First Recording!

markm2553 · Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 2:01 pm Post subject: First Recording!

After talking about it for ever, I finally put all the peices together and made a recording of one of my songs. You can't get any cheaper then this.
My work sent the computer home with me, so I can help troubleshoot problems back at the plant on my time off. I am using the standard sound card that is in it. Nothing fancy for sure. Then I down loaded a free software program called "Audacity". And a very cheap PC mic. I was able to make a recording and edit it, then export it as an MP3, or Wav file. I chose MP3 because it is smaller.
I then went to radio shack and bought a patch cord for about $6 that lets me run from my earphone out on a tape or CD player, into the mic jack on the PC. I can now record tapes into the PC and make them MP3's.
I talked to a friend at work about it and he has a much better mic I am going to try out. I also have a sure PG 58 I could use. So far so good.
I plan to record the song again later this week with a "real" mic and see the dif. The free software seems to give me just about everything I will want for some time. It seems like a great place to start.

Plan is to try and record some of the kids at Church singing Christmas songs and make a CD for their parents. We have had good luck making tapes at Church thru the PA system.

After I get the best copy I can come up with, I'll try and upload something. Once I figure out how that works...

Bates15 · Moderator Joined: 19 Feb 2002 Posts: 1084

Cool! Punkstar sent me towards audicity software. It seems to be just fine as a 2 track recorder. It has some usefull fx aswell!

When you do the recordings at the church you could use some more mic's coming from the church mixer and use the headphone phone out from the mixer to record it. It will gice you a better balance on the vocals and so on! Try to get them out of the room you are in so you can make a good balance on the mix.

PunkStar · Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 10:26 pm Post subject:

Yep, I just use Audacity for recording. Then I'll use different software to sequence it all together. I just wrote a good song actually, so I'm going to use Audacity to record it. Then hopefully I'll get it posted up here. It's a great program made even better by the fact that it's free.

markm2553 · Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 8:48 am Post subject:

PS, I think you told me about the program to start with. I have a couple of mic options now, I'm hoping to try out.

My home ISP limits my E-mail attachment to 2M, the first song I recorded and converted to MP3 was 2.4M. And it was not a long song at all.

Thanks for your help, sorry it took me so long to get to using it.

PunkStar · Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 9:27 pm Post subject:

No problem, glad to see it worked for you.

If you want to email larger files. Try hotmail. It's free, they give you 250 MB of space to store emails, and you can send and receive files up two 10 MB. That would solve your problem.

markm2553 · Posted: Mon Nov 29, 2004 4:53 pm Post subject:

That's a good idea on the E-mail problem.

Now I have a new problem.

The little PC desk mic is not very good. I only paid a few bucks for it. So I tried a Sure PG 57, and it only makes a VERY faint sound. It is almost nothing, I have the mic gain all the way up? Do I need something to match the impedence or something? I should not need a pre amp should I? I tried different cables, mics and adapters, same problem. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Bates15 · Moderator Joined: 19 Feb 2002 Posts: 1084

Right on the spot. You will need a preamp of some sort (channel strip, mixer).

If you try to record a complete band with that mic you will notice a lot of loss in your highs and lows. Mids should be oke! Try to get a condenser mic of some sort like a Rode NT1 or some thing like it!

PunkStar · Posted: Mon Nov 29, 2004 9:37 pm Post subject:

Yeah. When I use my PG-48 through my computer, the microphone goes through my mixer then enters my computer to get recorded. And that works fine for me. But I use the mixer because I don't have the right connector to connect the microphone directly (I do with the mixer) and so I can record both my guitar playing and vocals at the same time.

markm2553 · Posted: Thu Dec 02, 2004 10:21 am Post subject:

Everything so far has been on the cheap, just the way I like it...
So how about we talk about a "cheap" mixer option. Right now I just want the one mic, but I don't think I would ever want more that two. It's just me and the flat top. What is out there? Maybe I should just look for a "better" cheap mic, like the PC desk mic?

Thanks, I don't know where I would get this kind of info if I couldn't ask you guys.

Bates15 · Moderator Joined: 19 Feb 2002 Posts: 1084

ALTO have a cheap $100,- 2 chnl mixer... (at least it is way under 100,- euro!) That should work. If you have a POD (ie. any preamp), it wil do as a line pramp.

Try to get a cheap sony stereo mic. EBAY a good cheap condensor mic..... Anything is better than a PC mic Smile

PunkStar · Posted: Thu Dec 02, 2004 8:22 pm Post subject:

I'd have to agree with Nate on that one. PC microphones are horrible.