andrewhall

This is a very interesting discussion - I'd like to see more on the subject aside from the issue of the attenuator. Dex wrote (up top) "Also, using 'high sens' adds quite a bit of preamp noise even if you are using low manual-set levels." Is there any advantage to using low sensitivity at a high setting - say 28 - 30 versus high sensitivity at a lower setting? Unlike most of the above discussion I generally am recording quiet to very quiet sounds. Andrew

On soundcards - I recommend that you do not go with Creative. I have heard (from my partners son who is a musician / recording geek) that mAudio tends to be well priced and high quality. Andrew

What are windsocks made out of? I was wondering if burying a small mike in a washing up sponge or perhaps something like a chainsaw air filter (open cell sponge) would make a reasonable substitute. Or another line of thought was something like a thin walled plastic drinks bottle with a sock over it? Any suggestions from the do-it-yourselfers? Andrew Maybe I should add some advice Reactive gave me in an email: ******************************************************* "If you can create a sphere or a cylinder that mounts over the microphone, and yet still gives at least one inch of dead air around the microphone you will have made the perfect wind sock. Materials such as steel flyscreen covered with fleece work well, even fake fur as it tends to slow the wind down as it slides over the material." Gerry Bolda Reactive Technologies, Inc.

As an update I've ordered a pair of auris mikes from Reactive Sounds (great customer support), can't wait to try it out, maybe I will post some recordings once they come in and we've worked out how to get a good sound from them.. Andrew

Hope this belongs in here. What do you recommend for editing software. I don't do anything particularly fancy, mostly single track but a little bit more sometimes - up to say 3 track, cutting bits in and out. I would like reasonable processing / effects capability - again nothing special I am not trying to create electonic music, just render the music we play as accurately and beautifully as possible. To date I have been using the wrong tools for sure. Adobe Premier (a video editor) to mix audio tracks and Sound Forge XP 4.5 to do basic effects. My end goal is good quality CD's of 'unplugged' music. What do you recomend? Andrew

Thanks for the replies - that looks exactly what I need Kurisu I'll see if I can get one locally today. Really appreciate the help Andrew

I want to record some of my phone conversations. I know it sounds questionable but here's the story. I live in New Zealand and my mother lives almost exactly opposite me on the globe in Spain. She's 82. She's on her own. My father died a few years ago and my sister who lives in England has cut off from her. More and more I find myself appreciating her wonderful resilience and the way she handles her old age and her stories and her love for life. I want to capture some of it while I can. I've been thinking about this for ages but I need to get my act into gear and actually do it. I was thinking I could probably do something with my modem to make it act as a normal phone (I know you can also make internet based calls but that isn't a good option in this situation) and to route the telephone sound through the PC. But I haven't worked out how. Or maybe it is easier to find a phone that allows me plug in headphones and use a splitter to the HiMD (assuming there are such things). I imagine this is all very obvious to someone here - can anyone make a suggestion to point me in a sensible and workable direction. Thanks Andrew

Hi Des Thanks for that - your answer got me thinking- maybe binaurals are exactly what I am looking for. I want the sound of the birds and the wind in the trees and the insects like I hear them when I walk around here. I turn my head and the orientation changes and the sound is coming from all around me. Maybe even with speakers binaurals will do that better than a more forward oriented mike (which I have anyway). I also want to be able to record my voice, so I can talk as I walk ometimes, but I think that does not matter so much from the stereo effect point of view. Andrew

I am using SS 2.2. I live right out in the country (New Zealand) and am on a very slow modem but one of these nights I will upgrade. I have a completely uptodate version of AVG, update my virus database daily, and use Spybot. I do use W2K but it is up to date as far as virus protection goes. And I use Firefox for a browser. These days I tend to only connect when I am actually surfing so my HiMD transfer test was done when not connected at all. It doesn't matter that much, I can work around it, but it would certainly be nice to have a faster transfer. Thanks for the replies Andrew PS I am giving Housecall a spin right now :-)

I'm still trying to take all this great info in. I also want to record ambient sounds - mostly around my farm eg birds, trees rustling etc. From my reading I was put off the true binaurals due to their apparently not producing good sound for speakers. I am an artist and this may end up as part of dvd delivered multi-media artwork. Is this speaker thing a real concern and if so is there a good alternativel you would recommend. I was looking yesterday at that site that sells semi-binaurals recommended on the quiet american site but those mikes were a bit expensive for me ($450+), but I don't mind something in the 100 - 200 range. I'd also like them to serve ok for recording conversation. They will not have to deal with very loud sounds but they shoudl deal with very low sound levels ok since where I live it is very very quiet. Andrew

Lol, my mileage seems to be varying a lot, this is one track (only one on disc), a 1Gb HiMD disc, nothing else on the particular USB slot and nothing else operating on any other USB slot though a printer is connected. I use the same slot for downloading images from my 20D camera (compact flash) and it runs at around 8 Mbytes / second. Thanks for the suggestion though. I have one idea, I'll report back if it solves the problem. Andrew

I've just bought a NH700 and am mostly very happy with it. But I am surprised at how slow the PCM quality transfer seems to be. I did a test recording of 45 minutes and it took 30 minutes to transfer. I have a 2.4 GHz Athlon, 2 Gb RAM and fast HDD's, W2K. I think I read dex Otaku saying it shold be around 3x rather than 1.3x. It is not just this particular track I noticed the same with my initial 4 tests. Am I doing something wrong? Andrew

This is interesting and relevant to my recording situation. Would you mind clarifying for this newbie what a 'powered mike' is? I am currently using a Sony MS957 which has a little battery in it - I presume that is not what you are talking about? Andrew

"I hope you're not on dialup. " I need to upgrade also and I am on a very slow dialup - about 1 hour / 10 Mb. Is there any reason this will not work with an overnight download? Andrew

Thanks a lot for that bjsilva, very helpful, I will try it. The room we use is a small hall, good sound but a little too resonant / echoey. I bought my HiMD today, NH700 - I am very pleased with the quality of my initial tests. Andrew PS John, would you mind explaining that bit about the plate for the base strings and the imaginary line again I am having trouble working out what exactly you mean. Thanks :-)

Thanks Kuriso (and Reactive) - I did read that thread last night :-) , and also another thread from a singer who used piano backing - which did discuss mike placement as well though coming to different conclusions, but thought it might be worth asking a direct question for my specific situation... and then there's the kitchen sink I threw in at the end. Yeh for clasical a digital piano doesn't come close really, my partner has a Kawai grand she has trucked round with her for the last 25 years - all over Australia and New Zealand. Andrew

Hi, I've found some threads which talk about recording piano but to ask the question directly. I am planning to buy a Sony NH 900 (hope I got that right, HiMd) and want to record my partner who plays superb classical piano. I have a Sony ecm ms957 mike. Is this an ok mike for the intended use. I find one of the more important requirements is being able to handle the silences as much as the loud bits, background hiss kills a recording. I also want to record my own guitar playing (acoustic) and singing but I guess that anything that can handle the piano will do fine with the guitar. Related questions- what about mike leads - do they need to be short or are long ones better to get the HiMd, the piano and the mike well separated. Also, is recording straight into the HiMD OK or would I be much better to use a preamp of some sort? Sorry about the kitchen sink range of questions, I've been using an old DAT recorder for a while taking the mike direct but it is pretty worn out and I am not happy with the quality (part of the problem being my sound card) - wanting to aim for semething the really works this time. My objective CD quality recording. Andrew