Piano World Home Page Forums [PW-MRCP] Recording Techniques and MP3/AIFF/WAV Resources

Hi Gryphon,

I don't know why the Compaq's built-in sound card would have so much noise, but here are a few more questions that might lead us to some answers... Is it just white noise or 60-cycle hum or both? What's your mic setup, is it powered by AC or battery? Is the mic cable shielded? To do your test on the computer upstairs did you use the same mic setup?

Is there more than one input on the Compaq's sound card? If so you could try the other input (which you probably already have if there is), also did you play with the volume-control applet & shut off whatever inputs you're not recording from? For example, my PC's card has a line-in and a mic-in, and I'd guess the mic-in is preamped to some degree. There's also a 20db mic boost option of some sort. Any options like that on your Compaq? If you haven't already, I'd suggest shutting off unused inputs and cranking the volume for the input you're using most or all the way up.

I don't suppose you could run shielded cable up to the PC to do the recording on that computer? That might just introduce more noise though.

Another option might be to use an MP3 recorder, they can record at basically CD quality. I use a PoGo RipFlash trio, it's a little credit-card-sized thing with 128MB of RAM, holds hours at decent quality. Pretty handy if I want to mess around and do a little recording session at the piano store where I take my lessons, etc.

Hope that helps...

-Paul

Gryphon, you might try what I do. My Dell Inspiron laptop has a completely unacceptable hum when it's plugged into AC current. But if I run it on battery the hum is gone. It's also gone if I bypass the ground. I just plug one of those 3->2 ground adapters onto the power cord and leave the ground unconnected.

Thanks for the information, Elena. My musical purpose in recording is more to keep a diary of ideas rather than to perfect performance. I do have high quality tape equipment but tapes do deteriorate over many years and I am toying with the idea of buying a decent CD recorder.

For the purpose of the Pianoworld CD I shall just pay somebody to do a one-off transfer for me to CD or file and hope the quality is good enough.

I've been wanting to buy something to record with for some time, so yesterday I did it. I Bought: A Fostex MR-8 8-track digital recorder and 2 Shure SM57s.

I hope the Fostex does a good job, but just in case it doesn't do what I want, I can return it for a full refund.

Features:

* Stores to included 128MB flash card
* 16-bit/44.1kHz uncompressed linear sound quality
* 2-track simultaneous recording
* 8-track playback
* Ultra-intuitive interface
* 128x64 backlit dot-matrix LCD
* 38 self-illuminating keys
* Onboard guitar distortion
* Amp modeling
* Mic modeling
* Digital reverb and delay section
* Mastering effect for stereo bus
* Optical S/PDIF out
* USB port for WAV transfer to PC
* 6 AA alkaline cell operation
* Included power supply
* Built-in microphone
* Sophisticated editing/archiving system

BTW, If this works out well, I'll be willing to loan it to anyone in the NY area for recording their piece for our CD.

Okay, I'm a computer dunce. If I record onto a cassette, what do I have to do to get that to digital form? Can I just snail mail it to someone with a good soundcard and the knowledge to convert it to MP3?

I was waiting for someone to answer you, Pete, but nobody has. I'm in the same boat. I have very good tape facilities but nothing else. I'm hoping somebody local, for a few dollars, will make me either a CD or a file from a tape. I've found a few contacts from music shops - shouldn't be too hard to jack up.

I can do a fairly decent analogue to digital conversion from either Vinyl or cassete. Not professional, but it wouldn't sound any worse than the original.

Send me a private message if you want my help.

We used to record our recital series (20 + years ago), and used to record to VHS. Does anyone still do this, or know if it's worth trying?

I'd really like to take part in this, but get too nervous playing in front of people to actually have someone record it for me. If I can get the VHS to my computer I could probably record myself, and do whatever digital work I can to it on my computer.
We already have some nice mics, and such, but the medium is the problem, how to get the VHS to my laptop?

Does anyone have any ideas?

I have now bought a CD recorder (I wanted one to make durable recordings of improvisation; tapes deteriorate over the years) which, in conjunction with my good tape deck, seems to make excellent recordings. Well, they sound all right to me anyway. I can use software on this computer to make mp3s from the CD quite easily if required.

So now I have finalised what I shall submit it's just a question of playing well enough.

so how did the mr 8 with the sm 57s work out?

Hi georgeped. The MR8 is great--quite easy to use. It came with a 128MB compact flash card which can only hold about 20 minutes, so I'm going to buy a 1Gig card (currently ~$99) that will hold and hour and a half's worth.

I haven't yet figured out how I want to mic the piano though. I've been so busy I haven't had much time to experiment. Ditto with the various settings on the MR8.

Fun!

Thanks Bernard

Someone? Anyone? Need help!

My teacher recorded me today. It's not the best equipment, but there I am, on CD (and it wasn't even a bad take!). Except, I can't upload it. Is there a way to convert it to a mp3 or wav file? My computer says it's a cda file. Does this make sense?

thanks in advance!
penny

It does. You need to "rip" the file from the CD, Penny.

If you don't have Nero, or something similar, CDex should do the trick.

http://www.cdex.n3.net

HTH


David

You are so sweet to help! BUT ...

I've copied it to my computer, and now it's a wma file. I guess I'll click on that link you show above.

EERRRGGHHH

penny

Yikes, I downloaded it. But it's not exactly user friendly. Any idea where to start?

penny

*bump*


(help, only a week and a half left!)

penny

Penny,

If you intend to submit the recording to the Piano World CD project, send me an e-mail or private message -- I'll give you an address where you can send me the CD. I'll do the conversion for you and retain a soft copy of the material for inclusion in Piano World CD.

(I use Apple's Macintosh computer and they have something called iTunes can let you "rip" music from CD and convert to MP3 quite easily -- and they have a version for Windows that you can use for free -- see http://www.itunes.com/ if you want to give that a shot.)

Just made a recording following Dan M's playbook (a pair of MXL 990 microphones and an M-Audio AudioBuddy pre-amp). See THIS POST (click here) for details and link to MP3. Thanks, Dan M!

Comments and suggestions on how to make better audio recordings are welcome and will be greatly appreciated.