Listening to what u record in real time possible?

[hilfiger]

It is possible to listen to what u record in real time?
I am recording straight to my laptop with a mic and i am wondering if i can listen what i am recording. That will help adjust the volumes , as i am recording in a church.

Thanx

[steve]

USB microphone or conventional microphone plugged into the microphone input of your sound card?
Is it a laptop computer?
XP? Vista? Vista 64?

[hilfiger]

Hi, sorry for the lack of details

I own a top of the range Dell xps laptop with Windows 7 x64 which have an IDT sound card

I usually record with the built in mic, as we didnt manage to make a proper recording when connected to the Yamaha mixer. The recordings are not to bad, a bit of background sound (i will add more details later)

The church just started recording , and we are kinda new at doing it.


I am actually open to any ideas of how to record in a church. I do prefer to record "what u hear".
This is the site , if someone interested ( foreign) http://bisericafiladelfia.org (Inregistrari recente = recent recordings)

thanx

[kozikowski]

Most Windows laptops will not handle a High Level, Stereo show from a sound mixer. That's one of the things that got left off when they made a Windows Business Computer. All Windows machines are business machines whether they say "Entertainment Edition" or not.

You can do this with most large Windows Deskside machines or almost any Mac, but not the Windows Laptops.

You can record your stereo line signal(s) with an external USB sound card similar to the ones we reviewed here...

http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=9477


What-U-Hear is insanely dangerous because of possibilities of feedback, echos and other damage. That's generally used only to record YouTube videos.

Set Windows to record the USB device directly and set Audacity for either Hardware Playthough or Software Playthrough to hear what you're doing in headphones. My machine only supports Software Playthrough and I just have to put up with the late sound in my headphones. It's not real time, but it's usually enough to tell if I have damage or not.

Koz

[steve]

What-U-Hear is insanely dangerous

Perhaps a little overstated - testing to see if a light socket is live by putting your tongue into it is insanely dangerous. Using What-U-Hear for recording anything other than sounds playing on your computer (such as internet radio) is the least favoured option. If you must use What-U-Hear you should mute all audio inputs that are not in use.

If you are recording what-U-hear and also playback what you are recording at the same time, then What-U-Hear will also record the playback which will cause either feedback (screaming speakers), or at least an unwanted echo/reverberation effect.

To listen to what is being recorded you must set the recording input to Microphone (assuming that you are recording from the microphone input). You can then enable playback for the microphone input. You will need to use headphones or the microphone will also record the playback as well as the thing that you are trying to record and again this can cause feedback. I'm not sure how you set this in Windows 7 (never used it) but in XP/Vista you can double click on a loudspeaker icon (near the Time/Date) to open up the Windows Mixer panel.

Internal microphones are notoriously poor quality on PC laptops (even expensive ones) - they're ok for recording memos, but that's about it. Similarly the microphone inputs on on-board sound cards are invariably low quality and often have various types of noise reduction built in which is good for making internet phone calls, but bad for making decent quality recordings.

You are likely to get much better recording quality if you use a USB microphone, or a USB sound card. However, USB microphones do not usually allow you to listen to what you are recording unless you enable "software playthrough" in Audacity (in Edit menu > Preferences). If you use an external USB sound card that has line level inputs then you can connect your mixing desk to it and monitor directly from the mixing desk. Some USB sound cards also have a headphone socket for monitoring.

Using your mixing desk with a USB sound card is likely to give you the best recording, and it need not be expensive - USB sound cards start at around $40.
If you get a USB sound card (or a USB microphone) make sure that it says that it is Windows 7 compatible - there have been reports that some sound cards that work with Vista do not work with Windows 7.

[hilfiger]

thank u guys for the good tips.

I am thinking of buying an external sound card, and maybe an usb mic which is good for choirs and stuff, like this one http://www.musiconmypc.co.uk/samson-c03 ... p-322.html


I am playing the sound sound on headphones, never intended to use internal speakers.

[steve]

I am thinking of buying an external sound card, and maybe an usb mic

Note that Audacity can only record from one device at a time, so you will not be able to use an external sound card and a USB microphone at the same time. One sound card or one USB microphone - that's it. If you want to use several microphones you can use conventional microphones plugged into your mixing desk, then record from the mixing desk through a USB sound card.