Audio recording advice?

Hi All,
I am making the switch from Microsoft to Apple. I've narrowed down my selection to an eMac because it seems like the most bang for the buck for the price; an iMac is just too high after all the add-ons.
I'm into recording guitar, bass, vocals, and a drum machine. I have a USB 2.0, external audio capture device with 3/4" cable and MIDI inputs. And I will start with Garageband.
Any advice from other eMac audio recording folks? problems? suggestions?
thx!

hey mark...
i'd just say consider your options a bit more...
the eMac is a noisy beast. the fan noise is just too much for me to bear whilst editing with Pro Tools/Logic, and impossible to record with!
the machine itself will easily be powerful enough for PT LE or Logic, and the screen size is ok, too.
that is my only gripe with the emac...and unfortunately it is a BIG gripe given what i use it for!
personally, i'd go for the iMac or even an iBook...

Similar Messages

Need Audio Recording Advice

Hi, I currently have a Wallstreet and am using a modified Plaintalk mic to preamp my Sure SM58 Beta mic. I'm getting a 12" 1.5 Powerbook soon and I'm aware that the audio input is line level. I'm looking at M-Audio's Audio Buddy and the Fast Track. Is the Fast Track USB Audio only? It does have line-level RCA outputs, but as I primarily use Digital Performer, which doesn't support USB Audio, I'm not sure if this is what I should use. I like the idea of using a USB-powered unit as opposed to an externally-powered unit, but I'm also worried that the Powerbook's USB may not be powerful enough to support the Fast Track. Audio Buddy looks simple and straightforward. Does anyone have any experience using these products? Thanks a lot! gregor

Hi,
Ideally, you'd have a field mixer for your audio that would have "peak limiters" on it. Shure makes some good ones, Sound Devices makes some better ones. Also, as mentioned before, a separate person to run audio is a big help if the budget allows (having to run camera is a big enough job by itself). If you can't do lavalier mics, then a good shotgun mic is essential. Note that I say a "good" one (usually starting around $300). Audio Technica and Sennheiser make very capable mics. Stay away from cheap mics if possible. They tend to be noisy and of very poor quality.
Depending on your setup, you can use a stereo mic with one side pointed at the interviewer and the other at the guest. Again, Audio Technica makes some very good ones. I've used this for interviews and even weddings with success.
If you do get a field mixer, try to monitor the audio coming from the camera after it goes to tape if at all possible (this will depend largely on your camera's output structure). This will give you the most accurate idea of what you're really getting...
Darth Brian
p.s. A little trick if you're just using one mic is to split the signal (left and right on your mixer) then set one side to where you think the levels are good. Set the other side a little bit lower for a safety margin. Now if somebody coughs, laughs too loud, or yells, you have the ability in post production to use the "quieter" track for that instant without having distortion or silence.

Giving advice on audio recording

I first started using Captivate when it was Robodemo 5 and
that was not all that long ago. I remember when I first downloaded
it. I thought it was the greatest training software ever. However I
did have problems. The most long lived problems were with audio
recordings. I know that many people have. On some of the forums I
read where one person had given up on Captivate. They did not like
the inconsistent recording of the audio. Sometimes it would be deep
and resounding the next slide would sound as if you are at the end
of a tunnel,and the very next recording would sound metallic and
soft sounding.
Just like with everything else if you are persistent enough
you will find a solution. I tried various mikes some expensive
others less expensive. They all produced the same results.
Inconsistent recordings. The recordings to me were passeable but
all not that great. Then I ordered one of those newer usb condensor
podcastiing mikes.
All I can say is wow! Those new podcasting mikes they level
out the sound.You can still notice that one recording sounds a
tiny,tiny,different than the next,but barely noticeable.
Most of us are not radio announcers or professional
broadcasters however to me the mike made an incredible difference
in Captivates audio recording quality.

Hello Rick!
The microphone is around 80 dollars, it comes with a soft
ware preamp, and I have always recorded directly into Captivate.
Even a low bit rates and encoding frequencies it still sounds good.
All my Captivate files are produced for the web. Html and .swf
files.
It is the mike Rick that made the difference. It is a Samson
microphone. It is quite large and heavy. I found out about it
through podcasters. I wondered what podcasters were using to record
audio. Audio quality would be important to them. What I wanted was
the best mike for recording onto a computer. The podcasters are
fanatics about the mikes they use.
Here is the advert from Samson.
"The C01U USB Studio Condenser Mic is the first affordable
studio condenser mic with a USB interface.
For the first time ever, musicians who record music on
computers have a simple, affordable way to capture high-quality
vocal and acoustic instrument performances.Seamless integration was
the idea, and it was obtained by creating a studio condenser
microphone that can be plugged into any computer with no in/out
boxes, no expensive computer pre-amps, just a USB cable.
The C01U condenser microphone is based on our wildly
successful C01. It features a 19mm internal shock mounted diaphragm
with a cardioid pick up pattern ensuring pristine studio quality
recordings."
Most online music stores carry these . Find one that you can
trust. Just Google Samson microphones.
Everyone can have good quality audio recorded directly into
Captivate. For those new at audio recording listen to podcasters
and other broadcasters. Animate your voice to make it more
interesting,speak at the same volume level, get a "pop" filter or
make your own with a nylon and reformed wire coat hangar. Practice
with your voice ,adjust the settings ,test various settings out and
soon you will be saying " wow"!
http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodID=1810

Laptop Audio recording - usb card advice

Hi.I recently purchased a laptop.The thing is it has a very basic soundcard, a Realteck AC 97.I use a Audigy 2 platinuim soundcard on my main PC, a respectible Athlon 64 3.5Ghz processor with 1gb memory.I use Sony Acid 4 and Cubase as my main programmes.The thing is when I record an auidio track in Acid on my new laptop, it records the wave along with a new audio recording, e.g my guitar.The Realteck audio card only allows a stereo mix as recording.So, I'm looking to by a usb soundcard that will allow me to record an audiotrack in Acid, without recording what has already been recorded.Will any of the usb soundcards that creative produce help me solve this problem.
P/S I'm on a budget!!

muscarine wrote:
Hi.I recently purchased a laptop.The thing is it has a very basic soundcard, a Realteck AC 97.I use a Audigy 2 platinuim soundcard on my main PC, a respectible Athlon 64 3.5Ghz processor with 1gb memory.I use Sony Acid 4 and Cubase as my main programmes.The thing is when I record an auidio track in Acid on my new laptop, it records the wave along with a new audio recording, e.g my guitar.The Realteck audio card only allows a stereo mix as recording.So, I'm looking to by a usb soundcard that will allow me to record an audiotrack in Acid, without recording what has already been recorded.Will any of the usb soundcards that creative produce help me solve this problem.
P/S I'm on a budget!!
If you got a controller onboard, I would suggest you to get a FireWire card instead of USB. Here are some of them both type listed @Musician's Friend.
Meanwhile, why not try if Asio4All driver would improve your recording possibilities.
jutapa
Message Edited by jutapa on 12-31-2005 07:54 AM

LE8 won't remember audio recording path (among other issues...)

Why won't LE8 remember the audio recording path I set for each project? Each time I open a project I've been working on (by dropping the project onto the LE8 icon in the dock-LAME) and arm a track to record, it says that that the path to the external HD is not found (-but it knows the name of the external HD somehow). I'll then open the record prefs, set the recording path correctly to my external HD and the coressponding folder, save the project, and record without incident (or at least the same incident) for the rest of my session. The next time I open the project the same thing happens.
LE7 never had this issue.... weird and annoying.

For generic performance and trouble-shooting advice I’d like to recommend reading these:
http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/optimize-performance-photoshop-cs4-cs5.html
http://blogs.adobe.com/crawlspace/2012/07/photoshop-basic-troubleshooting-steps-to-fix-mos t-issues.html
As for the specifics:
The image size is 4.31M. If I go to double the size and change nothing else, the image size jumps up to a whopping 17.2M.
If you double the dimensions of an image the area is increased fourfold – so what is the problem there?
The image dimensions are 500px x 135px, 300DPI, 8bit, RGB color. This is at 100% zoom. Those are the settings I normally use, but for some reason it’s showing the file as about half of the size it should be. (Tumblr post for comparison—they are 500px wide.)
The introduction or Retina (and other high resolution) displays and browsers actually up-scaling images to accommodate those screen resolutions seems to have confused some users about the concept of pixels.
Could you please post a full size screenshot on this Forum of the image at View > 100% in Photoshop and on tumblr?

Hello! Newbie with PROBLEMS! Audio recording majorly DELAYED?!?!?!?? help?

Hello there! I LOVED Logic 7, was very happy to get Logic 8. Then I installed Leopard. Now Logic is F'ed up. At first I had the Coremidiserver not responding issue. I deleted those MIDI drivers as well as Reason and my Melodyne rewire and bridge plugins. But when I want to do an Audio recording, Logic freezes, I get the rainbow death wheel for 60 seconds, and THEN it starts recording. It is really bad for creativity to have to wait to get the audio track to record. Does anyone know what could be going on or how I can fix it? I am using an Mbox2. I have the Line6 Toneport, but that is not working although it works for my boyfriend who has the same computer, logic 8 and leopard. I'm confused!!! what should i do? Can genius bar help me? Sorry for sounding neurotic, I'm just really anxious to make music an d not have all these technical issues! Thank you VERY VERY much for any advice.

Are you recording to a macBook Pro internal hard drive? or to an external drive?
How much memory do you have?. The delay of 60 sec before recording is not normal. Your computer is checking something else, or is forced to do another task before executing the command of recording
logic 8 need a lot of memory the absolute minimum is 1 GB of Ram but 2 GB or more is highly recommended.
best of luck
Eric D

Best retina laptop for audio recording/film scoring

I already asked this question in a non audio based forum, and was looking for anyone who may use similar programs to me. (The original advice was great, but with all the changes Apple has made, it's difficult to make a decision)
I currently bought a rMBP i7 dual processor with 8 GB ram and am considering going for a return to upgrade to the 15 inch for it's quad processing potential and larger RAM capacity.
I am a seasoned composer and do quite a bit of audio recording. (I've been using Logic 8 on a quad processor iMac with no problem, running Stylus RMX, reason, digi performer (yes, someone still uses it) all at the same time)
Does anyone have any strong feelings about this?
I hate that you're stuck with what you buy these days, and I know the non retina route is available, but I fell in love with the retina.
Anyone have any personal experience on this one?
Best-
JP

Thank you all for reading. If anyone else is having this question, Get the 15 inch w/16 Gigs and the 2.7..
If you don't have other computers, you should go non retina, but if you're going to be using a lot of intsrument librarys, plugins, etc.. You'll grow out of the 13inch in a year.

How can I copy an audio recording in Skype?

I have an audio recording of one of my contacts on Skype.
Can you tell me if there is a way to copy this recording to my hard drive and if so how?
Can I do it with MP3 Skype Recorder 4.11 and if so how? Where would it be recorded to if I can do it this way?
Any help with this will be really appreciated
HB

I already have a Skype recorder for any incoming or outgoing Skype or telephone calls. I use MP3 Skype Recorder for that. What I'm trying to achieve is different.
I have an existing voicemail message in Skype itself from one of my Skype contacts. It is this voicemail message that I want to save to my hard drive somewhere so there is no chance of me losing it in Skype itself.
I right clicked on the recording and there is an option in the context menu to 'Copy Message.' I clicked on this but I don't know where to save it to on my hard drive so I can play it whenever I want from there as a file.
I would also like to know if there is any way to change this voicemail message to another file format to play on my hard drive.
Can anybody help me with this scenario please?
Thanks
HB

How do I fix bad Quality audio recording in Captivate 4

I am having trouble recording decent quality audio in Captivate 4.
What is happening is after I do the screen and audio recording when I play it back the audio is choppy.
It also kind of sounds like the audio is quickly echoed and then clipped.
Finally this clipping and choppiness seems random when it happens.
I tested this by recording 5 minutes of the demonstration (which recorded with only 1 glitch in the beginning).
When I just recorded the second half when I played it back in Captivate it was very choppy again throughout the audio making the complete session unusable.
I am doing full motion recording of an application at 1024x768. I have tried all audio recording bitrates and have even gone up to 128kbps 16bit mp3.
I am using a high quality Audio-Technica AT2020 USB microphone.
I am running Windows Vista Service pack 2 fully updated with 4GB of memory on an Intel xeon W3503 2.4Ghz in 64 bit mode.
I have installed the latest patch update http://www.adobe.com/support/captivate/downloads.html 4.4.0.1 hoping that it waould solve the audio bugs to no avail.
Please let me know what else I may need to do to get Captivate 4 working like it should.
Are there any other settings or tests I should perform to get audio recording working.
Why would I even want to pay for Captivate 5 if Captivate 4 has worked so randomly for me.
Using 3rd party software like Audacity and even Adobe Soundbooth seems absurd when Captivate has audio recording built in.
For the time being I have gone back to Camtasia on another system because it actually seems to work but need to get Captivate working on my own system.

Try "Rapid Recorder" from store....it works well.

Why doesn't Apple supply a simple audio recording app with the iPad? (Garage Band is not simple app)

I am going to be teaching an integrated media production course in the spring semester (creating an online college newspaper) and I want the students to use mini iPads to create images, videos and sound clips. Images and video, no problem. Easy to move to our iMacs in the lab for editing and inclusion in a college newspaper web site. On the other hand, audio is a mess. Sure, I can have them shoot video, import the video into Final Cut on the iMacs and then use Final Cut like an audio editor, but that is pretty lame. They could download Garage Band but that would require all the students to have iTunes accounts, which is a real pain. And moving audio recording made with Garage Band to the iMac is a real drag and way too much work. Why the **** can't Apple include a simple audio memo program in the basic iPad app setup? This is really old school stuff that was on computers way back when. Using Garage Band for that simple function is like swatting flies with a sledge hammer.
Mike Nielsen
Media Arts
Wesley College

Make finding a simple audio recorder the students first assignment. Have them give presentation. Have file a news story to the 'paper'.
Google is your friend.
ipad audio recording app free
http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57349000-285/five-free-voice-recording-ipad- apps-compared/
ipad audio recording app
http://www.appolicious.com/curated-apps/7909-best-ipad-audio-recording-apps-jan- 2013

I have video clips with 4 channels of audio, I can only hear audio recorded on channel one, how do I hear the other channels......?

I have video clips with 4 channels of audio, I can only hear audio recorded on channel one, how do I hear the other channels......?

What version of Premiere Elements and on what computer operating system?     Elements 13 on Windows 7
What is the brand/model/settings of the camera that recorded these videos?        ony PMW 320
When you import them into your Premiere Elements project, what does Premiere Elements Properties for that import give for
the audio description in the way of number of channels? If you open the Audio Meter (Window Menu/Audio Meters) and you play back
the video in the Premiere Elements Editor, how many channels does the Audio Meter display?
I just drag and drop video and when playing back only channel 1 will appear
What is your intended export for this video in terms of audio as well as video compression and formats?    MP4
I think you can only use audio if it's recorded on channel 1 or it does not recognize it.
Thanks for the help if possible,Kevin416 873 8374

Audio recording no longer works in Cap5 -- Ideas?

I created a presentation and recorded audio in multiple ways (Audio -- record to -- slide) (Audio icon in task bar).
Yesterday, I opened Captivate and these two options no longer worked. I don't mean that I cannot record. I mean that I cannot reach the screen in the software that allows you to record.
Recording in general works fine -- I can record to Audacity. So it's not a Windows (XP) problem or an input problem or a hardware problem.
Everything else works in Captivate.
Audio from previously recorded slides plays. I just cannot record. After using either option above, Captivate freezes and I need to click Esc to unlock.
I know, that's weird. If you don't believe me, look here. Let me know if you see me doing anything wrong while you're at it.
http://screencast.com/t/0fsLsR5Lh
So, I did what anyone faced with a weird isolated software problem would do. I reinstalled Captivate. Today, same problem.
HELP? Any ideas? I'm making final edits on my project, there is a deadline, etc. etc.

First thing to try is clearing the Cache using the button in Preferences.
If that doesn't resolve the issue, you can try closing down Captivate and deleting the Preferences folder itself.
On Xp it's located at: C:\Documents and Settings\<USER NAME>\Local Settings\Application Data\Adobe\Captivate 5
Captivate will recreate this folder next time it starts up, but any Preference settings you've made will be lost.
Also, make sure you've installed all updates and patches.

External Hard Drive and Audio Recording Application

Hi, hope everyone is doing well today. I'm new to this forum but I have been occasionally browsing it from time to time and find it very useful. So I figured I would post a couple questions that I have.
First of all I would like to tell you all excatly what I want to do with my computer. Currently I am trying to optimize my computer for the Audio Recording Application I have *Cubase SX 3* I recently just upgraded my RAM from 512 KB to 1.5 GB. My next purchased is most definitaly going to be an external hard drive, which leads me to my first question.
1. If someone could recomend me an external hard drive that is abosolutly amazing for audio recording and such around $150. I would ONLY be using the drive to save my audio files. Definitaly needs to be firewire also.
2. Next question is. I've heard of people booting from their external hard drives which has nothing but there OS and there audio recording application. That way when they boot it up they don't have processes running "Behind the scenes" and taking up some processor power. Is this true? If so, how would you going about doing this and what would I need?
3. If anybody else that is reading this is like me and does alot of audio editing on their iMac G5 computer if you could give me some tips in optimizing the performance of the computer in order to get the most out of it.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks ahead of time everyone.
Bard
iMac G5 w/o iSight Mac OS X (10.4.4) 20" screen 2.0 Ghz, 1.5 RAM, 250GB Hard Drive

1. If someone could recomend me an external hard
drive that is abosolutly amazing for audio recording
and such around $150. I would ONLY be using the
drive to save my audio files. Definitaly needs to be
firewire also.
Hard drives are pretty much the same. 7200 rpm are obviously a bit faster than 5400rpm. Why Firewire? USB 2 is about the same speed as standard Firewire 400, but the drives are cheaper.
2. Next question is. I've heard of people booting
from their external hard drives which has nothing but
there OS and there audio recording application. That
way when they boot it up they don't have processes
running "Behind the scenes" and taking up some
processor power. Is this true? If so, how would you
going about doing this and what would I need?
OS processes are going to be running in the background regardless of which disk the OS is on, that's what an OS does! If you don't want more processes simply make sure you don't have any other apps open. I don't know Cubase, but a G5 will handle video editing along with background tasks no problem, and video editing generally involves far more data manipulation than just sound, even if you're doing multiple tracks.
You can easily install the OS on an external hard drive using your original system install disk. Simply connect the drive and choose that as the destination in the installer. To boot from that you would choose it in System preferences/Startup Disk. You could minimise that system by deleting other applications from that drive's Applications folder, turning off internet connections, disabling all widgets etc, but as long as you only have Cubase open it shouldn't make too much difference.
3. If anybody else that is reading this is like me
and does alot of audio editing on their iMac G5
computer if you could give me some tips in optimizing
the performance of the computer in order to get the
most out of it.
There's not really much else to optimise. Modern Macs are not like computers of old, and OS X is a very modern system, not requiring the type of disk optimisation etc that there used to be.
See: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25668

I tried to delete an audio recording on my iphone and pressed edit configure and now am locked out of it

I tried to delete an audio recording from my iphone ipod and pressed edit and got a message saying configur ipod I did this and now I am locked into only one topic and recording. Now after a couple of hours I cannot get into my ipod at all.
Can anyone help. Thank you.

Hi,
I tried to log in to iCloud but a message appears telling me I "can't sign in because my account was disabled for security reasons....reset password at iforgot.apple.com". I don't know why this happened.
I reset both my Apple ID and password.
When I tap Settings iCloud is listed on the left side between General and Mail, Contacts etc.
Tapping iCloud brings up a log in screen for iCloud which shows my old Apple ID and requests the password. If I put the password in I get the message as above.
If I use the new Apple ID/Password I get the message "the maximum number of free accounts have been activated....
In settings there is no option to "Delete Account"
Any suggestions??

Stereo Audio Record problem (While recording video as well)

Hi,
I just just bought Sony Xperia C3 dual yesterday. I'm having problem with audio recording. I installed the Sony audio recorder from Google play store but while recording in stereo mode with it the gain suddenly drops after 1/2 second(s). Same problem while recording a video with stock camera app as well, video quality is fine but the audio with it is,just worst. Tried third party app like regorge pro but faced the same problem. Tried disabling the AGC with it, but no good. Recording in mono mode just works fine and I get clear record.
Any solution?
Thanks.

@uliwooly This one i recorded today morning. The audio starts good & clear at the begining but just after one second it drops & then you can hear the bus engine sounds like waterfall. Here is the youtube link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H1jNxyYMlw Here's another video uploaded by a review site with the same problem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3vKwydfN6U & more from youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GLLj2ommP4 then i used a third party audio recorder with mic switch option https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6d4uAEZFRE as usual with the rear mic the gain suddenly drops after second & you can hear some weird sounds like a "movie bomb" sound at 00:04, "rattle snake" sound at 00:05 & 00:12 & with the front mic starts at 00:17 you can hear the difference. It's mono but so clear & sharp. Finally, as i dont have the mic swith option while recording video, all videos i record will have the same problem. This is definitely not the typical "sony" thing to carry on.

Audio recording advice?

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