some recording equipment

liquidsmoke · October 08, 2011, 06:30:46 PM

Do you have a DR-03?

The USB thing is good to know.

I'm just wondering if some of these types of units can be adjusted even lower for very loud sound sources or if they are all about the same. Even with a mic connected I can imagine the signal being too loud.

clockwork green · October 08, 2011, 07:42:54 PM

Put a couple or even just one mic overhead from the ceiling. If you want multiple mic's you can get a simple Behringer board and run them in there to a simple digital recorder that records it as mono or as a L and R track. That's what I'd like to do in our studio eventually. I wish the iPad was better with inputs but there are ways to even get this to work. I record stuff through an SM57 into my ipad which is kinda cool at home.

liquidsmoke · October 08, 2011, 10:15:39 PM

Quote from: clockwork green on October 08, 2011, 07:42:54 PM
Put a couple or even just one mic overhead from the ceiling.

This would be lower input? I have an SM57 but not a condenser, I've never thought of a 57 as a whole room type mic.

Hemisaurus · October 09, 2011, 12:21:07 AM

The overloading is the mic, not the gain. The sound pressure is moving the mic beyond it's limits, so the only cures are to either reduce the nose level to the mic, either by distance, or swaddlng it, or use an external mic that can handle high sound pressures, like a 57.

If you can't find a way to make the 57 cover the whole room, there is a way to change the pattern of the mic capsule to be omnidirectional, you have to block the small holes at the back of the mic capsule, with glue or caulk. Check tapeop.com

liquidsmoke · October 09, 2011, 01:14:15 AM

I need my 57 for cab recording so I don't think I want to mod it but if I can get the right connectors to hook it up to my Tascam I'll give it a go.

jibberish · October 10, 2011, 04:37:44 AM

imo, if you plan on having a computer in there, use an existing mixer and run the monitor or whatever RCA output jacks it has into the sound card's line in. a femaleRCAstereo->1/8"stereo mini jack from radioshaft and any old RCA cable is all you need for connectivity.

If the pc will be a dedicated music pc, maybe invest 50-100 in a righteous soundcard vs onboard one if anything, but probably not necessary.

you can plug everything in like normal and use the mixer to select what you are recording, so if you want full mic'd drums ok, same ole same ole and so on. you know like recording off the mixer at a show, except into a pc. zero investment beyond a $4 adapter for an initial try.

strangelight · October 10, 2011, 08:29:12 AM

if you don't want to lug your desktop into the space for practice, see if one of your bandmates has a laptop he can bring. then just get an audio interface and plug your 57 into it, hang it from the ceiling, tada. you can get supercheap AIs if you're only looking for one or two inputs.

liquidsmoke · October 10, 2011, 01:20:49 PM

I probably should have just bought a used laptop for like $70 but now that I've got this Tascam I'll look for a mic adapter cable and try that route.

RAGER · October 10, 2011, 02:41:02 PM

i think you can get Zoom H4's for less than $100 nowadays. Mine works perfectly for practice.

jibberish · October 10, 2011, 10:26:51 PM

Quote from: strangelight on October 10, 2011, 08:29:12 AM
if you don't want to lug your desktop into the space for practice, see if one of your bandmates has a laptop he can bring. then just get an audio interface and plug your 57 into it, hang it from the ceiling, tada. you can get supercheap AIs if you're only looking for one or two inputs.

original premise: [sic]"..plan on having a computer in there.."

ya, so it seems like all the add-on stuff that CAN be added to a PC CHEAPLY, would be a logical 1st go. nothing lost if you dont like it.
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IMO, everyone should own a small mixer with USB stereo out plus the regular outs. You will use it for everything in place of everything else.

Practice, experimenting, multi mic things, small shows, recording demos or with a DAW recording nice shit ..a track at a time, even adding channels to an existing rig like at a jam..did it heh one mixer can go into a channel of another mixer. It will become soo central to all you do and ez2 lug being the size of a laptop or w/e

liquidsmoke · October 11, 2011, 12:25:38 AM

This is all great and makes sense however the idea here is one mic into something cheap and super portable to record practices so I can review and see how we are sounding and maybe play it for a few people. As long as I can hear all the the sound sources and nothing is clipping I'm good. Demos will come later and be multi-tracked with much better gear of course.

edit: my cell phone charger does power the Tascam and I am very happy about that.

jibberish · October 11, 2011, 05:48:05 AM

so is the PC part of this or not?

makes a big difference. starting with zero, those little zooms etc, would be needed to actually record.
starting with PC you only need input like usb mic or mixer you already have etc.

ANY hi impedance mic ->female1/4"->1/8"mono mini male adapter-> mic in on soundcard

liquidsmoke · October 14, 2011, 10:31:06 PM

No pc.

Hooked my SM57 up to the unit and it's working good. I should probably be using a condenser but I'm not going to spend the money. Sounding pretty good so far.

chille01 · October 14, 2011, 11:39:04 PM

I used to use a couple of 58's (one near the drummer, one near the amps), into a small mixer, into a regular old VCR. VCR tape works just fine for recording audio, and you can fit 6 hours on it if you want. Of course, a regular cassette deck or any other recording device would do the same job.

jibberish · October 15, 2011, 01:06:44 AM

Quote from: chille01 on October 14, 2011, 11:39:04 PM
I used to use a couple of 58's (one near the drummer, one near the amps), into a small mixer, into a regular old VCR. VCR tape works just fine for recording audio, and you can fit 6 hours on it if you want. Of course, a regular cassette deck or any other recording device would do the same job.

vcr has a superb stereo track. quite hi-fidelity. great call. mega recording hours for dirt if you can find an old stack of vcr tapes

liquidsmoke · October 15, 2011, 03:59:44 AM

I always thought somebody should make an 8 track recorder that used VCR tapes. I have no idea if you could use the whole width of each side of the tape for audio though. Would eat cassette's recording quality for lunch.

Hemisaurus · October 15, 2011, 06:22:14 AM

It was called an ADAT

VCR had two methods of recording audio, earlier VHS the audio track was linear and fairly low quality because of the slow tape speed, Hi-Fi VHS striped the audio along with the video. Betamax always striped the audio, and was HQ from the start.

ADAT striped digital information like an 8 track DAT machine.

If you were going to make a linear recording machine out of a VCR, with an eight channel headstack, you might want to step up the tape speed from 1.32 ips.

liquidsmoke · October 15, 2011, 12:52:36 PM

Analog and high speed of course.