Audio help

honey

honey

Active member
Here's another little improv I did tonight.

http://goo.gl/OVrmU

This improv is a little rough but has some good moments. I'm currently working on improving my recording skills. I have a russian oktava mk-012-01 -> 20 foot xlr -> nady audio smps-1x power supply -> xlr -> MA100 adapter -> Canon XL1s -> firewire -> laptop

I think the chain is a little long, so to speak, which might be introducing the hiss. If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them.

So basically there's a lot of hiss in this recording. How can I improve that?

Also, I've been recording into Vegas and then rendering as a .wav or .mp3. Does anyone know how I can record into sound forge 10 with this setup?

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ANY HELP.
 
Help me to understand-- Are you recording video, or just using the camera to record audio?

It sounds like your file is in mono (only coming out of one of my speakers). It also sounds like you may have recorded with a poor signal-to-noise ratio causing the hiss you hear (the "noise" is inherent in the system and it is overcome by recording at levels that are louder than the noise; you need more gain).

In live and recording situations, pianos are usually close-miked in stereo. A good strategy is two matched condensers, one on the low end, the other on the upper strings, anywhere from 3 inches to one foot from the strings-- the closer to the strings, the more staccato/hammer-y the sound. Farther away is more mellow. This will give you a nice stereo recording.

If you are using a grand, open it "full stick" (better sound and more room for mikes). If you are using a spinet or a console, open the top and get them positioned as best as you can. Or, you could try recording from the back, positioned towards the soundboard. If you only have the one Octava, I'd try to center it. Which capsule comes with your mike? If you are using only one, you could try the omni. You are using an "sdc" (small diaphragm condenser), often, "LDC's" (large diaphragm condensers) will be used for piano...

If you want to use only one mike, and want a more mellower sound, and you would like more of the sound of the room in your recording, have someone else play, while you walk around the room and listen carefully for the spot that you think it sounds best in. Then try the mike there. But make sure you have plenty of gain.

Recording into your camera and dumping into Vegas is probably not the best solution, if you are _only_ trying to capture audio. I'm not sure if you're recording video, but only posted the audio portion, but if you're only going for the sound, there are plenty of inexpensive hardware/software options that would probably do a better job for you.

If you ever want to have your Octava modified for optimum performance, contact Michael Joly at www.octavamod.com , or www.octavamodshop.com .

GJ
 
The XL1 wasn't very audio friendly. I didn't think the recording was unusable. Consider a separate preamp.
 
Part of it, too, is that the MA100 is not the quietest device out there. I remember the first shoot I ever had with the XL1 (the original)... audio was deplorable, and the headphone amp was even worse.
 
I echo the others. If the objective is an audio-only recording I don't see the purpose behnd using the MA100 and XL1 at all. Take the mic through a proper external audio interface and directly into the laptop. Almost any DAW software, SoundForge10 included, that will run on your laptop can be used for recording.

Your sample file has levels so low that it's hard to tell much, it's really down there ... how far away from the piano did you place the mic? It seems distant at first impressions.

If you only have one mic and thus can only record 1 channel, that's okay ... music was recorded in mono for many years before stereo emerged in the 1950's and it sounded just fine. But for playback on modern stereo systems, pan the one mono channel to the centre so it appears in both left and right channels during your final mix.

Don't ever record directly to MP3, record and edit as a wav and if you ultimately need MP3 render it as the very last step after editing and mastering. I also notice your sample is at 44.1kHz. If you're recording audio as audio that's appropriate but if you're recording audio for video, use a 48kHz sample rate, that's the video standard.
 
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The classic answer, honey, is "it depends." It depends on what you want to accomplish.

In the digital world, there are two basic ways to record-- hardware and software. If you have Pro Tools, then that Mbox will work. Pro Tools is one way to go, but there are lots of other DAW solutions (digital audio workstations), and some of them might be better for you, depending on your needs and what you want to accomplish (Logic/Reason, Sonar, Cubase, Reaper, and on and on). In the software realm, you basically need software, a computer, and some kind of interface/input device (like the Mbox), and a few accessories like a microphone of course.

On the other hand, you could also go with a hardware recorder. There are lots of options in this realm as well, ranging in price (and features) from about $100 to $1000 on the consumer/"prosumer" side, to much, much more on the "professional" side (although, as you can see if you read this board, a lot of those distinctions are becoming less meaningful).

The two groups of recorder types above ignore another entire area of recording, which is the analog realm (old school tape-machines and such), which have their plces, pluses and uses, but are probably beyond the scope of our discussion here (really beyond our need to discuss them right now).

So, anyway, it all depends on what you want to do, and why/how you want to do it; what are you trying to accomplish?

If you just want to mess around with some gear and do mono or stereo recordings of your piano jams, then I'd suggest spending $99 on a Zoom H1. Simple as that. If there is more that you want to do, it depends on knowing (and explaining) exactly what you want to do, and why, and the rest of the "W's" (Who, When, Where, etc.), before someone can begin to advise you on microphones, recording machines, accessories, software, laptops, headphones, mixers, preamps, etc., etc., etc.

GJ
 
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