re: recording in higher quality than when exporting...

[JeffB]

@kozikowski

Also, I wouldn’t blow into that or any microphone. Depending on the ribbon microphone, you only do that once.

Koz

Yeah, I learned that relatively recently. Also not to tap on the screen to see if it’s live. Both are pretty common, though, among the amateurs such as myself who don’t/didn’t know any better. In fact one of the choir members tapped on the screen as an unsolicited sound check a few days or so ago when I was setting up for a recording.

[JeffB]

@flynwill

@JeffB

If someone hit the “Phantom Power” button by accident when a dynamic mic that doesn’t need it is connected, can it damage the mic?

Generally, no. I believe that there are a few microphones out, vintage ribbon microphones in partciurlar, there where damage is possible (some ribbon mics?). Here’s some information on the subject: phantom power kills ribbon microphones, truth vs. fiction | recording hacks

Interesting, even though I’ll probably never own a ribbon mic, especially a vintage one.

@flynwill

@JeffB

@Koz

USB microphones are the ones that occasionally suffer from Frying Mosquitoes for which there is no known convenient cure.

I wonder if they’ll figure out how to get away from that someday.

Unlikely, at least not at the price level that hobbyists will accept. There once was a big push from the CES to make optical SP/DIF the standard for digital audio between devices. The optical interface for the digital signal goes a long way towards isolating the inevitable noise that comes from computing devices. However, I haven’t seen much “pro-sumer” recording gear going this route. Sound cards with SP/DIF output (to connect to that stereo system with SP/DIF input) are fairly common. But SP/DIF on the capture side is pretty rare.

SP/DIF interfaces are expensive then?

@flynwill

Using a Raspberry Pi for the record computer is tempting to test (there is a raspian compile of Audacity available). It’s small size and power level should have a lot fewer noise issues.

That’s a very interesting idea. My oldest son was really wanting to build one awhile back, but he’s got a laptop now. I guess recording to an SD card would be fast enough to keep from bogging Audacity down? Would it have enough memory and speed to keep up with a recording?

[kozikowski]

Yeah, I learned that relatively recently. Also not to tap on the screen to see if it’s live.

Talk first, then scratch. Talking will get the attention of the board operator. If that fails, scratching may be loud enough to set the overload/clipping light on the mixer desk giving the board op a clue “where you are.”

Koz

[JeffB]

@kozikowski

Yeah, I learned that relatively recently. Also not to tap on the screen to see if it’s live.

Talk first, then scratch. Talking will get the attention of the board operator. If that fails, scratching may be loud enough to set the overload/clipping light on the mixer desk giving the board op a clue “where you are.”

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/clips/ScratchTest2.wav

Koz

Unfortunately, we’re not sophisticated enough to have a board op. It’s usually parents or a coach trying to figure out how to turn the darn thing on & which switches do what. It’s a little surprising perhaps that the system has lasted some 18 years so far. We probably ought to do some training and maybe put up a youtube video or two for people to take a gander at.

People volunteer to run a Trivia Night for some charity or to be in charge of some basketball tournament and then panic when they can’t figure out how to make the sound system work. I’ve been getting calls when people are in trouble because they think I’m the expert since the guy who actually knew what he was doing moved away, even though I’m barely one step ahead of them in many cases. Hopefully.

[kozikowski]

I did a video once where I blacked out the portions of our mixer boards that didn’t do anything.

Anybody walking up to a mixer board wants to run and hide from the forest of knobs and switches. We’re not producing an international videoconference (although we’ve done that, too). We’re just playing videos with sound tracks. Those two sliders are left and right sound and these two are room volume. Then you switch the videos on cue and drink coffee.

Koz

[JeffB]

Blacking out the unused knobs & faders would probably be a very good idea for that.

Part of what the guru handed on to me were the routines for turning it on & off as well.

To turn it on, turn the dials for the amplifier all the way down, turn on the main power switch and all of the equipment needed should be live… the cassette decks, the CDs and the mics, mixer board and so on. Then turn the amplifier knobs to full power and adjust the volume via the faders.

To turn it off, turn the amplifier dials all the way down again, and then turn off the main power switch. DON’T turn off any of the individual units.

I guess turning it on or off with the amplifier full on can send a pretty high energy pop to the speakers, which wouldn’t be good for them, obviously.

[JeffB]

@kozikowski

…ACX is recommending a microphone digitizer and preamplifier I’ve never used before. The Blue Icicle. Jury’s out. I just don’t know. I have a cousin of that, the Shure X2U. I don’t use it much because it has low volume and there’s no good way to fix it.

http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/x2uShureOverdub.jpg

That’s it connected to my beat-up Shure SM-58.

Koz

You probably already know this, but I thought I’d mention the Cloudlifter that the folks at Recording Hacks seem to be quite high on. I think it provides about an additional 20 dB of very clean gain, but it does cost $149 which is likely higher than either your mic or interface, so maybe “there’s still no good way to fix it”. But it is an option and could also be used for other mics that need a lot of gain.

[kozikowski]

The SM58 is $100 and the X2U is $100.
Koz