Recording live for podcasting

[ratbagradio]

Since I've learnt to hate two things:

1.Recording at the computer

2.Using Sonic Stage

This forum put me onto using the Griffin Imic and I now simply re-record my audio direct from my MD to my computer. Theres' hardly a sound floor to get concerned about (and my computer is noisy ) . Of course that would work with old MD as well as new HiMD technology.

With the IMic I get a slim record line in my dB Waveform silences -- except for the occasional background noise.

IMic came with Audacity for editing and recording and since I'm a dedicated Audacity user,anyway, it was an easy interface.(By the way, I suggest the new Audacity still in beta -- some great features for moving around your edit)

I know I've talked about this elsewhere but the whole process has streamlined my podcast production and improved the quality of the audio product because I can concentrate on my edit. Previously it was a real drudge having to face Sonic Stage upload , transpose to WAV, amalgamate all the annoying audio snippets the MD supplies you with, edit, compression to Mp3 and publish. Now it's: IN > EDIT > COMPRESS > PUBLISH. I don't have GAIN issues even with two mics in use on a recording. Theres' no clipping. Compared to me speaking into a computer mic at the pc(with no use of MD tech): this is a sweet sound indeed.

I review my setup here .

But it seems to me that what is not recognised so readily with MD technology is that it is a bona fide portable recording studio -- a miniature package -- that can be customized so readily, especially for talk. In contrast podcasters seem to be erring on the side of complicated rigs or a lifestyle sentenced to be chained to the computer.

So let's hear it for pragmatism...

[A440]

Glad your setup works for you, but it seems rather time-consuming.

If I remember, your problem was all the track marks inserted by the unit during line-in recording.

You could get rid of them on the unit. Play the recording, Pause after track mark,

Then you can upload and convert the whole thing. Just make sure you have SonicStage 3.4 or above, since tracks recombined on the unit made for buggy uploads before that.

[ratbagradio]

Glad your setup works for you, but it seems rather time-consuming.

You could get rid of them on the unit. Play the recording, Pause after track mark, << so it says Mark xx, hit the Track button, track mark removed. And on to the next one. It gets a little tedious with a lot of marks, but it's probably much shorter than realtime recording.

No it's not. I can end up with 15 plus track marks in the one recording session.(Due to my own record switch offs and the silences in dialogue ). My approach is much easier and not tedious at all. I simply plug the MD recorder into the iMic/PC -- and walk away to come back after my total session time to switch it off.

I can watch the PC screen from across the room to see when the dB waves stop forming. As soon as I switch the Audacity RECORD off the program saves a backup file.Since the audio was supposed to go into Audacity for editing anyway its a straightforward exercise with, I concede, a trade off on quality as I'm recording twice. I'm sure that flattens a few acoustic elements but since my target is Mp3 format -- well who can hear that in the final product?.

But since I'm handling voice and not music the scale of the trade off is not significant.

So time wise this is faster than you suggest with the rigmarole of << and xx etc. Doing it in the PC by combining tracks is really cumbersome so I don't recommend that at all.

I usually compress to 98 kbps but I find with MD I have enough room to go down to 32 kbps for lectures and monologues without a marked or self evident collapse in quality. Thats' one of the beauties of starting off with a crisp MD recording

With Audacity(in beta anyway) the track marking system is pretty straightforward to use and I can then mark the complete audio on my first run through before I start moving segments around and deleting what I don't want. So I introduce my own editing marks -- not Sony -- within a graphic interface (whereas it's all text on the MD recorder).Much easier.

So I'm saying that as soon as you can get the audio in one complete whole into a editing program you're ahead -- especially as you can add labels as the audio is recorded in Audacity.

The problem is that if you wanted to archive that project you have a big file to store on your computer -- as you have transcended the disc format by doing it this way and , in effect, replicated what you have on your mini disc anyway. But as I say, I'm on a race to achieve mp3 status ASAP with as much quality as I can manage so the incidentals are stages on that route.

[A440]

No it's not. I can end up with 15 plus track marks in the one recording session.(Due to my own record switch offs and the silences in dialogue ).

OK, I know I'm not gonna dissuade you, but simply removing 15 track marks should take 5 minutes at most. Three or four clicks per track mark.

I fully agree that combining tracks on the computer with SonicStage is not the way to go.

I live in New York City. When I go to concerts I make track marks during applause, but sometimes I miss the right spot, or the next song intro comes too soon, etc. I can usually fix all the edits--removing track marks, listening to the transitions, adding new ones--on the subway ride home. You don't even have to listen and judge with your recordings--just remove them. So it should be pretty quick. Seriously, try it.