Improving audio

[chzuck]

Sorry, I got us off track. I know I have a less than desireable recording. I want to try and make it the best it can be. I think many good suggestions have been made and I will try them. Thank you also for the info on the mic. I need to purchase another one and hesitate trying another ME12.

[kozikowski]

The original equipment manufacturer turns out to be Audio Technica (attached).

I'm not a fan of Audio Technica. They make knock-off versions of better equipment. That makes the Radio Shack a copy of a knock-off.

I need to purchase another one and hesitate trying another ME12.

Don't. It's not going to plug into your pre-digital Pearlcorder.

What problem we are solving? I never found any need to put an external microphone on my Pearlcorder. The thing has weapons grade automatic gain control and it will automatically adapt itself to some pretty amazing conditions. It mopped the floor with the competition when it was designed and people are still using them, how many decades later?

Koz

[chzuck]

Well you have told me what Olympus could not. That I bought the wrong mic. I had been email their tech department about my mic issue and they could not figure it out except the mic was bad and it was out of warranty. Thanks much!

I thought I needed an external mic because my volume on the tape was not very loud. Now I am wondering if I had the recorder lying flat or on its side possibly with the mic facing away from some of the people. I can see that it should by lying flat because of where the openings are for the mic. Maybe I will invest in the last mic you listed. I have only used this recorder on two occasions and that was 5 years apart.

[kozikowski]

Which Pearlcorder do you have?

the mic was bad and it was out of warranty.

You do have your timing problems.

The makers knew what they were doing. They said so, clearly in the instructions. You hit Customer Relations with an Olympus recorder design that may be older than they are. There's only so much you can do with that.

Quick. How many of your friends are still using moving tape? For anything? There's a recent posting about the last tape maker folding their tent and going home. No more. Bye.


My machine has limiters to deal with rapid volume changes, but it's impressive feature is the long term volume control. Start the recorder running in any room with the normal number of motors and noise makers, traffic outside, etc. Now scream into it and just let it record. When you play back the tape, it will have recorded your scream more or less normally, but will take the next minute or so to recover and start recording the room noises again. You can hear traffic noises slowly coming up out of the mud and become audible.

This is one of the tricks that none of the digital recorders will do.

There's a number of complaints from people sending digital recorders back because for the first time, they had a recorder that wouldn't follow the average volume of the room like the tape machine would.

This is how the Pearlcorder records conversations, too. It should be possible to sit it in the same room with a meeting and as long as the room noises aren't obnoxious and you don't try to rapidly switch between different volumes, it should make a clear, audible recording. That means you can't set the recorder in your pocket or close to any one person. Put it in the middle of the table on a book on a towel and start it.



Put it there in place of the wired microphone. The towel will soak up table noises and the book provides a high-inertia acoustic plate that actually increases the volume of the recording.

I don't think buying an external microphone is going to help. The 33-3013 is not a particularly crisp performer and you may introduce other problems by doing that.

The ME12 is a noise cancelling, directional microphone. It will record wherever it's pointed...only. It won't do a conference room table.

This voice recording thing is harder than it looks.

Koz

[chzuck]

I thank you greatly for all of your information. I have a J300 Pearlcorder. Looking in the paper that came with the recorder, I should have purchased an ME15 mic. I now don't plan on purchasing any mics, just use the techniques you suggested.
From what you are telling me, I think I will pass on buying another external microphone. Thanks for the tips on using a book a towel. I use a recorder so little. Only twice in the 8 years that I have it.
Back in 2007 when I made the recording I used a free audio program called Polder or Polter to load the audio to my computer and enhance the recording. Now I am more computer savy and have been playing with Audacity some and am able to make the audio much better to listen to with the little I know. For as ignorant as I was then, I should be pleased I got the audio I did. For me it was a once in a lifetime 2 hours of hearing stories from great people ran a great company.

[kozikowski]

Using equipment every four years is extraordinarily dangerous. You take the batteries out, right? If you don't, one of these times you're going to try to use it and the battery compartment is going to be flooded with caustic, orange crud from the leaking batteries ... and that's the end of the recorder ... and the job.

Try it on a non-critical recording session before you really need it. Many of the panicky postings on the forum are from people who got the equipment out the shipping pack, turned it on and tried to record an audiobook. That doesn't work for most people.

Koz

[chzuck]

Pretty much standard practice for me to take batteries out of anything not used on a regular basis. Thanks for all of your help.