I have a question. I looking into buying a microphone at Sam Ash probably. Which one is a decent one (and relatively inexpensive)?
And where can I find information about how to set it up to record sound from acoustic guitar and how to set it up to record all kind of noises and sounds I am gonna make with all kind of stuff?
I have checked that website Sound on Sound, but it's appeared to be dead.
Thanks in advance.

P.S. I am going to upgrade my integrated sound to this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829111003
So I would like to be able to hook up mic to that card.

Quote: Original post by Promit

Quote: Original post by stimarco
There are two common techniques to record live guitar. If (as I assume) you're using an electric guitar, you can either DI -- "Direct Inject" -- the output from the guitar into the computer, or you can rig a microphone in front of your guitar's amplifier and record that.

I did the DI thing in the past, but getting ASIO set up correctly is a bit of a fight, plus I much prefer the sounds from the modeling amp that I have (a Line 6, incidentally) over the software VST stuff.

Quote: Mic connections have an amplification stage, although the 3.5" jack type don't support phantom power, so you should check the specs for your computer and guitar beforehand.

Is this the 20db boost that Windows adds as an option, or is it something handled by the hardware itself?

I'm only dealing with a 15W amp here, and I'm running it at a small fraction of that, so I don't really expect it to be putting out that much power. Still, I don't think I've ever seen a motherboard which documents anything about how much it's prepared to accept along its inputs, which is unfortunate. I wonder if my roommate's Creative external can help...

The Sound On Sound website has a big archive of the magazine's articles online. (Obviously, they want you to buy the magazine rather than read it all online, so you won't find the most recent articles on there yet.) I found this article which describes how to record guitar.

It's a few years old, but the basic theory should be sound.

Quote: Original post by motorsep
I have a question. I looking into buying a microphone at Sam Ash probably. Which one is a decent one (and relatively inexpensive)?
And where can I find information about how to set it up to record sound from acoustic guitar and how to set it up to record all kind of noises and sounds I am gonna make with all kind of stuff?
I have checked that website Sound on Sound, but it's appeared to be dead.
Thanks in advance.

P.S. I am going to upgrade my integrated sound to this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829111003
So I would like to be able to hook up mic to that card.

Odd, the SOS site looks fine to me. Granted, it's the website for a (UK-based) print magazine, but it's one of the few forms of dead-tree media I still buy.

Regarding the sound card: if you just want something for playing games with then it's fine. To be honest, I wouldn't go for a card with less than 96KHz sample rate, or 24-bit sampling. There are motherboards which can meet that spec., so buying a dedicated sound card that's only capable of 16/44KHz wouldn't be my first choice.

I've had mixed experiences with Creative Labs' gear, so I'm more inclined to point people at the M-AUDIO, Novation and (for those who absolutely must have an EAX-compatible sound card), Terratec / Hercules product lines. But again, I'm a musician first and game player second. I have a Novation X-Station for my music work, but that's overkill for someone who's only dabbling.

Ultimately, it depends on your budget. If I were given $18-ish, I'd pocket the money and wait until I had some more. But that's just me.

stimarco,

Sorry, but link you posted doesn't work.
http://www.soundonsound.com/ - this is correct website, not http://www.sospubs.com/

I can't afford expensive sound card, but I can buy Creative Audigy SE or Turtle Beach (they are around $30, 24-bit, Creative has 96 Khz sample rate, Turtle Beach - 48Khz. Would those cards be a good choice?
I am working on my game as indie game developer of cos and as I said before I need to record acoustic guitar and noises. Would cards mentioned above suit my needs?
Also the question about microphone stays open ;)
Thanks.

While I would agree that if you're serious about getting into computer music and using the computer for recording audio, then you'll want to look for something that offers high bit depth and high sampling rates, but if you're just an indie game developer trying to lay a few tracks for your game, then only being able to record at CD quality (16bit, 44.1KHz) isn't necessarily a bad thing. I mean, as far as I know, that's still a common recording format used by many musicians today and wasn't far from the norm within recent years. So if the higher grade stuff happens to be out of your budget, then I wouldn't fret (seriously, no pun intended).

That said, I still agree that I would seriously look into something other than Creative if you're looking to do any sort of computer music. I've just never been fond of the quality I get from recording using their sound cards. For around the same price as their high end X-FI package or whatever they're calling it these days, you can get a decent USB or Firewire recording interface from one of the companies stimarco listed above that'll offer much better quality over anything Creative offers. Most usually come packaged with some freebie version of one of the popular sequencer, which you can then use to record your music. If I were you, I would just save up and get something better.

As for microphone, if it were only acoustic guitar you were recording, I would recommend some kind of condenser mic for the best quality. I don't know much about condensers though, so I don't have many good recommendations. However, since you said you also want to record more or less sound effects as well, you really can't go wrong with Shure's SM57. It's a good all-around dynamic mic that'll cost you anywhere from $80-100 (I got mine for about $85 I think).

This last option I'm just kind of throwing out there. You could bypass the whole sound card and separate mic bit and purchase a field recorder like Edirol's R09. I just recently got an R09 to use for a project I had to do for my electronic music class, and I've been pleasantly surprised by the quality of the recordings I can get from it. It offers up to 24bit 48KHz recording quality, has a pair of decent condenser microphones built into it, and runs off of SD cards for storage. It works great for recording sound effects, and with a little bit of smart placement and level settings, you can get fairly good recordings of acoustic instruments. It'll cost you $400, but then again, if you plan on getting good quality recordings, regardless of how you do it, you have be willing to shell out a couple hundred upfront to get the right hardware. It's definitely not one of those hobbies that's easy on the pocketbook. :)

thanks for advice guys, I appreciate it.

Quote: Original post by motorsep
stimarco,

Sorry, but link you posted doesn't work.
http://www.soundonsound.com/ - this is correct website, not http://www.sospubs.com/

Ah. Oops. That should be sospubs.co.uk, not .com. My bad.


Not sure what to suggest as a microphone. If at all possible, I'd recommend trying some out at an audio store -- some will even let you test them out in your home studio -- as the 'sound' of a mike is a very subjective judgement call. No two people have the same hearing.

Re. sound bit-depth and sample rates: the higher the numbers, the more headroom you have to play with. Since your target is, presumably, a minimum of CD Red Book Audio quality, you'll need _more_ than that while you're working to give your audio enough headroom for processing. High Dynamic Range Imaging invariably gets downsampled for final rendering on a standard 24-bit display; the HDRI isn't for that: it's to allow you to process the data without hitting the video equivalent of clipping and distortion in audio. Same fruit, different basket.

That said, the main reason for spending more is the digital / analogue converters. Cheap components will simply not sound as good as their higher quality counterparts. That's what you're usually paying for. (Well, that and decent drivers.)

Regards,

Quote: Original post by stimarco
Re. sound bit-depth and sample rates: the higher the numbers, the more headroom you have to play with. Since your target is, presumably, a minimum of CD Red Book Audio quality, you'll need _more_ than that while you're working to give your audio enough headroom for processing. High Dynamic Range Imaging invariably gets downsampled for final rendering on a standard 24-bit display; the HDRI isn't for that: it's to allow you to process the data without hitting the video equivalent of clipping and distortion in audio. Same fruit, different basket.

Ahh, that makes sense. I've pretty much always done recording in 24 bit "just because" I've heard it yields higher quality, and my computer has allowed me to work with it without getting terribly bogged down, but I never really knew some of the more technical reasons for why you'd want to opt for higher sampling rates and bit depths. Thanks for the clear and concise explanation.

ok. those are microphones I can afford (I would prefer second one to the first price wise):

link1

link2

Do you think those are good enough for SFX recording (various noises, voice, samples from acoustic guitar, etc.). I am actually interested in second mic because of $$ ;)

Thanks.


(Edit -- fixed links so they didn't trash the site formatting -- Kylotan)

[Edited by - Kylotan on March 1, 2007 4:30:07 AM]