seperate audio recording

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iCEbLuEORbitZ
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seperate audio recording

Post by iCEbLuEORbitZ »

ok, so i found out my camera cannot have a microphone plugged in, unless the power cable is plugged into the camera... well thats not going to work well for me, so i decided to record audio seperately. well it seems that my laptop doesnt record very well or something, i had all the recording volumes up all the way and it still wasnt recording very well. but the same microphone works on my desktop which i have a turtle beach santa cruz soundcard on. is that why? do to get a good soundcard for the laptop? also, any suggestions on other equipment, such as a tape recorder or something else, but i want fairly high quality, but not expensive.. obviously.
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LiegeCentrino
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RE: seperate audio recording

Post by LiegeCentrino »

Well, for my film we're going to be using a portable minidisc recorder with noise-cancelling headphones. We picked the recorder up off eBay for £12...
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Post by rep22 »

I too have a mini-disc recorder, and the recording quality is great. It's not a bad choice if you decide to look into it.
iCEbLuEORbitZ
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Post by iCEbLuEORbitZ »

why do you need noise cancelling headphones for recording?
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Post by Scott_Talbot »

you have noise cancelling headphones so that you can hear exactly what the microphone is picking up and not hear any other noises. as far as sound cards check creative. they got a audigy2 that goes in the PCMCIA slot. there are also USB devices from turtle beach and m-audio.

how is it that you can only use an external microphone with the power plug in the camera?
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wildabeast009
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Post by wildabeast009 »

We use a MP3 recorder that works OK for now. We had some problems the first day with volume, but I think that was largley because of how we boomed it. Whatever you use, make sure it's digital so you won't have audio sync problems.
You know what's a fun game? Take 3 Excedrin PM's and see if you can whack off before you fall asleep. You always win, that's the best part about the game. -Cal, [i]The 40 Year Old Virgin[/i]
iCEbLuEORbitZ
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Post by iCEbLuEORbitZ »

well i am thinking about getting a iriver h10, but i dont think it has a microphone input. however i am doing this mainly for voices only, i think i will be doing all the other sounds seprerately after i have the other stuff all together.
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wildabeast009
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Post by wildabeast009 »

That's we we use, an iriver. Mine's farely old two, maybe a couple years, look for one of the 128+ MB iFP-300 series models on ebay. You could probably find it fairly cheap. It's always treated me nicely.
You know what's a fun game? Take 3 Excedrin PM's and see if you can whack off before you fall asleep. You always win, that's the best part about the game. -Cal, [i]The 40 Year Old Virgin[/i]
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LiegeCentrino
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Post by LiegeCentrino »

iCEbLuEORbitZ wrote:why do you need noise cancelling headphones for recording?
Why would you not? You hear EXACTLY what the mic hears, so you can avoid any nasty surpirises when listening back to the audio...
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Post by iCEbLuEORbitZ »

gotcha. but, i have a problem that i was thinking about. so the other day i was recording with this mic. it is a kick drum mic, so it picks up lows real nicely, for engines and whatnot, which is what i am needing to record. however this mic has one of those 3 pronged circular plugs on it, so i got an adapter that converts it to a headphone jack. that way i can hook it up to my computer, but its hard getting my desktop around... do these mics require a special amplifier? i'm affraid that if i get my mp3 player, it will not pick up the soonud well, or maybe i just need a new shotgun mic to pick up voices from a couple feet away, and other various sound effects.
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Post by iCEbLuEORbitZ »

ok, i did some reading, and it seems that professional microphones output very low signals, you need a special mic amp if you hook it up to your computer's mic input. otherwise if you turn up the gain w/o the amp, you will get alot of noise. also, on ebay i can find all kinds of minidisc recorders but none seem to have microphone inputs. i was looking at the around $60 range.
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Post by bretoncrackers »

the "three pronged circular plug" that you're talking about is called an XLR plug. It is used by professionals because it carries a much better signal than stereo jacks (the ones ud see on headphones or your electric guitar). Try to get your hands on a mixer, you'll be able to adjust the volume of the microphone without worrying about unwanted noise. Also, with a mixer, you can toy around with frequency settings to get that nice bass that hollywood has in it's dialogue (you know the way the voices sound so much sexiier than we could ever hope for with our microphones?). Another reason your microphone might not have enough volume is that it is meant to run on "phantom power". Im not going to bother explaining this, it would tire my fingers. Look it up on google if you want, but remember to check out ALL the pros and cons of a microphone before buying it, it might be a professional microphone, but that might mean its beyond your capabilities to handle, and id rather record sound with a medium quality microphone and pick up everything i want than record with the best microphone on earth and pick up half my scene because i dont know how to work it.
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Post by iCEbLuEORbitZ »

haha thanks. yes i've done some research and i know what all the phantom power is and stuff and i found out that the professional mics have such a small output signal that computers cant pick them up right w/o one of those usb mic amps or a mixer. i have access to a nice big mixer.. but i could only do foley recording with it, as i cannot take it w/ me. but as for dialogue, i'm not sure what i am going to do just yet, because i think a shotgun mic would work best because of the way it picks up the voice as i have read about it, but i dont have money to one. guess i'll go start botherenig the local cable access :).
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