How do we record while practicing?

egan007

Does anyone know of a cheap effective way of recording not on tape?

We (not a band -Yet ) are just at a point where we want to play back and see what's good and whats really bad. It would help alot if it was digital so it could be shared on a computer.

Has anyone ever done this sort of thing?
Are there any devices available or has anyone figured a way of using a mini disk? ....

Doctor J

We just use a dictaphone, the sound's not great but we can hear what's going on clearly enough, then just record it onto a PC and share it from there.

Giblet

Best method I found is to get a Mini Disc with a stereo mic, place it somewhere that picks up the sound best, and its fairly decent quality.

Spocker

Hi Egan

I can think of a couple of ways (each more expensive than the last... )

1. If you have a PC with sound card already you could just plug a regular mic into the microphone socket of the sound card and use Sound Recorder to record the WAV file - it wouldn't be the best quality but it would be digital

2. Some minidisc protable recorders have a mic socket as well (my old Sony one does anyways). The hard part here is getting it from minidisc to PC - you'll need some kind of software (again Sound Recorder will do if you're not after quality) to record it to WAV/MP3 etc etc format and the recording is generally from minidisc (digital) -> sound card (analogue) -> hard disc (digital) so you lose the benfit of recording digitally in the first place.

Howandever if all you want to do is listen to yourselves to see how good you are then try the first method - its the cheapest if you already have the PC and mic

Good luck!

egan007

one of the lads has a mini disk - sounds like the best option - cheers

egan007

the mini disk has a line in (optical) jack and a headphone jack
here is no mic jack

can the line in (optical) be used for a mic?

Spocker

You can connect the mic to the line-in, althought it may need a pre-amp (it depends on the mic). The easiest way is just to try it! Plug it in press record and see what it sounds like.

WetDaddy

I too recommend the minidisc + stereo mic combination (if you've got a mic socket)...

It's simple and if you use a good quality stereo mic (we use the Sony ECM-MS907 - Expensive but definitely worth it) the balance and levels you get from it are amazing.


-S

egan007

thanks for the help