Klarinet Archive - Posting 001082.txt from 2000/07

From: "Benjamin Maas" <benmaas@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Record yourself (was: Pro Walkman v. MiniDisc)
Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2000 00:17:24 -0400

Ah yes, our bi-yearly conversation on recording yourself and the merits of
different formats <grin>. Well, I suppose it is time for me to put in my
two cents as I usually do.

The Question that started it all:

>I have tried a little taping of my playing but there is a watery or
>fluttery sounding distortion expecially on the clarion notes. I am
>using a Radio Shack mike that sells in the $40.00 range or a little
>less. I wonder if the problem is the mike or the distance from the
>mike, etc........

The sound that you are hearing is from a cassette that is not running at a
constant speed. In all but the highest quality decks, this is an issue. On
even the good decks, the motors, heads, capstans, etc... go out of alignment
over time. This can cause fluctuations in the speed or direction of the
tape path. Thus, your fluttery sound (actually flutter is a technical term
and can be measured on tape decks- digital and analog). The microphone you
have is not going to do you any favors, BUT that is not the source of your
problems.

Next, a discussion on formats to record on ensued... People discussed the
merits of the Sony Walkman Pro to Mini Disc. Although, as cassettes go, the
Walkman Pro is a very good deck, I would personally never spend that kind of
cash on a cassette machine. The cassette is by its very nature a flawed
medium and really lacks the stability, and sound quality for any sort of
semi critical listening (even for your practicing). For less money you can
get a new mini disc recorder. For a little more, you can get the best
format-- a DAT machine (used).

As for spending $200 on a microphone for a cassette, don't bother. The
frequency response on a cassette is so limited, that the extra money you
spent will not really do you any good. The $99 sony mic would be fine.
Now, for a digital medium, a decent microphone will get you much further.
You can spend a couple hundred bucks and really do ok. It would be fine for
any listening on your own and perhaps even for recording your own audition
tapes. I consider Minidisc a great replacement for Cassettes.

Because of things like its "editing" capabilities, MD is even beginning to
make it into professional circles for remote recording of stuff for radio.
A few companies are making sturdy, large portable (7"x10"x1.5" or so) decks.
They are becomming common for people to record spoken interviews for radio
(a place that Marantz Cassette Decks were formerly king). Dennon just came
out with a solid state recorder that uses flash memory cards (of course it
is also $1300 <g> ).

The problem with MD is even though the media is supposedly long lasting, if
you do too much editing, the table of contents on the disc can get
corrupted. If this happens, your disc is nothing more than a little piece
of plastic. Your data is almost always *not* recoverable.

Bill Hausmann mentioned reel to reel... Hard to find a good deck these days
without going into professional circles. However, the quality is quite
decent. I'd keep the speed to no less than 7.5 inch per second, though. I
personally go 15 ips with noise reduction for my work or 30 ips without.
Like cassette, though if the alignment is off, you will have flutter
problems.

DAT is by far the best format out there (at least in the realm of
affordability that most of you would be interested in-- Sometimes, I use a
$25,000 digital reel to reel deck in the field....). You can buy a little
Sony DAT machine new for about $700. Sony also makes a Digital I/O that
includes a remote control (full function) for another couple hundred bucks.
I bought one from a pawn shop used for $200, though. You can plug a little
microphone in (such as a Sony or Audio Technica) and it works quite well.
>From there if you want better quality, get a small mixing board such as a
Mackie 1202 and a couple of studio condenser microphones such as the Shure
SM-81.... You can go as high-end as you want, but for your own uses, that
would be more than fine. If you want to go higher-end, consider hiring an
outside engineer. It will cost much less than the thousands of dollars you
will spend on gear.

Well, I suppose this is enough from me for awhile... Back to regularly
scheduled business.

--Ben

Benjamin Maas
Fifth Circle Audio
Los Angeles, CA
http://www.fifthcircle.com

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe from Klarinet, e-mail: klarinet-unsubscribe@-----.org
Subscribe to the Digest: klarinet-digest-subscribe@-----.org
Additional commands: klarinet-help@-----.org
Other problems: klarinet-owner@-----.org