Recording Live Comedy - Help!

[SketchEtch]

I am a comedian and I am jumping head first into the MiniDisc world today. I am picking up a Hi-MD MZ-NHF800 later today as i have researched and believe it will do everything I need it to. I will be recording comedy shows through the house system at various comedy clubs.

My questions is how do I do this? Some house systems have a line out of their system I can use, and some have a headphone out I can use. What's the difference? Do I use the line in or mic in on the MD unit? What's the difference?

I will also be experimenting with recording with a lapel mic I picked up, but this isn't crucial right now.

Once someone answers my line out/headphone out and line in/mic in questons, I think I will be good to go.

From what I understand, I should record is PCM mode which is the best quality, then play the files through USB using SoundStage and capture them using Total Recorder or some other program (recommendations? is anything free?) and then I can edit the .wav file freely. Is all of this correct?

What good audio editing programs do you recommend? My goal is to make an audio CD worthy of selling.

Thanks for all your help in advance!

[A440]

You'll have to experiment with inputs and outputs, but it's most likely that both line-out and headphone-out should go into the Line In of the MD.

Mic-In has a dinky little preamp built into the MD to amplify the modest signal that comes through a microphone. Line-In assumes that the signal coming in is already amplified adequately, which it probably will be if it's coming out of a soundboard either as line-out or headphone out. If headphone out is too soft, try Mic-In, but it's unlikely. Line-In is a cleaner sound, so use it if at all possible.

You probably don't want to have someone sitting there with the MD trying to anticipate volume changes during your set. Try putting the MD on Auto Rec Level and see how it works. If the level of the recording changes too much, or if it's too loud and overloads, then switch to manual and try various levels. Something should work as a basic setting for all but the most extreme louds and softs.

Live music recordings are best with a mixture of soundboard and room sound, and probably comedy will be too--you want to hear those folks laughing. If you get a little mixer and a decent omni mic--put it above the crowd at the soundboard on a stick--you could mix soundboard and room sound together. Your lapel mic might sound unnaturally close, but it might also be a good part of a mix--you'll have to try it and see.

You're right about using PCM for highest fidelity and then capturing it with a recording program, until Sony finally gets its act together and just lets us export files to the PC.

A good free audio recording and editing program is Audacity, http://audacity.sourceforge.net. You can make .wav recordings with it, check the Preferences. Total Recorder is only $12 or $40 (with more features in the Pro version).

Don't expect the first show to give you a perfect recording. But you'll get the hang of it fairly quickly.

[Funnlikethat]

I am in a similar situation. I have been recording my stand-up shows for a few years with a sharp MD. I just got the Sony NH900 and love the HI-MD. But I would really like to step up the level of recording. A lot of these clubs have really BAD boards and the levels are all off. The clubs that have the audience mic'ed, coming off the board is like CD quality. Currently, I use one of those sony t-mics. Can you recommend a better mic? Sony

ECM-MS957, Sony ECM-MS907, SoundPro SP-PSM-3 Omnidirectional Stereo Microphone. I just downloaded AUDACITY- thanks for the suggestion. I've been using FINALVYNAL and suffering. I can't figure out PEAK or BIAS. Thanks.