Recording live for composers

[reith]

Originally Posted by Boneman

Has anyone had any experience using wavepad or audicity?

Audacity.
Audio Editor

It's forever being recommended by Computer Music magazine (in fact, included with all their software discs I think - I'll check) with the qualifier "more than enough for the casual user but a bit slow for a production studio"

It does have a few nonsense-y quirks when you get into the esoterics, but so does a lot of bought software.

To give you can example of what it can do: I recently transcribed someone's 45s to CD, one of which was seriously scratched. I was able to get down to the individual samples to "adjust" the waveform with the pencil. Took time, but it got rid of the trouble where the "noise reduction" was too heavy.

Well worth giving it a look, on the law-of-diminishing-returns curve it's an excellent package for its price which is zero!

[MaestroX]

As i'm going to college next academic year , i'm looking at buying a handheld recorder. I've looked at the "Samson Zoom H4" which seems great for the price (I don't have a big budget). Will these devices come with a means to transfer the data onto a laptop or pc?

[Thorolf]

And by-the-way, it’s also an Audio Interface

Recording directly to your computer has never been easier than with the Zoom H4 Handy Recorder. The H4 is the only portable digital recorder that also serves as your USB audio interface, allowing direct recording of instruments and vocals to your computer. And, if you don’t already have a DAW, that’s okay because every H4 comes bundled with Cubase LE, the perfect 48-Track Digital Audio Workstation for easy editing, mixing and mastering of your recordings on either Windows or Mac.

This is of course @ real time transferring, but for fast transfer of already recorded material, the transfer happens at full USB 2.0 speed (only limited by the speed of the memory card of the H4).



Regards

[MaestroX]

Great, thanks. It looks like a winner for the price. I'm going to look into purchasing it for my birthday (coming soon)

[Jonty]

any idea on a price for the Zoom H4 Handy Recorder???

[Boneman]

About £230 I think

[MaestroX]

What’s the “how far away” range of recording for a digital recorder? Is it suitable for casual recording during rehersals for both small ensembles and large ensembles?

[Thorolf]

^
1) To a proper setup, mics are like your ears: What you han hear, they can. If it sounds distant to you, it will sound distant on a recording.

2) In a word, yes!



If you don’t have built in mikes, you need either omni-directional or cardioid condenser mics in addition for satisfying in-room results, as most dynamic (non-condeser) microphones are not so good at distances and ensemble recordings, they’re for recording soloists and other rather close-up situations.



Regards

[MaestroX]

Ahh, great. I think i'll have to go with the H4 Digital Recorder. Its expensive but its features are very impressive and would help me out a great deal in music college next academic year.

I'll let you know when I buy it and how my experiences are of it

[Jonty]

great MaestroX. Good luck with the purchase