[[email protected]]

Hi there - I'd like to record acoustic guitar played into a microphone,
but when I try this on my PC the sound is just awful - loads of hiss,
and what signal there is sounds pathetic. I guess the answer includes a
soundproof room and a better microphone? I'm just using a pretty
standard microphone and have this £200 M-Audio Delta soundcard with
breakout box. Any advice would be welcome. Is there any way to
soundproof a room to imrpove the recording quality?

Thanks!
John

[Laurence Payne]

On 24 Nov 2006 14:24:14 -0800, wrote:

Hi there - I'd like to record acoustic guitar played into a microphone,
but when I try this on my PC the sound is just awful - loads of hiss,
and what signal there is sounds pathetic. I guess the answer includes a
soundproof room and a better microphone? I'm just using a pretty
standard microphone and have this £200 M-Audio Delta soundcard with
breakout box. Any advice would be welcome. Is there any way to
soundproof a room to imrpove the recording quality?


Which Delta soundcard? Does it HAVE microphone inputs?

Which microphone? "Pretty standard" doesn't tell us much.

[Ben Bradley]

On 24 Nov 2006 14:24:14 -0800, wrote:

Hi there - I'd like to record acoustic guitar played into a microphone,

What kind of mic? Condenser or dynamic? What make and model?

but when I try this on my PC the sound is just awful - loads of hiss,
and what signal there is sounds pathetic. I guess the answer includes a
soundproof room and a better microphone? I'm just using a pretty
standard microphone

There are a lot of 'standard' microphones. Is this mic for a
computer or minidisc player, with the 1/8" plug on the end of the
cable?

and have this £200 M-Audio Delta soundcard with
breakout box.

You need a mic preamp. You might want to buy one of several models
of small mixers that have mic preamps built in. The Delta
card/breakout box takes a "line-level" input, and microphones put out
much lower levels, and you need the preamp to raise the level for the
Delta input.

Any advice would be welcome. Is there any way to
soundproof a room to imrpove the recording quality?

You're asking about several things, and they're all important, but
first you need to get the mic working into the Delta card.

Thanks!
John

[anahata]

wrote:
Hi there - I'd like to record acoustic guitar played into a microphone,
but when I try this on my PC the sound is just awful - loads of hiss,
and what signal there is sounds pathetic. I guess the answer includes a
soundproof room and a better microphone?

Soundproofing and acoustic treatment are good things to do, but they
won't get rid of hiss. As several others have said, you need a mic
preamp. Depending on which M-Audio product you have, that may be
included. Delta 1010LT includes 2 mic channels, Delta 1010 doesn't, nor
do the Delta 66 or Delta 44. You may not have selected the best product
for your needs. If you are using a condenser mic, make sure your preamp
has phantom power available.

Others have asked what mic you are using, but with a decent preamp you
should get better results that you're describing with any mic that
didn't come out of a Christmas cracker.

What soundproofing will do is cut out external noise (passing traffic,
noise in the house) from your recordings.

If you mean acoustic treatment, that's needed for getting your
recordings not to sound reverberant and "boxy" and especially to enhance
the clarity of the bass end of your recordings.

It doesn't look as if you've reached the stage of worrying about either
of those issues yet.

--
Anahata
-+- http://www.treewind.co.uk
Home: 01638 720444 Mob: 07976 263827

[Agent 86]

On Sat, 25 Nov 2006 10:10:40 +0000, anahata wrote:


Soundproofing and acoustic treatment are good things to do, but they won't
get rid of hiss.

Unless your studio is in half of your garage and the hiss is coming from a
car with a leaky tire on the other side.

[Dave of Kan]

Agent 86 wrote:
On Sat, 25 Nov 2006 10:10:40 +0000, anahata wrote:


Soundproofing and acoustic treatment are good things to do, but they won't
get rid of hiss.

Unless your studio is in half of your garage and the hiss is coming from a
car with a leaky tire on the other side.


That's good. That's funny. You guys are hep on this hookup stuff. You
sure are.