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Admin
Pupule
USA
4551 Posts |
 Posted - 09/29/2002 : 7:28:08 PM
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Hi Keith,
Neither my MD nor soundcard have an optical out/in so I went to Radio Shack and got a chord with a 1/8" stereo plug on each end. I'm pretty sure it's 1/8" - well it's the same as the headphone plug. I read somewhere to be sure to plug it into your soundcard "line in" and NOT accidentally into the "mic in" otherwise doing the latter could potentially do some damage. Good luck. |
Andy |
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RichardH
Aloha
USA
15 Posts |
Posted - 09/30/2002 : 01:49:14 AM
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Andy
Check out your minidisk manual about 'auto'recording and 'manual' recording'. This refers to the automatic level control that is applied to the mic input when using the default recording 'auto'.
The way 'auto' works, is that when your recording sound is at a low volume, the minidisk recorder cranks up the input gain. When you play loud. it cranks it down. This is extreme expansion and compression. This is ok for recording speech, etc, where you are looking only for intelligibility, but with guitar, you want the music to have a dynamic range. Another thing happens when you turn up the gain when you have a low signal, or no signal. You get a lot of every background noise in the neighborhood. And the noise in the inexpensive minidisk mic preamp.
My wife's parents wanted to record their organ. I purchased them a minidisk recorder online and drop shipped it to them, and they recorded in the default 'auto' gain mode using a stereo Sony mic that was made for the minidisk. Then they shipped the recorder and all to me to make them a CD. It came out ok, but with a lot of hiss in the low passages, and not much for dynamics. I used the Waves denoising plugins to help the noise, and it is tolarable, but the dynamics are horrible. It is all at one exact same level.
Since I got the minidisk, I have been playing with it on manual level recording, and it comes out a lot better. I also used my AKGC1000s mics as a stereo pair down at the beach to record some surf sounds, and in the studio on some other stuff, again in the manual record mode, and that setting reduced the noise even more, but it isn't even close to the quality and low noise I can get using a standard PC sound card like the soundblaster live card on my internet PC.
The minidisk is a great tool for scratch recording, and to check out how you are doing. It is so wonderfully portable! But you may want to go another type of recording method if you want to catch the nuances of slack key.
Aloha,
Richard |
Richard
Grass Shack Records
Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii |
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Lawrence
Ha`aha`a
USA
1597 Posts |
Posted - 09/30/2002 : 1:56:53 PM
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Also,
If you are doing an analog transfer from MD to PC, rememember to switch the output from "headphone" to "line". This is done by scrolling through the setup menus available in "menu" mode. This will set the output to a fixed level (no need to adjust volume on the MD) and will also raise the amplitude of the output considerably. Of course, as I indicated before, the best way to transfer from MD is using a digital (SPDIF) connection from a "component stereo" MD unit.
...L
Also - (Richard) I remember playing some slack key on a Yacht (named Carpe Diem) while moored at Angel Island in SF Bay for a few people including a man named Richard who happened to own some houses on Kealakekua Bay. This was probably ten or more years ago. Does this sound familiar?
...L
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Mahope Kākou...
...El Lorenzo de Ondas Sonoras |
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RichardH
Aloha
USA
15 Posts |
Posted - 10/01/2002 : 04:38:57 AM
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Lawrence,
You have a great memory!
That was me, and the Carpe Diem was (and is perhaps still?) owned by David Moore, who probably still lives down in Fremont.
The studio is on that property here on the bay, and I have built one more home here.
Do you know David still?
Richard |
Richard
Grass Shack Records
Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii |
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Lawrence
Ha`aha`a
USA
1597 Posts |
Posted - 10/01/2002 : 1:03:33 PM
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Richard,
Yes - I still know David, sort of, but I am not in touch with him very often these days. We worked together in the 80's and again as recently as 97. But with all of the industry changes he has gone off to do something else. He recently re-married but I do not know his new wife. We occaisionally trade emails, but not in a while now. I may email him soon, just need some good jokes to send.
I am just a little bit better at the Guitar than I was back then, and Cynthia is playing the uke, so we are a band (very loosely speaking!). We have gone to the Beamer Camp for the last two years, and George Kahumoku's camp (on Maui) for the last four years.
...Lawrence
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Mahope Kākou...
...El Lorenzo de Ondas Sonoras |
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RichardH
Aloha
USA
15 Posts |
Posted - 10/01/2002 : 2:39:27 PM
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Lawrence,
Then you must be an acquaintence of Donley and Bronwyn. When they were here for the last camp, Donley came in before the workshop and we had fun spending an hour or so doing the first slack key recordings in my brand new studio with his Santa Cruz guitar. That guitar sounds really sweet. A couple of those one-take recordings we made are posted on the studio website.
Next time you are out this way you should please drop by.
Aloha,
-Richard |
Richard
Grass Shack Records
Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii |
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Lawrence
Ha`aha`a
USA
1597 Posts |
Posted - 10/01/2002 : 7:04:38 PM
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Yes - we know them and most of the rest of the left-coast slack-heads.
Sure we will look you up, thanks for the invite.
To get back to the original subject - The newest ATRAC algorithm being shipped by Sony in their MDs (like my MD909) sounds even better than earlier ones, and far better than MP3 (better even than the new MP3-pro). With the right mikes and preamp (the weakest links) these units can make remarkable recordings, better than DAT in my opinion, but not as good as a modern (88.2K or 96K)/24bit system by any means.
...L
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Mahope Kākou...
...El Lorenzo de Ondas Sonoras |
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Pupule
USA
4551 Posts |
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