Mp3 live recording

saxon · Post by **saxon** » Mon May 09, 2005 9:28 am

Hey gents, I want to start some recording of my band and some of the playing experiences on the upcoming trip to the jazz music camp. Some of the mp3 players (iriver H10) have voice mic's and line in jacks for recording. Assuming modest fidelity goals, has anybody had experiences or recommendations on this front?

doctorwho · Post by **doctorwho** » Mon May 09, 2005 12:53 pm

Saxon, I have used a couple of MP3 recorders and they sound "OK". Remember that it was intended that the internal microphone be within a couple of inches from the sound source (a person's mouth), so sources farther away will seem to be recorded with some "reverb".

I will see if I can find some of my recordings and if so, I can send you some samples so you can hear what it sounds like.

What I have found works great is the following set-up: two microphones plugged into my Korg D16 (used pass-through as an interface only) then cables/adapters from the L/R Master output of the D16 to the stereo Line In on my Creative MP3 Player/Recorder. The quality of the reordings is really quite good. I record an entire practice session (the recorder is capable of 4 hours of MP3 recording time), then when I'm back at home, I plug the Creative into my home computer via USB, copy the MP3 file onto the hard drive, convert it to a WAV file using WaveLab Lite, and then edit the file, making indvidual normalized WAV files for each song which can then be burned to CD. I also have an M-Audio MobilePre USB interface, but I have a white-noise problem that comes and goes that I need to resolve before I can switch over to it. In either case, the role of the interface is to take the place of the internal microphone. I really wish that the manfacturers would have included an external micropohone jack (or two, for stereo)!

saxon · Post by **saxon** » Tue May 10, 2005 4:48 am

thanks Gary, it would be great to hear actual recordings. The Korg is a bit out of my mobility and price range I think, but good info as I move forward with recording. email is [email protected],

doctorwho · Post by **doctorwho** » Thu May 12, 2005 11:14 pm

Saxon, you have mail!

saxon · Post by **saxon** » Fri May 13, 2005 5:03 am

Gary, thanks again, it came thru clean, I am moving on to purchase the iriver h320, it has good reviews for sound quality and can work with an unamplified external mic, will send you some samples.

doctorwho · Post by **doctorwho** » Fri May 13, 2005 7:52 am

That will be great, Saxon.

The MP3 recorders' internal microphone is O.K. for low-fidelity recording, but, to me, it doesn't really provide high enough quality to help in "tweaking" the overall sound (instruument balance in particular).