How do you record a session and email it to friends?

[HelenG]

Hi - we at the Yorkshire Concertina Club are doing our first gig for a very long time tomorrow. The thought has been put that we should record ourselves, either to put on the ICA Website or on Concertina.net - or possibly on YouTube- not for edification but just to show people what we have done, and to show us that we could have done better! Having thought about it we decided that we don't have an adequate recording device - I've got 2 mini disks which are great but I've found out that the software does NOT allow you to store tracks on the computer and you can't email music to other people in the group to give them an idea of how we sound, or obviously to send the thing to other organisations. HOW DO PEOPLE DO IT? I've looked at the ZOOM H4 is it?technology which seems really good, and developed for individual/orchestra practice, except that it relies on 2 AA batteries I think and it's quite expensive - I've found out that you can get a mic that goes straight into the laptop, followed by a free package called Audacity (which I don't seem to be able to load onto my computer), which has a good crit. There had been a further suggestion - using a camcorder as it gives both sound and pictures if you want it to. What would you do please - bearing in mind that I've not long gone past a reel to reel tape recorder so don't understand modern acronyms! I obviously don't expect to sort this out before the gig but any help would be useful for future use (hopefully). Cheers, Helen Graham

[jlfinkels]

I use an inexpensive Sony ICD digital voice recorder with an external mic to record lower quality stereo. It holds about 4 hours at a reasonable stereo setting. If I want a good quality stereo recording I use a Zoom H2 with the AC power supply. I purchased the Sony recorder for around $100 on sale a few years ago and the Zoom H2 was around $150 a few months back.

 

There are a lot of choices out there but I wanted gadgets that were easy to use since I'm not particularly technically savvy. I asked a similar question here a while back and at the time those were the two that seemed to fit my needs.

[JimLucas]

...I've got 2 mini disks which are great but I've found out that the software does NOT allow you to store tracks on the computer...

There's always the brute force method:

• Record on the minidisk.
  
• Instead of "transferring" the digital result to the computer, play it, with little cable from "line out" on the minidisk to "line in" on the computer, and use Audacity (or something like it) to record the incoming sound.
  

...a free package called Audacity (which I don't seem to be able to load onto my computer)...

Audacity is the program I use, but if you really can't get it to work, maybe someone else here can recommend another, similar free package? I can tell you that once you have the sound recorded in Audacity, you can easily convert it to other formats (e.g., MP3, which is common and compact, and pretty much the current standard for exchanging sound files).

 

I obviously don't expect to sort this out before the gig...

Note that the above "brute force" method starts with simply recording the gig using your minidisk recorder. That you can already do, so you don't have to miss recording this gig, even if you don't get the other details sorted out before the gig. As long as you have the recording, you can do the rest later, or get someone else (e.g., a friend with a computer that can download Audacity) to help you do it.

[Mark Evans]

Session recordings....tough that. I've got a digital Zoom (the one that looks like a taser). Never been very happy with the results and have given up.

 

YouTube...I've seen only few that are worth a bucket of spit....sound quality and lighting make it very difficult to watch and listen.

 

A decent recording? One of our session members, Greg Bacon has a recording set-up that is compact and of quality and has achieved some interesting results and I think could work at a session.

 

On at least one occation he set up an area microphone in the midst of the circle which runs to a little magic box that dissapears into the back of a laptop. It runs through Cube software which is later processed as to levels and what not. Sounds pretty good with just enough crowd noise to make it fun. Of course I can't imagine having the concertina very close to the microphone as it tends to come off as the loud mouth drunk uncle who shows up at family functions, flatulent, well past it and in a mood to bellow at the top of his lungs. Odd that we concertinist don't hear that same effect while playing.... Could it not be a saving grace that the little box is on a knee where the assult to our own ears is diminished?

 

As to video, not possible at Stones. It's dark and even with those "stage lights" they sometime remember to turn on it gives the paticipants this Trailways Bus Station in Macon, Georgia at 2:00 in the morning look .

Edited May 9, 2009 by Mark Evans

[Michael Ducky Raley]

Hi - we at the Yorkshire Concertina Club are doing our first gig for a very long time tomorrow. The thought has been put that we should record ourselves, either to put on the ICA Website or on Concertina.net - or possibly on YouTube- not for edification but just to show people what we have done, and to show us that we could have done better! Having thought about it we decided that we don't have an adequate recording device - I've got 2 mini disks which are great but I've found out that the software does NOT allow you to store tracks on the computer and you can't email music to other people in the group to give them an idea of how we sound, or obviously to send the thing to other organisations. HOW DO PEOPLE DO IT? I've looked at the ZOOM H4 is it?technology which seems really good, and developed for individual/orchestra practice, except that it relies on 2 AA batteries I think and it's quite expensive - I've found out that you can get a mic that goes straight into the laptop, followed by a free package called Audacity (which I don't seem to be able to load onto my computer), which has a good crit. There had been a further suggestion - using a camcorder as it gives both sound and pictures if you want it to. What would you do please - bearing in mind that I've not long gone past a reel to reel tape recorder so don't understand modern acronyms! I obviously don't expect to sort this out before the gig but any help would be useful for future use (hopefully). Cheers, Helen Graham

 

Could you use a male-to-male jack from the minidisk player to your computer sound card and record it as a wave file?.

I use a free audio editor called EXP studio to record, then convert it to MP3 using I-tunes.

[Marien]

I use a Zoom H4 and it can be connected to the computer via USB plug.

Sometimes I add just a little bit of echo, the software came with my sound card, I did not find a free version.

For conversion of soundfiles use Switch.

The result is high quality sound file.

 

For videos on youtube I use a digital camera, it is a casio exilim.

It produces an Mpeg file, and it has an USB plug for copying it to the computer.

To remove parts at the beginning and the end I use a free version of SolveighMM AVI trimmer.

It is not perfect but it is good enough for a youtube clip.

[jlfinkels]

[...snip...]

As to video, not possible at Stones. It's dark and even with those "stage lights" they sometime remember to turn on it gives the paticipants this Trailways Bus Station in Macon, Georgia at 2:00 in the morning look .

 

That area has actually been cleanup up quite a bit. They's even got a fancy eatin' place across the street called "Wendy's". When's the last time you were in Macon? If it's been 10 years or more you would be surprised by how far it's come.

Edited May 9, 2009 by jlfinkels

[Mark Evans]

[When's the last time you were in Macon? If it's been 10 years or more you would be surprised by how far it's come.

 

23 years ago. Wendys? Kind of makes me sad to think on that.

[spindizzy]

I've got 2 mini disks which are great but I've found out that the software does NOT allow you to store tracks on the computer

 

Hi Helen,

 

which models of minidiscs recorder do you have? They've sharpened up the sony software a little while agi allowing more things ... but I think the oldest MDs still wouldn't do computer transfer, but you could play the MD on the computer and use a sound capture program like audacity (there are others if you can't get that to work) to "computerise" the recording.

 

Chris

[Azalin]

Well, if you're hardcore serious about recording sessions, you'll get an Edirol R09 from Roland. It's a professional field recorder, has built-in high quality microphones so you don't need to plug an external microphone. The Edirol can record straight away in MP3 with any bitrate you choose. It's using flash memory and I have a 2GB mini card, which can hold about 30 hours of recording at 196kpbs or something like that. You can also select a recording audio level, useful when you want to adjust to the distance you are from the music source. It's small, so not intrusive, and very fast to start, since it's using flash memory, so there's no 'boot sequence' or mecanical part to startup.

 

After you're done recording, you simply plug it via USB to your computer, and it becomes a drive where you can drag/drop the recorded files anywhere you want.

 

EDIT: I just checked the Zoom device and it looks very similar to the Edirol. It also looks like a spaceship, which is somewhat cool :-) Now, Roland as a strong reputation when it comes to audio, I never heard of Zoom before, but it doesn't mean it's not good quality.

Edited May 10, 2009 by Azalin

[Chris Drinkwater]

I also have an Edirol R09 and second everything Azalin has to say about it. It is a bit more expensive than the Zoom but worth it in my opinion.

 

Chris

[Mark Evans]

I just checked the Zoom device and it looks very similar to the Edirol. It also looks like a spaceship, which is somewhat cool

 

Yes, it does look cool. The toggle button and all the other do-dads are just too small for my hands and frankly my eyes (tri-focals, and not one of them is much help in the darkness of the ale house).

 

It has been good for capturing new tunes. Guess it comes down to my limitations, not the instruments....ooh moment of clarity...that's the same problem I have with the concertina .

 

I've just been impressed with Greg's set up, laptop, input attachment which accepts my KSM 27 Shure and his two Neuman's that basically is a portable recording set-up with some impressive results.

Edited May 11, 2009 by Mark Evans

[hjcjones]

The Zoom H4, besides having a pair of acceptable quality mics built in, also has combined jack and XLR inputs. It can be useful, if you have time and space, to rig mics somewhere in the room rather than just placing your recorder on the table. I also use these to make live recordings of my band straight from the mixing desk.

 

I agree with Mark about the size of the screen though, they seem to design these things for young eyes!