Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with audio and PC

PC speakers

ObscureReferenceMan — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:13:07 -0800

New speakers for computer (PC). And a few questions. The Altec Lansing speakers (and sub-woofer) that came with my previous Dell computer that I am using on my Dell XPS-400 are in need of replacing. The left speaker crapped out. So what to do now? Checking an older AskMe question, I saw something referring to "2.0 speakers". What does that mean? I assumed I just needed a pair of speakers and sub-woofer. Was I wrong?

I was hoping to spend less than $100. Is that unreasonable? There are many options at Best Buy, for example.

I have nothing planned to do more intricate than listening to music, and watching videos.

Thanks!

Best setup for an interview-style podcast?

superbird — Tue, 19 May 2009 10:58:17 -0800

What affordable equipment could I buy to have a simple, professional-sounding conversational podcast? My podcast usual has a simple format: two people talking to each other at a table about a subject. Sometimes we bring in one or even two other guests.

So basically, it's an interview format.

I would like to invest between $100-$200 in whatever I need for 1-3 (and if possible, 4) people to sit around a table and talk. Right now, we just plug two headsets into my computer via a headphone splitter. It works fine but sounds kinda lame and feels iffy.

It seems like the Zoom H2 might be my best bet, but the concern is that it sounds too "airy" when it's set in the middle of the table with 2-4 voices around it.

Anyone have any other insight into this?

Adobe Audacity vs Logic Express

treepour — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 22:04:40 -0800

Switched to Mac, looking for Adobe Audacity replacement. Should I go for Logic Express? I used Audacity primarily for two things (in order priority):

1) Splicing existing recordings together as seamlessly as possible. Here I used the "Echo Chamber" effects quite extensively. These helped create the sense that the musicians stopped playing and then started playing something else -- the ambient echo of the previous section carried on into the next.

2) Severely warping recorded sounds via a variety of filters/effects, combining them together via the multitrack interface, mixing the multiple tracks down to single tracks then continuing the process.

Can I do these kinds of things with Logic Express? Or would I be better off using Audacity via Windows vmware? Learning a new piece of software isn't a problem, I just want to make sure that the software will enable the kinds of things I want to do. Also, any other similarly-priced Mac recommendations for this sort of thing besides Logic Express would be appreciated.

Help me drop the bass.

Frasermoo — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 10:23:00 -0800

Looking for a more in-depth audio controller for XP. Im running box-standard XP witha pair of Altec Lansing speakers with sub. The bass is savage with no means to adjust. Is there a more sophisticated audio controller I can download which might enable me to adjust bass output? If I am checking correctly the PC sound card is Intel 82801BA/BAM AC'97.

Seperating voice chat and music outputs on a PC.

markkraft — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:30:54 -0800

A friend had a question I was uncertain about... is there a way on a laptop running Vista -- short of having two sound cards -- where you can have Ventrillo voice chat through any kind of headphones, while at the same time having entirely seperate streaming radio playing to speakers through the audio out port on the laptop? She's open to any kind of headphones or any streaming audio software which would support this. Failing this... is there a good, simple, ideally non-invasive workaround to add a second sound card to a laptop?

Cassette-to-PC audio troubles

greatgefilte — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 18:57:33 -0800

Recording from cassette tapes to PC...why does it sound all weird? So I went and bought a used cassette player today to try to transfer some old cassettes over to the PC. I've everything hooked up correctly, and the levels are fine. Indeed, when I press play on the tape player, I can hear the tape through the headphones connected to the PC. But when I try recording (in Tracktion, AVS Audio Utilities, and Sound Recorder), the volume seems to shift up and down cyclically. Here's a sample. What am I doing wrong?

USB audio latency problems?

waxbanks — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 12:28:51 -0800

How big a problem is USB microphone latency for multitrack musical recording? i.e. How difficult will it be to do tight vocal overdubs with a straight-to-USB mic? What about with a mic->XLR->USB interface->Mac setup? I'm home-studio shopping, starting with a mic; I like the sound (and especially the price!) of the Samson C01U/C01, the former a USB mic, the latter a standard XLR-out mic. I'm going to do vocal/acoustic overdubs in Garageband/Logic on my Mac, and some MIDI nonsense. I gather that I won't be able to directly monitor my vocal performances without a USB/FireWire interface, as USB mic->Garageband->headphones monitoring will result in a maddening latency/echo effect. With a USB/FireWire interface I'll be able to monitor my own performance ('sidetone') before it's sent to the Mac, so that's OK.

So what I'm seeking is reassurance that, all else being equal, I'll be able to synchronize performance through USB audio devices (mics interfaces) as easily as through a FireWire interface. What I'm afraid of is that I'll make a recording, overdub a track, and then have to tweak the overdubbed track some number of milliseconds because the USB cable slowed my musicthaumaturgy down.

Bonus question: are the wicked-cheap Behringer mixers any good?

Side note: as happened with the Internet around 1993-95, the home studio market and discursive realm seems to be flooding with idiots uninterested in learning the technical ins-n-outs required to do a task up right. I hope/think I'm not that; I'd like to become proficient in home recording and audio-tweaking, given time and sufficient income. But I'm starting at rock bottom here, and still getting a sense of how serious these technical requirements of this pastime are, so please bear with me.

PC Audio Feedback 4 Life?

hermitosis — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 13:38:31 -0800

Can you help me with my PC audio woes? This high-pitched whine isn't just coming from me... I loaned my computer to a friend for a couple of months, and having just gotten it back, I've noticed something is wrong with my sound. When my speakers are plugged in, I get a high-pitched frequency whistle, and when anything plays it's all crackly.

I tried plugging the speaker jack into both different audio outlets (there's one on the front, one on the back), to no avail. Then, in case it was a problem with speakers or their jack, I tried a pair of headphones-- exact same problem. So apparently no matter what device I plug in, or which outlet, the sound persists.

No new software has been installed, everthing seems just as it was when I last had the computer in my possession. It's a Gateway PC. Is there anything I can try, or is a connection inside knocked loose or something, possibly in transport?

Hope someone can help. Thanks!

How do I play music throughout my home on 2 stereo systems attached to a Powerbook G4 and WinXP Desktop, repsectively?

fearless_yakov — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 09:54:59 -0800

Help me fill my home with music: I want to play my iTunes library over two separate home stereo systems at the same time. What's the easiest, cheapest way to do this? (My apologies if this has been asked before; I searched every post tagged with "music" and "wireless" and couldn't find exactly what I was looking for -- perhaps it's out there and I'm just too dumb to know it when I see it.)

I live in a loft -- it's a big, open room (i.e., there's no way I can conceal long runs of wiring). I have 2 sets of speakers connected to amps / receivers on opposite sides of the loft. I want to play music on all of them, together.

Ok, here's my setup:

1. Powerbook / B&W / T-amp
Powerbook G4 (houses the master iTunes library), connected to...
Sonic Impact T-amp (via stereo mini-plug), connected to...
B&W bookshelf speakers.

2. Desktop / Onkyo / B&W
Windows XP desktop (running iTunes), connected to...
Onkyo 6.1 receiver, connected to...
B&W floorstanding speakers / surrounds.

Both the Powerbook and Desktop are connected to my network, which runs through a cable modem attached to a Linksys WRT54g router.

SO: How do I play music from the "master" iTunes library (on the Powerbook) through all the speakers at the same time?

Other posts mention Soundbridge and Roku and Airport Xpress a lot. Do I really need to buy new equipment to accomplish this? -- or is what I have enough already? (Mega bonus points if your answer says "You don't need to buy anything." Minor bonus points if your answer says "You need to buy something, but it costs < $100. absolutely no points at all if your answer requires me to spend> $300.)

I realize I can share my iTunes libraries, but this doesn't allow me to play the same thing simultaneously on both systems, does it?

Finally, I've considered moving the "master" iTunes library to a large external HD. Would this help or hurt what I'm trying to accomplish?

Finally: When it comes to networking, I'm a dumbass. Sorry. If your answer says something like "Just tunnel through the whatever with VNC client and open a port and..." you can assume you have immediately lost me.

Thanks in advance!

Voices in my PC

hoppytoad — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 14:53:39 -0800

My PC is literally trying to tell me something Occasionally, I'll hear someone's voice coming through my speakers when I'm not running anything that would produce sound. The voices are faint, and remind me of the few times I've overheared part of another conversation while on the phone.

Maybe my PC is possessed, or just really old and senile, but I suspect it's infected. My search for answers hasn't been very fruitful because the keywords I'm using are too generic as I'm not sure how to describe this behavior more specifically. If anyone has heard of anything similar, or could provide some troubleshooting tips, I'd appreciate it.

I'm running on a 5 year old Dell with Windows XP Home. Probably a good time to upgrade, but I'm curious about what may be causing this.

Is there an audio PVR for PC?

phirleh — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 06:05:02 -0800

What would be a good software audio PVR to record an internet stream or line-in on a PC? I'm looking for a combo of Audio Hijack and Radio Shark to record audio broadcasts at specific times of the day.

sound advice

grumblebee — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 09:47:51 -0800

My PC is in the living room. I want to be able to listen to iTunes in the kitchen and the bedroom. I have a linksys router, if that helps. What sort of setup works best for this? Wireless speakers? Which ones. I mostly listen to talk radio and audio books, so I don't need amazing sound. I would love a relatively cheap (under $200) solution.

Electronic music production tools?

gentle — Sun, 20 Mar 2005 00:08:45 -0800

ClickCutCrunchFilter. I'm an amateur musician who wants to start producing electronic music on my PC. I'm into glitchy, crunchy, clicky, organic-sounding electronic music -- think Mouse on Mars, Autechre, Sasha, Apparat, Dntel, Ellen Allien, etc., the type of grungy yet warm industrial-influenced electronica that's coming out of Europe these days. I'm not at all interested in the classic clean Casio synth sound. If anything I want to mess with and warp the sound like so much crepe paper.

I suspect that the choice of VSTi-based synthesizers is less important than the various effects processors and filters and doodads and gizmos and machines that go ping that I can use to sculpt the sound. Do these artists use tools specifically designed to mash up and clickify their stuff? In stage performances these tools seem to be available in small mysterious boxes with knobs and dials -- are there equivalent software boxes available?

I'm also interested in learning about which general-purpose production apps I should invest in. Reason, Cubase and Cakewalk seems to be the leading ones, but I'm not sure which would give me the most flexibility given the above.

Reason looks cool, but I feel I might not be in the target demographic: to me, emulating the look and feel (including rack cables!) of real-world instruments is a step backwards, since a software program could produce a much better user interface; for example, the drum machine that comes with Reason has a fixed number of beat slots, just like the real thing.

Modern-day Consumer Reports?

rwhe — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 18:18:14 -0800

Where do you go for product reviews and comparisons? I recently bought a bunch of audio and PC hardware with mixed results. Consumer Reports is outdated, Epinions reviews are quite thin on the ground, and Amazon is trying to sell you everything. Google? Ha! Thousands of links to people with little "stores" fronting for Amazon...