Audio recording recommendations required

[Joy]

Lately I've identifided a need to record quality voice and sound recordings
for uploading to my new PC for incorporation into dvd editing. First of
all, I'm the only one in the house not into music and the other family
members have various skills and equipment. My husband donated a shure sm58
mic, my son, sony prof headphones and another son found me an old sony
walkman mz-n707. Thats my equipment so far. The new pc is very fast with
2gigs of memory and no sound card yet. I'm sure I'll have to spend more
money but how much and on what? Getting something to connect to the pc is
easy, there a wide choices and the budget is the limit. My son recommends
lexicon's omega. The local audio shop recommended the Edirol UA25. The
walkman, for off-site recordings, does not allow me to upload audio to the
pc it seems, so what could replace that? There is the m-audio micro track
24/96 but it has mixed reviews and I was hoping for a recorder/mpg player
combo. I don't mind buying more than I perhaps need as my husband plays in
bands and my son is a live sound engineer and could also use it. I'm the pc
guru in the house though.
Joy

[Mike Rivers]

Joy wrote:

> My son recommends lexicon's omega.

Does your son have an Omega? Otherwise, why is he recommending it? It's
not one of the mainstream products and while it looks like it has a
nice feature set, you don't see very many people using them. Lexicon
has never been a strong player in the audio interface market and their
products have a history of being on the market for a very short time
before being disconcontinued. It's not a good approach for a beginner
to put your money into something like that.

> The local audio shop recommended the Edirol UA25.

That would probalby be a better choice, but there are many others.
Edirol is also not one of the big players in the pro-audio hardware
field, but their stuff is pretty straightforward and works as
advertised. A device that's similar in concept to the UA25 which I like
a lot is the TASCAM US-122. It's very well thought out and sounds
pretty good. It's being replaced by the US-122L so there will probably
be some pretty good blowout deals on the original model. The L uses a
USB2 interface (the original model used USB 1.1) and accommodates
24-bit recording at sample rates up to 96 kHz, but 16-bit 48 kHz is
standard for video, and that's all you really need.

> The
> walkman, for off-site recordings, does not allow me to upload audio to the
> pc it seems, so what could replace that? There is the m-audio micro track
> 24/96 but it has mixed reviews and I was hoping for a recorder/mpg player
> combo.

Keep the Walkman and spend a little time copying your cassettte
recordings into the computer in real time. Your audio interface will
work fine for that. You're looking at the right sort of thing to
replace the cassette, but don't get one that you aren't sure you like.
This is a fairly new application and the products that are available
today are more into whiz-bang-look-at-how-tiny-it-is than ease of use
and reliability. Does your audio dealer also have the Edirol R-01 or
it's replacement, the R-09? It might be worth a look. But production
houses have been dubbing field recordings for years and you can
continue to do so until your budget and skill level justifies something
more sophisticated.

[Laurence Payne]

On 4 Sep 2006 04:29:48 -0700, "Mike Rivers" >
wrote:

>That would probalby be a better choice, but there are many others.
>Edirol is also not one of the big players in the pro-audio hardware
>field,

I never understood why Roland discarded that well-respected brand name
for their audio-tech products.

[peter]

"Laurence Payne" <lpayne1NOSPAM@dslDOTpipexDOTcom> wrote in message
...
> On 4 Sep 2006 04:29:48 -0700, "Mike Rivers" >
> wrote:
>
>>That would probalby be a better choice, but there are many others.
>>Edirol is also not one of the big players in the pro-audio hardware
>>field,
>
> I never understood why Roland discarded that well-respected brand name
> for their audio-tech products.

Perhaps they are experimenting and don't want to risk tarnishing the
well-respected name?

[Mike Rivers]

Laurence Payne wrote:
> On 4 Sep 2006 04:29:48 -0700, "Mike Rivers" >
> wrote:

> I never understood why Roland discarded that well-respected brand name
> for their audio-tech products.

The first Edirol products (at least those that we saw over here) were
all "desktop" products before the "desktop recording studio" was cool.
They had video edit controllers and switchers, powered speakers that
interfaced to the USB port (as far as I know, this was the first
commercial USB-connected audio product) and simple interfaces to
connect a keyboard or mic to a computer. Edirol was also, as far as I
know, the first company to use USB 2.0 for an audio interface to
provide higher sample rates, word length, and more channels than USB
1.1 could handle.

Roland has always dealt with the performing musician, and moved into
recording with their VS workstations to serve the musician who wanted
to record. I guess they're still leaving the desktop interface tools to
Edirol.

It seems that now the division is that Edirol is interface products and
Roland is keys-and-knobs products. The Edirol R4 recorder has moved
under the Roland umbrella, but the R1/R09 little bitty recorders are
still Edirol. And the Edirol USB and Firewire audio and MIDI interface
line is expanding.

[[email protected]]

Earlier this year, I needed to upgrade my field recording capability
from cassette to something digital. I read a lot of manuals & spec
sheets and ended up buying the Edirol R-1. It records 3 levels of MP3
and 2 levels of WAVE. I used 16 bit 44.1 so that I don't need to
convert formats.

The R-1 has only 3.5mm input jacks so I use a Peavey RQ200 mixer (which
may be used battery powered) ahead of the R-1 for preamps.
The R-1 will record over 3 hours 16/44.1 on a 2 gig flash card. You
can transfer files via USB between the computer and R-1.

This arrangement serves my purposes, I suggest you check the manual (on
line) to see if it might work for you.

Lee Salter

Joy wrote:
> Lately I've identifided a need to record quality voice and sound recordings
> for uploading to my new PC for incorporation into dvd editing. I don't mind buying more than I perhaps need as my husband plays in
> bands and my son is a live sound engineer and could also use it. I'm the pc
> guru in the house though.
> Joy

[Joy]

"Mike Rivers" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>
> Joy wrote:
>
>> My son recommends lexicon's omega.
>
> Does your son have an Omega? Otherwise, why is he recommending it? It's
> not one of the mainstream products and while it looks like it has a
> nice feature set, you don't see very many people using them. Lexicon
> has never been a strong player in the audio interface market and their
> products have a history of being on the market for a very short time
> before being disconcontinued. It's not a good approach for a beginner
> to put your money into something like that.

His boss recommended it.

>> The local audio shop recommended the Edirol UA25.
>
> That would probalby be a better choice, but there are many others.
> Edirol is also not one of the big players in the pro-audio hardware
> field, but their stuff is pretty straightforward and works as
> advertised. A device that's similar in concept to the UA25 which I like
> a lot is the TASCAM US-122. It's very well thought out and sounds
> pretty good. It's being replaced by the US-122L so there will probably
> be some pretty good blowout deals on the original model. The L uses a
> USB2 interface (the original model used USB 1.1) and accommodates
> 24-bit recording at sample rates up to 96 kHz, but 16-bit 48 kHz is
> standard for video, and that's all you really need.

And here's the better half saying digidesign's mbox2 would do the job. I
reckon that would really take the cake.

>> The
>> walkman, for off-site recordings, does not allow me to upload audio to
>> the
>> pc it seems, so what could replace that? There is the m-audio micro track
>> 24/96 but it has mixed reviews and I was hoping for a recorder/mpg player
>> combo.
>
> Keep the Walkman and spend a little time copying your cassettte
> recordings into the computer in real time. Your audio interface will
> work fine for that.

Could you please explain that phrase 'copying your cassette (minidisc)
recordings in real time'? I've racked my brains, and others, for an
explanation. With this example of Sony's minidisc, Sony didn't build in an
upload feature. Can I still copy the recording from it? How?
Thanks
Joy

[Nick Brown]

Joy wrote:
> Could you please explain that phrase 'copying your cassette (minidisc)
> recordings in real time'? I've racked my brains, and others, for an
> explanation. With this example of Sony's minidisc, Sony didn't build in an
> upload feature. Can I still copy the recording from it? How?

I think Mike means just plugging the headphone output of the Minidisc
into the line input of your soundcard, press record on whatever audio
software you have, and press play on the Minidisc. I do that sometimes
with a small MP3 player, and generally find turning the volume up full
works ok, but if it sounds like it's distorting (which will be very
noticable), turn it down a bit.

However, if as you said before that you have no soundcard at all on
this PC, you'll need one of those first, or some form of external
USB/Firewire audio device.

-Nick

[Mike Rivers]

Joy wrote:

> >> My son recommends lexicon's omega.
> His boss recommended it.

Maybe I should have made myself clearer. What was the basis for the
recommendation? Does his boss have one? A lot of people recommend
things that they haven't used, based on things that they've read. I'm
somewhat guilty of that myself, but at least I take the trouble to
understand why something is recommended and I don't put any stock in
"recommendations" like "it's great" with no details.

> And here's the better half saying digidesign's mbox2 would do the job. I
> reckon that would really take the cake.

It certainly would do the job, and there's nothing wrong with working
in ProTools, which comes bundled along with the M-Box (or the other way
around).

> Could you please explain that phrase 'copying your cassette (minidisc)
> recordings in real time'? I've racked my brains, and others, for an
> explanation. With this example of Sony's minidisc, Sony didn't build in an
> upload feature. Can I still copy the recording from it? How?

Simple - you connect the analog output of the recorder to the analog
input of your sound card (when you get one) using whatever cable you
need in order to make the plugs fit the jacks. Start the computer
recording, start the recorder playing, and go read a book. You will
have recorded a copy of the tape on to your computer and can manipulate
it in your editing program.

A lot of people who came into this technology late assume that anything
other than a direct file copy is going to ruin their audio, but it
won't. Believe it or not, people did this before we had files. <g>

Incidentally, Sony's newest Minidisk, the MZ-M200, allows you to upload
an original recording directly to a computer.

[jwvm]

> Simple - you connect the analog output of the recorder to the analog
> input of your sound card (when you get one) using whatever cable you
> need in order to make the plugs fit the jacks. Start the computer
> recording, start the recorder playing, and go read a book. You will
> have recorded a copy of the tape on to your computer and can manipulate
> it in your editing program.
>

It would be extremely surprizing if Joy's machine didn't already have a
soundcard. Whether it is adequate or not for her needs is another thing
but it is certainly worth a try. BTW, be sure to use the line-in jack
and not the microphone (red) jack!

> A lot of people who came into this technology late assume that anything
> other than a direct file copy is going to ruin their audio, but it
> won't. Believe it or not, people did this before we had files. <g>

Yes, analog copying works fine with decent equipment!

> Incidentally, Sony's newest Minidisk, the MZ-M200, allows you to upload
> an original recording directly to a computer.

Many of the newer portable audio players feature the ability to record.
Joy might take a look around her house and see if such equipment is
available. Whether or not the quality is sufficient is, of course,
another story.

[Joy]

"jwvm" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>> Simple - you connect the analog output of the recorder to the analog
>> input of your sound card (when you get one) using whatever cable you
>> need in order to make the plugs fit the jacks. Start the computer
>> recording, start the recorder playing, and go read a book. You will
>> have recorded a copy of the tape on to your computer and can manipulate
>> it in your editing program.
>>
>
> It would be extremely surprizing if Joy's machine didn't already have a
> soundcard. Whether it is adequate or not for her needs is another thing
> but it is certainly worth a try. BTW, be sure to use the line-in jack
> and not the microphone (red) jack!

You are right, it does have something, and on testing so far it's not too
good. You can see it here:
http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q1/dfi-lanpartynf4ultra/index.x?pg=2
It produces a lot extra noise.
Joy

[jwvm]

Joy wrote:
> "jwvm" > wrote in message

<snip>

> > It would be extremely surprizing if Joy's machine didn't already have a
> > soundcard. Whether it is adequate or not for her needs is another thing
> > but it is certainly worth a try. BTW, be sure to use the line-in jack
> > and not the microphone (red) jack!
>
> You are right, it does have something, and on testing so far it's not too
> good. You can see it here:
> http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q1/dfi-lanpartynf4ultra/index.x?pg=2
> It produces a lot extra noise.
> Joy

I have a motherboard with similar hardware and its not wonderful by any
means. However, the noise isn't that bad and much better than say a
cassette tape. Make sure that you are not using the microphone (red)
input. The blue jack is probably what you should use or whatever the
line input is. Also, make sure that you only have the line input
selected for recording.