Tech: recording music

Subject: Tech: recording music
From: stevethesqueeze
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 06:44 AM

Hi guys

I am not very tech minded but need some help. Our little country dance band plays for a childrens dance club. Sometimes we cant get their for the children and I need a way to record our tunes for them to dance to. I wondered if the following might work. Can I use one of the digital dictation machines that are around now, transfer the music to my pC and then burn it onto a cd for playing on a regular cd player?

any thoughts or suggestions gratefully recived

stevethesqueeze

Subject: RE: Tech: recording music
From: M'Grath of Altcar
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 07:33 AM

The microphones on those dictation machines are usually very poor. The frequency response is usually poor as well.

Frequency response is the range of frequencies (notes) that machine will record effectively.

It is designed for speech and a narrow frequency response and it is quite adequate for that task. If you use it for music however, the bass end of your music will probably be very weak.

Try recording it on a computer?

A good tape recorder may even be better.

Instead of miking up every member of the band, try the Blümheim placement technique. It's done with two mikes. Its very easy and very effective. BBC frequently use it for entire brass bands or choirs.

It's designed to imitate the pickup pattern of a human head and makes for the best stereo image.

Two microphones fastened to gether in an X pattern so that they are pointing 60 degrees apart. Place them high in the air above the band if you can. Plug them into a little mixer and connect that to the inputs of your recording machine. Tape them together but put a little piece of foam or cloth between them to reduce any vibration effects between them.

If none of this is not practical for you, try putting the dictation machine in the corner of a room and place the band around it as close as possible.

Good luck with the dance club. It's a good thing your doing there. More power to your elbow!!

Finally, if you are within striking distance of central Lancashire I could record you. No charge for such a worthy objective.

M of A ( Ian )

Subject: RE: Tech: recording music
From: greg stephens
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 09:27 AM

Try to get it done as well as possible is my advice. Sure, the kids could dance to something recorded on the dictation machine, but the sound wont be good. And it wont satisfy you, and it wont make that good a demo for the band if you want to play it to potential bookers or whatever. Get whatever help you can...from M'Grath of Altcar or whoever.

Subject: RE: Tech: recording music
From: Eric the Streetsinger
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 03:18 PM

Another alternative might be an inexpensive portable Minidisc recorder-
I have a Sharp that I use for field recording- it came with a
split/stereo condenser microphone (the recorder actually supplies
phantom power for it!) The machine is as small as a credit card,
easy to use, and you can record 74 minutes of music onto a minidisc.
There are loads of places out there who can transfer audio from a
minidisc to a CD for you. If your computer has an audio input plug
on it (many do these days!) you can use simple audio editing software
like Bias Peak, or Digidesign Protools (more versatile) to convert
your audio into aiff files or MP3's. I've made some remarkably good
quality recordings this way!

Subject: RE: Tech: recording music
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 04:21 PM

if you don't live near lancashire - that's a good offer - try at your local music shop - all the world and its dog has got little portastudios. The bloke at the music shop should know who has got his head screwed on about recording, locally.

Avoid peole with untidy recording rooms like me. I've got all the gear but I'm rubbish at it. Recording is the kind of job for the kid who was the pencils monitor at school and came down hard on those that broke their pencils.

Maybe not for the really creative Sergeant pepper Stuff, but for the cut and dried sort of job you want, go for the pencils monitor every time.

Subject: RE: Tech: recording music
From: Eric the Streetsinger
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 04:49 PM

There are also some great devices to just input straight to the computer. On the expensive end, there's "Spike", the digital
interface from Mackey,which you can buy online for around 4 hundred
dollars (USD) Tascam has a great new item, just under 200 dollars-
it has inputs for two mics, and a guitar balanced input, and comes
with the software disc. Its available for both Mac and PC platforms,
and is an incredible deal. One of those with a pair of decent mikes
well placed would give you a great CD quality recording.

Subject: RE: Tech: recording music
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 08:30 PM

minidisc - yes
direct to computer - no
Unless you've got a very unusual computer room, it is no place to use as a recording studio. Been there.

Subject: RE: Tech: recording music
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 29 Aug 04 - 09:33 AM

Where in the world are you stevethesqueze?

I can't make the same offer as McGrath of Alcar and record you but again like the idea you are putting stuff out for kids to dance to.

If North Norfolk (Cromer, UK) was in your range, I could lend you a Yamaha MG10/2 mini mixer for a week if it's of any help to you. That would allow you to combine a few inputs and output to a recording device in such ways as illustrated here. I could also lend you one low end condenser mic (audio-tehnicha MB 4000C) and maybe a couple of leads but beyond that, you would need your own kit, eg. a second mic to plug in.

As for the dicatphones, I have a unit that takes the small cassete. I do use it sometimes for learning a tune I hear in a session. It is perfectly adequate for that but is not a device you would be using for your purposes.

Subject: RE: Tech: recording music
From: stevethesqueeze
Date: 29 Aug 04 - 11:01 AM

thank you boys for all the advice.

i am in south wales in a little village called West Aberthaw, its near to a little town called Llantwit major and is 30 minutes from Cardiff.

I appreciate the support over the dance club. Its good of you McGrath to offer the words of kindness.I truly wish I was in Lancashire as thats my home. i can feel the tears coming...

stevethesqueeze

Subject: RE: Tech: recording music
From: M'Grath of Altcar
Date: 29 Aug 04 - 05:12 PM

It is quite possible to record in a room with a computer in. When noise is an issue I drape a blanket in front of, (not over!) my computer. I then record in the opposite corner of the room.

A "curtain" across the middle of the room attenuates the noise of my very noisy mac G4 further. Jeez it sounds like a hair dryer!

Even with a very high quality mike (Telefunken U47)and a first class pre amp, noise floors are fine.

If this doesn't work for you, just run your leads to an adjacent room and record in there.

If radio interference from your monitor is the problem
switch the monitor off after you press record.
OR
Undo your jack plugs, desolder the live lead, thread it through a ferrite bead. resolder it. BT use this solution in the telephone exchanges. They look like tiny polo mints and you can get them from electronics shops. They cost about 10p or less.

This cuts out all radio interference that the lead might pickup. It stops guitar leads from picking up taxi radios too.

Between April and Sept I regularly visit the Oswestry / Craven Arms / Llansantffraid-ym-Mechan area. And I've got a portable digital recorder. A 12 track akai thing..... um...... (thinks)

M of A (Ian)