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help... how do i reduce noise levels in the recording?
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| gogga |
i really hope i am posting in the right forum :-)
i am a pro webmaster and know little about sound... i separate music into "i like" and "i don't like"... lately i got a chnce to record a live set from the "i like" DJ - Luis Diaz over at Transit nightclub, Chicago...
i don't have any professional equipment and have to resort to record the set on my dell inspirion 8000 laptop. i went to best buy and got myself the $45 cable rca to 1/8" so i can plug one end into mixer and the other into my laptop. i recorded the whole set using sound forge 5.0 with settings: 41khz, 16bit stereo. in the windows audio control pannel i adjusted the input level to 50% (a half). everything came out fine except for the fact that when in the set the base hits hard it's maxing all out and the recording sounds like ... in the mixer i was plugged into "TAPE OUT / PRE EFF".
i told you everything i know about what i did when i was recording it... SEAN CUSICK is coming this saturday and i HAVE to have his set!!!! please!! if you have any suggestions on how i can improve the quality of my recording i would LOVE to hear them!!!! don't tell me to get a dat :-) there's NO way im spending $700 just to be able to record his set... even though he IS worth it!!!
hey, if you're anywhere near chicago this weekend, drop me a line and i'll put you on a list!! this is the least i can do if you can help me out with advice.
thank you, and, again, sorry if i posted in the wrong board. please direct me to the proper location. |
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| skywarp |
The problem is that you are recording through a notebook's Microphone in, which is not designed to take a line signal because it is stronger than the mic signal ... so you're pretty much out of luck if you want to record on your notebook, unless you want to buy one of those really nice pro-grade USB or PC-Card soundcards ...
Another option (besides DAT) would be getting one of those pretty new Sony Minidisc recorders that can record 320min of music on a single disc (soundquality will suffer though). So either way you would have to shell out some money to be able to record that set. |
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| gogga |
mmm... there's "line in", "line out", "mic"... i'm pluggin the cable into "line in"...
if this helps at all... i tested this setup by plugging rca's into my radio receiver and recording overhigh... i got 10 hours worth of good quality stuff... all the levels normal... |
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| skywarp |
Hehe, didn't see that one coming =)
What might have happened is that the DJ was redlining the mixer (ie having his levels too high - a LOT of DJs do that) so that was clipping the soundcard. Before recording you might want to do a little soundcheck from the mixer to your computer - play some random record while driving the mixer into the red zone on the VU meters and watch the signal meters on Soundforge (while recording), then adjust the soundcard input levels in the Windows mixer so that the signal peaks at between -6dB and -3dB ... that should give you a nice clean recording. |
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| gogga |
if i up sean cusick's set, i'm coming to get you, boy!! :)
no, seriously... i really appreciate your help!!! i REALLY hope i get it right :-) |
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| gogga |
also... you think you might have any suggestions on how i can improve the quality of the sound as it is? i'd love to share it with the world, but it's not "good enough" quality as is...
also... recording at 22khz vs. recording at 44khz... is there any difference?
also, is there a pcmcia or usb sound card that you can recommend that would "kick ass" for this kinda ? |
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| Tranzmit |
| quote: | Originally posted by gogga
also... you think you might have any suggestions on how i can improve the quality of the sound as it is? i'd love to share it with the world, but it's not "good enough" quality as is...
also... recording at 22khz vs. recording at 44khz... is there any difference?
also, is there a pcmcia or usb sound card that you can recommend that would "kick ass" for this kinda ? |
make SURE you use 44100khz and 16 bit and try to work with the sound levels so you're getting the best signal to noise ratio you can. Get some nice software like Cool Edit pro to master the recording and work on anything you need to in there such as hard amplify (it forces the amplitude up but keeps it within the allowed sampled area, thus basically getting much greater amplitude without any distortion)
Also you can use that program to sample a section of noise thats occuring and then it'll remove those frequencies from the entire track. It's amazing actually! I've remastered a few old records (about 20 years old) like so and you get really good results
If you can't do that then encode the Track to mp3 with a nice high bitrate and send it to me and I'll see what i can do for you and send it back to ya |
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