Home Recording ???

[Wayne Canning]

LesD, BillB, RandeDager:

I have Audacity V 1.2.6 (An Older Version, just never upgraded to the newer version) installed on one of my systems and have used the software for numerous things with very good success. The program has many very nice features and requires a bit of time to get up to speed but not too demanding IMHO.

I also have Reaper V 2.5 installed on the same system and have used it with very good results. The approach I used with Reaper: I purchased the Course Technology text “Home Recording for Beginners” by Geoffrey Francis. Even if you are somewhat knowledgeable about recording the text exposes you to many of the features of Reaper in a 30-Day Foundation Course included. The textbook also includes a CD with the Reaper version and Sample files to use with the included 30-Day tutorial. I believe the book/CD is available on Amazon for around $24 these days. The application still continues to run on my system and does not expire after the 30-day use time out some applications invoke. Reaper is now up to Version 4.13 and $60 for the discounted license so I am way back in versions. However V 2.5 is still very functional with more bells & whistles then many need to get started. I intend to purchase the later version when I do some additional recording.

Roger Hardin recommended Reaper on the board some time ago as BillB commented and I had a brief conversation with Roger Hardin at CAAS 2011 about a Reaper workshop during the convention that Roger would present. Perhaps with enough interest this would be a future item.

Rande has commented on the issue of Hardware, which can definitely present limitations. I do not mean to get to technical on the ChetBoard by listing the system specs and the above comments but this may give some idea of the hardware I am using for these applications. I built this system up in early 2008 and as can be seen it is not as powerful as a lot of today’s hardware. I also have done many hours of Video processing on this system.

System Specifications:

System MSI 945GC LGA775 Mother Board CPU Intel E6550 Core2 DUO 2.33 Ghz
Memory: 2 Gb 667Mhz Seagate HDD 250 Gb SATA WD HDD 500 Gb SATA
FDD: FD-235HFW Sound Card: M-Audio 24/96, PCI DVD Writer: Lite-On DVDRW LH-20A1P
Linksys Wireless PCI Adapter : WMP54G
Graphics Card: Sparkle SFPX94GT1024U2 9400GT R NVIDIA 1GB 128-bit DDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16
Monitor: SamSung SyncMaster 932B (1280 x 1024 Max) Case: Antec Sonata Designer 500
Cooling: 3 Case Fans P/S: Earthwatts 500 OP Sys: Win XP SP2 Home

Hope this helps
Thanks, Take Care, Wayne

[RandeDager]

Hi Bill,

If you're doing fine with an '04 computer then me upgrading from an '07 computer wouldn't be "the answer". But the right form of hardware interface might make the difference. I just have yet to find it. I tried 3 seemingly possible solutions and they still didn't sound good. When I see people using their Mac's with no problem, that's the direction I want to go. Nobody I know personally who does recording does it with PC's, at least not anyone close enough for me to watch them.

[keener]

Just a couple of observations. While my videos do not have the best sound quality, I still get compliments on the sound (and people asking me how I get it) with just a $25 USB Logitech mic plugged into my iMac using QuickTime 7 recording software.

The thing about a USB mic is that it bypasses the internal sound card, which is crap on most computers, including Macs. Of course, a better mic, a unidirectional one, will give better sound, and I would want a better mic if I were recording professionally.

Another thing, that I found by accident, is that you have to carefully check the preferences in your recording software to ensure it doesn't default to using the internal sound card. The attached picture shows what I mean for using QuickTime on a Mac.

I had used regular QuickTime up until a few months and then decided to use the pro version of it, which is QuickTime 7. The quality of my videos went down. I finally investigated and found out the default setting for the new software was to use the internal mic. Changing it to use my microphone (AK5370) made a huge positive difference.

For comparison, here is a video with the default setting (internal mic):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1sXfebio6s

Note that it sounds sort of hollow, and that the bass is pretty dull. It's also picking up background noise.

And, here is a video made after I changed the setting to use my Logitech USB mic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O8_H51KB1E

A much better sound (at least to me).

So, Windows or Mac, these are a couple of things that seem to make a difference

[RandeDager]

Wayne, thanks for sharing the technicalities of your system.

Bruce, I also appreciate your description of what you do. The word that caught my attention and made
all the difference was "iMac". That only reinforces my intention.

thanks,