Audacity Forum

Just looking to gather some opinions on pc audio recording. I have been doing VO auditions for a while and even had some work and I'm looking to step things up abit...but. I also am a avid gamer and I have a recently built a very power machine but also not at all quiet. My old machine was verging on being too loud but was serviceable. I'm considering getting a portable digital recorder for the job but before I go down that route or the route of building an isolation booth I was wondering what pcs or pc sound damping products / methods have you found successful? Any quiet laptops that have soundcards capable of pro recording?

Regards

Will

I use a hard disk recorder for multi-track recording (or a Zoom H2 for single recordings) then edit on my PC.

I have replaced the power supply for a quiet one, and upgraded the CPU fan for a low noise fan. The video card is just a TNT2, so that does not use a fan. I have also added a large case fan and run it on 7v (from the red wires of the 12v and 5v supplies). The PC is in a large cupboard (plenty of air to prevent overheating) and is stood on some foam matting (part of an old camping mat) to cut down vibrations transmitting to the cupboard.

Many people use that Zoom thing, although it does have some problems. You can't adjust it during the performance.

I plug an analog mixer right into the side of my Mac PowerBook. The Line-In connection is very good and yes, I do have to hide the computer or stop recording when the little internal fan comes on. I also bought a little StarTech USB sound adapter and that lets me use microphones on the run--when I can't sit next to the mixer or need power for a computer microphone.

http://www.startech.com/item/ICUSBAUDIO ... apter.aspx

I have two of these--actually, the version just before this one. One of them has a slight DC offset compared to the other. The DC is easily removable in Audacity.

Koz

kozikowski wrote:Many people use that Zoom thing, although it does have some problems. You can't adjust it during the performance.

You can actually. There is a L/M/H microphone gain switch, which can be changed during record, and the "fast forward/fast reverse" buttons allow fine adjustment of the recording level even while you record.

It also has AGC which is thankfully switched off by default.