Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with audio and recording

Can I have my own black box?

tiamat — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:39:22 -0800

Is there such as thing as a personal audio recorder that has a rolling 'black box' feature where hitting the record button will start recording now, but also save the previous X minutes of recording data? I work in a job where it's often necessary to record conversations, and sometimes by the time you know you want to you've already missing something, which then causes a bit of a stilted pause as you get the recorder going and ask someone to repeat that last bit.....

So,

Is there an audio recorder that I could keep in my pocket, running all the time, which would only actually save data if I hit the button?

I've hit Google, but I'm not sure my terms are correct.

Thanks!

(and for the privacy nuts out there, don't worry, this is very legal in the context I do it.)

Many iPhones, One recording?

davereed — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:14:39 -0800

Audio/mobile phone idea/question: I was at my kid's band concert recently, trying to record some of it for Grandma. I only thought of it after we got there so I was using my iPhone. Not a bad recorder, but it's hand held. It picks up me moving in my seat, people fidgeting, etc. Why isn't there an app/service where I could record the concert on my less-than-professional-equipment, and a bunch of OTHER Dads and Moms record the same thing from other vantage points (with other noise!) then put 'em all together subtract the noise and end up with a beautifull, clear, stereo recording. With the iphone's bluetooth/wifi/gps the iphones should be able to figure out where they are relative to each other. Is the doable? Am I nuts? Does it already exist?

How do they fix performance glitches when doing post-production on "live" recordings?

Joe Beese — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:18:09 -0800

How do they fix performance glitches when doing post-production on "live" recordings? Assuming that they don't have multiple performances to splice together, how do they correct a singer's pitch or fix an instrumentalist's late entrance?

If they simply record a new part in the studio, how do they approximate the venue's acoustics?

What is the best Electronic News Gathering microphone for my Zoom H4n on a $150 budget? Also, critique suggestions I've already received.

DumbPoet — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:37:34 -0800

What is the best Electronic News Gathering microphone for my Zoom H4n on a $150 budget? Also, critique suggestions I've already received. I decided to purchase the H4n after this post, which nearly changed my mind.

Now I'm looking for the perfect starting microphone to round out my kit.

Priorities

Price: $150 or less

Purpose: Conducting interviews in locations ranging from very noisy (Stadium crowd) to very quite (office). The mic will serve as my vocal track while I collect ambient noise with the H4n's onboard mics.

Style: Cardiod or Shotgun, dynamic or phantom powered.

Advice I've Received So Far

"If I could only have one microphone, it would be hard to decide between my MD46 and ME66, which are the two I probably use the most. I think for audio-only reporting (where you're not worried about whether the mic appears on camera), the MD46 would probably win. It's excellent, and durable, and you'll probably still be using it 30 years from now if you stay involved in the business.

Now in all fairness, I should say that the Sennheiser E835 is almost exactly the same microphone as the MD46; acoustically and electronically they are pretty much identical. The only real difference is that the MD46 is physically longer and heavier, and therefore it is easier to use as a hand-held interviewing mic. But either one would work fine from a sound perspective, and the E835 is a lot cheaper, even more so if you can share the cost of a 3-pack with a couple of your friends."

Is the Sennheiser E835 really that similary to the MD64? If so, do the E8* series (The e845, for instance) grow in quality for my purposes as their series number rises?

Webcam recording softwrae

gocubbies — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:36:47 -0800

I need to record myself giving a presentation for school. My laptop has a built in webcam and microphone. What free Windows software would you recommend for this task?

Recover corrupted audio file?

roaring beast — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:42:49 -0800

Can I recover this corrupted audio file (wma)? I recorded it on my handheld digital recorder (Olympus WS-100). It recorded fine, but then it disappeared on the handset. Then when I plugged it into USB and downloaded it, it wouldn't open.

I understand that this happens sometimes with this recorder. Is there any hope in recovering it? I put the file online here (13 mb): http://drop.io/2r64v6o#

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Best digital audio recording device for elderly people?

1001 questions — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 10:27:10 -0800

Best digital audio recording device for elderly people? I'd like to start recording some family history via digital audio devices. The recording will be done by the person speaking so I'd like to find one that is fairly simply to operate.

Some requirements:

- Easy to make recordings (i.e. no super tiny buttons that are hard to figure out).
- Doesn't matter if it's "hard" to delete a recording as they can just avoid doing deletions.
- Non-removable storage might be fine (they could simply mail me the device) but there needs to be a method for me to download the files to a Mac. Removable storage would be preferred though.
- Ability to make/record lengthy files (i.e. an hour or more).
- Decent sound quality. It doesn't have to be pro-quality audio, but on the other hand I want a fair amount of clarity. I imagine most (or all) of the recordings will take place in a fairly quiet interior location, so the device's mic will likely be used. If sound quality results are poor (or if it's easier for the person speaking) I may get an external mic.

Other options I have tossed out:

- Using a video camera. May be used in the future for scheduled interviews, but not worth the hassle for on-the-spot memory recordings when the speaker is worried about how they look.
- Recording via phone (either to voice mail or during a conversation being recorded on the other end). Sound quality is a bit lower (especially if they are using a cell phone). Recording phone conversations have their place, but it's not what I'm going for here.
- Recording to a pc. Not too convenient as they'd have to boot it up, sit in a certain spot, etc. A cheap laptop may work better, but then there are user interface issues.

I've read some past threads/questions about digital audio recorders, but they are from some years ago and I know a host of newer equipment has some out since then. So what are some good devices to look at?

Looking for a way to take notes without writing.

ComeUndone — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:58:17 -0800

A friend of mine is starting college next month, and she has been diagnosed with dysgraphia (from what I understand, it hinders her ability to write and organize ideas quickly). She'll have a laptop with her in all of her classes, and I'm looking for some kind of solution that will allow her to take some form of notes without it being a huge problem. Ideally, I'd like to find a program that could record lectures and then transcribe them from speech to text. But, I'm assuming that the quality wouldn't be very consistent. If that's not a possibility, is there a program or solution that you've seen that will let you take voice recordings, and then have them be organized by date, subject, class, etc? In my mind, I was hoping for something that organizes all the clips and then lets her search later by tags. Does something like this even exist? Free is good, but if there's a much better solution for a cost, then that's fine too. Any help or anecdotes about your personal experience with that kind of software would be appreciated.

Where can I get an mbox driver for Windows Vista?

KevinSkomsvold — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 16:40:58 -0800

Is it possible to get an mbox (not mbox 2) to work in Vista without ProTools LE? Is it possible to find a USB driver for this mbox and Vista? I've used ProTools and hate it with a white-hot hate. I'd like to use this mbox (made in 2001) with Vista 64. Am I SOL?

Should I buy a suspension mount for my Blue Snowball microphone?

Ian A.T. — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 06:27:33 -0800

I'm about to start recording an audiobook / podcast. I've settled on Blue's Snowball microphone, and thanks to previous questions here I know that a pop filter is vital. Should I also buy the Snowball's suspension mount? I'll be recording with the microphone on my desk or possibly my kitchen table. On my desk is an external hard drive, which I'll of course be unplugging during recording, though I should point out that my desk backs up to an exterior wall. I'll also be the only speaker on the recording, if that matters.

It's not terribly expensive and there are bundles available, so I don't mind spending the extra money if it'll improve the quality of my recording. Will it?

Multitrack Recording, and also Drum Input

Maximian — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:19:03 -0800

I need some help upgrading a PC for better multitrack recording, and also selecting a decent piece of equipment for recording drum input. 1) I'm currently using an older PC for multitrack recording. It's a 1.2 GHz Athlon machine with 512M of RAM and an older soundcard (old Aureal vortex). It works ok (barely) for a few tracks, but the latency is troublesome (requires manual correction later) and has difficulty with more tracks. What would be the most economical way to upgrade this setup? Should I completely rebuild the machine, or would a higher-quality soundcard (maybe one with a separate processing unit / breakout box) be better? I can spend a little money (less than $1k, alas), but I could really use some help figuring out the most constructive way to upgrade here.

2) Is there a space-efficient way of doing realistic drum input? I hate every electronic interface to inputting drums I've ever tried, and as a former drummer I really feel like I need something tactile. The ideal solution for me would be a full drum kit with mics, but obviously that's expensive, takes up a lot of space, and has noise issues. If I'm not going to get actual drums, then I'd just need something I can hit that generates MIDI signals. Don't need or want a drum machine. Recommendations? The stuff I've seen in music stores (Roland V-Drums, etc) is extremely expensive and overfeatured.

Need advice on rebuilding a stripped-down audio recording studio

digitalprimate — Thu, 21 May 2009 06:00:30 -0800

I want to (re)build a small, mostly digital studio in my office. I write and play mostly indy pop, typically using no more than 16 tracks with a mix of electronic and acoustic instruments. Although I have a ton of gear, most of that will remain in boxes. I'm going for a smallish singer/songwriter production suite. Here's what I plan on salvaging from my current gear:

- MacBook with 2g ram. Firewire 400 + USB2, writing to an external HD (more on that in the What I Need section)
- My Genelec 1032As midfield monitors
- My Mackie 1604EZ board
- An assortment of wide diaphram mics & instrument mics
- A metric assload of guitars, basses, keyboards, outboard effects & processors, and other random gear. I'll mostly use my J-45 and Tele for the guitars.
- My ASR-88 as my main keyboard interface

What I Need:

- A new I/O: two balanced in's are all I need.
- New HD recording and sequencing software: I've used Cubase, Logic and most recently ProTools. I'm a set it and forget it guy; when I'm recording I do NOT want to fuck around with configuration.
- New sample/synth software for sounds: mostly mainstream instruments like pianos and organs, basses, strings, the occasional vintage synth emulator.
- A new HD - I don't think it'll be a good idea to write to my dedicated Time Machine back up HD, no?

I've got $500 and Manny's in the city is going into liquidation until the end of May. Can it be done? What would you suggest? Old AskMe's don't really address my specific gear needs in relation to what I already have, and the latest one is over a year and a half old - an eternity in gear-years. Thanks in advance!

Help me rock harder than I already do.

crapples — Tue, 19 May 2009 15:32:20 -0800

Recording software/hardware filter: I wanna rock even harder than I already do... Give me some technical advise. My friend and I write and record music. We sell it online, and we have actually earned ourselves a fan or two. However, we have one major problem: The sound quality of our audio is just not up to snuff. We are a low-fi outfit, recording with a MacBook Pro, using Garageband as our mixer. We record into a microphones that cost about $50, and sometimes even into the MacBook Pro internal mic. We play mostly acoustic guitar, bass, sometimes keyboard, and of course there are vocals.

What would be the top one or two things that we should do to get a more professional sound? Is it the recording environment that makes the difference? The microphone? The Macbook? The software? All of the above? If we only have a little bit of money to spend and we want to improve the sound quality, what will get us the biggest bang for the buck?

Thanks!

Where can I buy DAT tapes in Chicago?

zadermatermorts — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:09:44 -0800

Anyone know where I can buy DAT tapes in Chicago on short notice? I find myself out of media, and I'm doing a recording session this weekend, so there's no time to order online. Apparently nobody uses DAT anymore, but we do for now and it works well for us.

I've tried Guitar Center, Decibel Audio, Promusica, and even Radio Shack.

Someone at Decibel told me he used to buy DAT tapes out of a vending machine at the School of the Art Institute but couldn't say exactly where it was.

Anyone have a source? Thanks.

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.

More than just learning Logic

tmcw — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:47:22 -0800

I'm recording an album in a studio, my first, and doing almost all of the recording / mixing / mastering myself. I want to get into this and do it right. Are there any blogs about this? I love-love-love watching in-studio videos of bands and producers talking about how they did various things on various albums. I don't care about / have already seen the various "oh boy a shiny $500 fm synthesizer which makes buzzes" blogs. What can I read that will get me more familiar with the techniques/speak/culture of this whole mishmash?

Thx!

(and, if it matters, the album is indie rock. two guitars, a synth, two vocals, bass, drums, that's pretty much it)

electronica just doesn't do it for me

kidsleepy — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 16:32:30 -0800

How can I create my own Couch to 5K running podcast? I'm starting the Couch to 5K program and I want to make my own podcast/music track to listen to. All I need is to combine some music tracks together into one long mp3 and record some vocal cues at the appropriate times (start running, start walking). What's a simple way to do this? (I'm on a Mac, with iTunes, if it matters)

Group podcasts on the cheap?

chrominance — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 19:06:40 -0800

Researching cheap and cheerful equipment (mics, mixers, etc.) for recording podcasts. The caveat: there will be several people in the podcast. There are a bunch of guides that say it's really cheap to get started with podcasts, and a lot of them recommend USB mics of varying sorts (the Blue Snowball and the Samson C01U seem to be mentioned a lot). But all these guides seem to assume your podcast will only have one speaker, and don't cover what you should get if you plan to have several people talking roundtable-style for a podcast.

The best options I could think of are a) buy an omnidirectional USB mic like the Snowball, or b) get a bunch of normal mics and a mixer. Asking a guy at the local music store led to a discussion of $400 USB mixers, though, which suddenly seems like a lot once you buy three or four mics to go along with it. We don't know if the podcast is going to be all that successful or gain a regular audience, and $700+ seems like a lot of money to spend on something that's far from a sure thing.

On the other hand, I've read comments that suggest the Snowball's omni mode is little more than a novelty unless everyone leans in really closely. Plus I'm worried about it picking up room noise that cardioid mics would cut down on. So maybe this isn't the answer either.

Are there any solutions, preferably less than $500 (and the lower the better!) that would allow three or four people to put together a podcast that sounds, if not amazing, at least decent? Or should we just bite the bullet and splash out for the mixer and mics when (if) we have the dough?

Continuous recordings

Brennus — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 10:40:01 -0800

I'm looking for standalone devices to continuously record video and/or audio. I would like to record while biking and when the memory is full automatic overwrite should occur. I.e. I always want to have the last X minutes of the recording ready in case something interesting happens. Anybody know of an affordable solution for this?

How much does a professional music producer cost?

dcruzin — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 22:24:38 -0800

What's the price range for a professional music producer for a rock band? We're looking at working with one producer but want to be sure we're getting a good deal. Are there any questions/features we should be asking the producer about to make sure we're getting a good deal? Right now he's telling us it's about $1500-$2000 per song, is that the going rate? We're a band based in Seattle and looking at working with a local producer through a friend of ours.

We're going to ask him about any additional costs like mastering, but since we've never worked with a producer before we want to make sure to ask him the right questions and cover our bases.

Any experiences/advice is welcome. Thanks!

Recording decent audio with a lousy digicam

SamuelF — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 06:56:06 -0800

We're taking a road trip from Boston to Michigan this weekend, and would like to record some video along the way, just for fun. Problem is, we've got a cheap digicam with a lousy built-in mic. How can we record audio (two people talking, mostly) on the übercheap? Our digicam - Aiptek A-HD - has enough trouble recording audio normally, but it's completely useless in a car. Everything gets drowned out by engine noise and static. There's no jack for an external mic, so I'd need some kind of external recorder that I can dump to a computer to sync with the video in post. Quality isn't a huge concern, and I'd like to keep it as cheap and simple as possible. Any digital audio recorder + cheap mic pairs? Recording advice? I'm completely inexperienced at this whole thing, so any information will be valuable. Thanks!

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

vernondalhart — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:43:43 -0800

I seem to be getting a regular ground hum-type noise when I record onto my Macbook. I have two older analog synths, both plugged into a mixer, which is then hooked up to the macbook.

Clearly, the noise is coming from the one synth: If it isn't plugged into the mixer, I get no noise; if it is, I get noise. However, if I plug headphones into either the synth or into the mixer, I don't get any noise; I can only hear it when I'm listening to the final result through the macbook.

Why is this? This doesn't seem to make much sense to me.

As an aside, it wouldn't be quite so bothersome if Audacity would be able to remove this noise; it's clearly a very regular ground-hum type noise; but if I get a noise profile from before recording, and use that to eliminate the noise, it doesn't do anything noticeable to the resulting audio.

Any ideas? I've tried using different cables, I've tried pluggin the synth directly into the macbook to no avail. It'd be nice to be able to record from the keyboard, but as it stands, I seem to be out of luck.

Help me be a one man band

jpdoane — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 16:51:07 -0800

I have been using JamStudio for a while now to quickly throw together backing tracks to practice guitar with. This website is great and highly recommended, but I now want something similar but which is more powerful/flexible, has better audio quality and variety, and which will integrate with my recording software (currently Cubase). Midi based would be perfect. I plan to use this mostly for practicing, but also for some recording. What I want is to simply define a chord progression and choose for a list of rhythm patterns in a variety of styles (rock, jazz, blues, etc - I am not interested in techno type stuff). I don't want to mess around with writing actual basslines and drum patterns (although having the option to do this would be fine). Free is great, but I don't mind spending a bit. Threshold of pain is ~$100 (although if you have a suggestion thats perfect but more $, I'd still like to hear about it)

I have Cubase LE 4, which comes with a bunch of Midi plugins, but everything I've seen requires you to program each note individually, and really aren't geared for auto-generating backing tracks. I also have ezDrummer , so drums are covered, and I basically I want the same thing for guitar and bass (or at least just bass). I've seen this, but it seems way overkill, (used to) cost $286, and appears to be discontinued.

Digital noise recording to Mac Pro

wubbie — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 19:24:44 -0800

I'm trying to record audio on my Mac Pro from a hardware source using the digital Line In on the Mac, but am only getting "digital noise" as the recording. I'm trying to record audio from a hardware source (in this case, an Xbox 360) by hooking up the Xbox's digital Audio Out to the Mac Pro's digital Line In via optical cable.

However, when I set the Mac's Input to Digital In and record, only noise is recorded (it's a loud, fast-tempo clicking sound, like a baseball card flapping in a bicycle spoke.)

I've tried recording with a few different apps, including Audacity, Garageband, and Audio Hijack Pro, all with the same result.

The strange thing is that Audio Hijack's preview (and a shareware app like LineIn's) passthrough "preview" of the input is fine. I can hear the audio source from the Xbox 360 playing through the Mac, but the recording is still just digital noise, with no sign of the actual audio intended to be recorded.

Is there some reason this shouldn't work? Do I need to use specific frequency settings for the recording? Is there some sort of "protection" in OS X (or 360) in place to prevent this sort of recording? Or is it a bug in the Mac Pro and/or OS X?

Lado A / Lado B

kowalski — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:42:48 -0800

Where can I find recordings of a voice saying "Side A" and "Side B" in Spanish, to reuse on a tape I'm making? I'll be satisfied to pull them out of larger audio if I need to, but my usually extensive capacity at google is failing me here. A tip of my hat to anyone with a suggestion!