Ikonboard » Printable Version of Topic

Forum: Geek Forum
Topic: recording equipment
started by: a.out

Posted by a.out on Apr. 28 2001,01:46

I would like to record some of my music (piano playing), and I'm confused as to how exactly I should go about doing so. I would like to do this spending the least amount of money possible. Here is my current situation: I have a nice microphone that my uncle who runs a recording studio sent me, I have a miniature cassette player/recorder (which I DO NOT want to use), and a computer with a Sound Blaster Live Card. I would like to get the sound onto the computer in the highest quality possible, so using the cassette player is completely out. I was thinking that the best way would be to haul my full tower computer with the SBLive downstairs next to the piano, plug the microphone into the *line* input (it seems that the microphone input has very bad quality), and then using any editing software, remove the track which contains no sound making it mono rather than stereo (a single microphone cannot do stereo...), and then encoding it to mp3 using lame or into ogg vorbis or something.

This seems to be the best way for me to do this without spending much money, but if anyone has any suggestions for (cheap!) hardware that I could build or anything to make this better/easier, I would greatly appreciate it.

Posted by PersonGuy on Apr. 28 2001,02:40

< www.syntrillium.com >
Get Cool Edit. Take you keyboard to your puter (wouldn't that be easier?). Get a cord that has 2 male ends from Radio Shack. Connect one end to you computers input jack and the other to your keyboards headphone jack. And that should get the basic setup for a tiny bit of editing. You might also need a stero channel splitter jack from Da Shack.

------------------
Have a nice day, because monkeys don't.
-< PersonGuy >

Posted by a.out on Apr. 28 2001,02:53

I guess I didn't make it clear: I have a real piano (6 foot grand), not an electrical keyboard. So moving that to the computer is *not* an option

Posted by Observer on Apr. 28 2001,03:49

If you plug the mic into the Line connection, you won't get very much sound at all. Try making some sample recordings to see how good or bad of a sound you are getting.

------------------
A good programmer is someone who looks both ways on a one-way street

Posted by ASCIIMan on Apr. 29 2001,02:58

Make sure your mic level is set correctly on your sound card -- this is probably why you're getting crappy quality (clipping).

Easiest way to set it on your SBLive is to open up Creative's "Recorder" applet and watch the level while you're playing on the piano. The level should only peak occasionally. It also should not always stay out of the red - you want to use as many of those bits as possible. If you want, it may be easiest to go ahead and just record directly to wave with the Recorder applet and then work with it from there.

BTW, preferably, the mike should be held right under the center of the piano (as close as possible to the underside, pointing upwards), or pointing into the top pointing into the opened side (problably opened to the lowest angle). This should minimize outside noise (remember that sound falls off as the square of the distance). If you still get bad quality when positioning the mike correctly and adjusting the levels, you either need a new mike or a new soundcard.

Two more things - NEVER plug a headphone output into a mike or line input. This will damage the input circuit (higher signal level than it's designed for), the output circuit (high impedences are hard on output circuits), or both. Also, when adjusting levels, see if you can get the level right without the "+20 dB Mic Boost" on. If you can't, then turn it on, but by further modifying the (analog) signal, you are degrading the quality (consumer-grade soundcards are not known for their good analog components).

Posted by askheaves on Apr. 29 2001,06:06

The other thing to remember is that microphones can have different fields... ie, there's a shape to where it can listen effectively to. Most often it can look like a butt, but sometimes it's wider or narrower, there's dead spots, or there could be left/right parts to the mic. Read the instructions.

Posted by PersonGuy on Apr. 29 2001,13:46

Ok... that DOES make a difference!

As stupid as it sounds... I think you should get some mic extention cords from radio shack... start the record upstairs and then run downstairs and play! As for the mic setup... (if money is no object) I'd set up 3. 2 on stands (above the piano) in front and two feet away from the piano, and 1 behind (or in front), center, even with the top and about 4 feet away... Do some Radio Shacking and hook the two side mics into their own left and right channel and join it with the (much lower volume) centered mic.

------------------
Have a nice day, because monkeys don't.
-< PersonGuy >

Posted by just_dave on Apr. 30 2001,01:49

from working in and around a recording studio the microphone that you apparently have will do stero you can record the mono input into a stero wav file and get much better results, trust me on that one... you will have to take the computer to the grand, and that will be the best possible sound line in , get SoundForge to record with if you can .

------------------
If you have multiple personalties and think about suicide is it a hostage situation???

Posted by Observer on Apr. 30 2001,02:19

I'm fairly certain that if you're going to use more than one mic, you should also use a mixning board. Most of those have a line-out connection which could run to your sound card. Then you would actually be able to make a stereo recording.

------------------
A good programmer is someone who looks both ways on a one-way street

Posted by PersonGuy on Apr. 30 2001,13:28

A mixing board is a good idea... I just didn't want to recomend your drop HUNDREDS of dollars on the project. With a little machanical tweeking you can probably do most of the job with just radio shack, but again for best quity you need some equiptment.

------------------
Have a nice day, because monkeys don't.
-< PersonGuy >

Posted by Observer on Apr. 30 2001,13:49

I agree. I believe a decent, simple mixing board won't cost a whole lot if all you want to do is mix mic inputs to a line-out signal.

But if you do decide to go running long cables up to your room, you should use XLR cable. That balances the signal so that you don't lose nearly as much along the way.

Then there's always the wireless mic setup...

------------------
A good programmer is someone who looks both ways on a one-way street