to select the proper items. Keep in mind that if you are doing an interview (you and another person in the same room), the internal microphone and speaker are really the best way to record that.
  3. If neither of the above options work well, consider changing devices. A rule of thumb is that the newer the device, the better chance it will work well. The older a device gets, the more likely it becomes that it will not work as desired. Do you have access to a newer one, or to a tablet like an iPad? In case you did not know, it does not have to be your own device because you can sign into your TightKnit account from any person’s device – so borrow one if that is an option.
  4. Still having issues? Please let us know at by emailing us at support.tightknit.com as technology changes rapidly and we may have some alternative suggestions.

 

Recording Tips

Here are some suggestions for conducting recording sessions:

  • Keep an eye on the recording time. TightKnit limits a single recording to 10 minutes. During the recording, TightKnit will display how much time has transpired. Once you hit 9 minutes (one minute left), a visual advisory will pop up. We have found that most recordings are less than 10 minutes. However, if you are deep into a conversation, you may not realize the time and you also may not be looking at your TightKnit display to see that you are running out of time. When the recording reaches 10 minutes, it will stop and allow you to “Clear” or “Add”. Therefore, it is important to catch this before it stops. If more time is needed, hold your thought (or ask the person to “please hold their thought”), stop the recording at a good break point, “Add” the recording, and then start a new one.
  • Conduct a face-to-face interview with the device’s internal microphone and speaker. If you are doing an interview (you and another person in the same room), the internal microphone and speaker are the most practical way to record that session. Our testing has found the quality is generally very good, and it is simple to do. Just make sure your device is in a location centrally located between the two of you. There certainly are more advanced ways to record interviews using more professional equipment, but for the every-day person, we recommend this simpler yet effective approach.
  • When doing an interview, log in to TightKnit as the person of primary interest (the person being interviewed). When a recording is made, TightKnit will time stamp it and attach the name of the user who is logged in to that recording. If the person you are interviewing is the person of primary interest, it would be better to have that person’s name associated with the recording. That is simple to do – just create a TightKnit account for that person (if they do not have one already), log in as that person, and then do the recorded interview. That way, each recording will be have that person’s name listed next to it along with the time stamp, so everyone will know. The interviewer’s name is important too, and can be added later as a “reply” comment to the recorded comment -- for posterity purposes (Tip: you don’t have to do this during the session…come back at a later time and do a “replay” to the audio comment then, so you don’t disrupt the flow). In years to come, people will want to know who was part of the conversation!
  • Select the right room or environment. Quiet is key. You don’t want background noises to distract the listener. You also want all parties to be comfortable. Around a table is ideal, as you can both sit up fairly close to the device and it conjures up the feeling of the “kitchen table conversations” that so many people enjoy.
  • Be aware of and try to minimize extraneous sounds. Avoid rustling papers, tapping, fumbling with the recording device or moving around a lot in a squeaky chair! Avoid playing music, unless it is an important part of the discussion (sometimes period music can help transport the person to another place and time, so experiment with that, but it can also be very distracting if the volume level is too high).
  • No “Pause” during recording. Note that there is no ability to pause and then “un-pause” to continue recording. If you need to pause, just “Stop” then “Add” the recording. When ready to continue, start recording again. Your recordings will be listed in chronological order in the Comments area.
  • Recording from a zoom call (TBD)

 

Post Recording Tips

You have some recordings! Great! However, it does not stop there. Here are some tips to help you and your family/friends get the most from these treasures.

 

  • If an interview was conducted, describe the setting for those who were not there. As noted above, it is important to make sure you log in with the user ID of the person of interest (e.g. a family elder) so that the recordings are automatically “tagged” with that person’s name and the date stamp. However, it is important to also let people know who the other people were on the recording, where it was at and other interesting things about the session. This can be done with a single “Reply” to the first recording on each photo page where there is a recording. You can copy/paste the information from page to page as required, making it go quite fast.
  • Let others know about the recordings. Even though other members of this TightKnit family will be automatically notified of the new content, we suggest a separate communication from you if the recordings are significant. For example, the interview of a family elder. What is so wonderful about TightKnit is that other family members can join in on the conversation by listening to the recordings, adding additional comments or asking follow-up questions. This is the heart of what TightKnit does – connects the stories to the photos in a format that allows the conversation to live on. Comments and replies to comments can also be in a recorded format should that be preferable. In the case of a family elder, that person can be pulled back in to answer the questions and continue the conversation even though they may be thousands of miles apart.