Suggestions on pc recording

[William King]

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

[steve]

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.

[kozikowski]

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

[steve]

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.