 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: juan
Date: 2006-10-01 03:03
Hi I'm an aumature clarinet player. I would like to know if anyone recomends any recording devices that work well with the clarinet. Thanks
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Author: C2thew
Date: 2006-10-01 03:47
if this is just for recording yourself and listening to yourself without critical detail, a voice recorder could work, and is inexpensive at $15. Or you can always use your computer's microphone (buying a computer mike online) and recording yourself that way. what you should be asking is what do you desire for playback quality?
Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. they are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end which was already but too easy to arrive as railroads lead to Boston to New York
-Walden; Henry Thoreau
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Author: hans
Date: 2006-10-01 15:22
juan,
My wife gave me a Sony Minidisc recorder a few months ago and it is superb, exceeding my expectations. I recorded the band I play in with no problems. It comes with software for transferring the recording to CD. Mine is the MZ-M10 but I understand that there are other minidisc models that do not have recording capability.
Regards,
Hans
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2006-10-01 15:40
Contrary to hans' experience, I'm dissatisfied with my Mini-disc Recorder. It takes a long time to archive the recording, so you must record, say, a whole rehearsal in one lump. Otherwise, you'll miss the next tune while the machine is writing to its minidisk.
When you have a really long piece, it is awkward to "fast forward" through it to find the part you want to listen to --or to back it up to replay a section.
I have yet to get the software to work getting the noise on my computer where i might edit and share.
What I do is to record a piece I'm working on, and replay the rough spots while the Sony is writing its data to the disk --then record another piece.
The sound quality with a cheap stereo mic is pretty good --I can hear my cheeks puff and the tone quality go sour.
It may be a case of the devily you know, but I'll check into an iPod/microphone set up for my next recorder.
Bob Phillips
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2006-10-01 17:29
I've never had any problems with my Minidisc recorder - I know you have to record live performances in one 'lump', but I edit it and divide it all up afterwards, chopping any long pauses (and speeches), shortening applauses (by chopping the middle section out and joining up the beginning and end) and labelling all the tracks I've divided up.
And all this done on the same machine - a Sony MZ-R35 from 1999 which is now seemilgly ancient technology in comparison to what is now on the market, but it's very reliable and relatively easy to use.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2006-10-01 22:56
I've got a Sony mini-disc machine as well. There are several objections that I have to the thing:
1) Like everything else created by the wizards at Sony, it is very proprietary. Unique file formats, unique equipment requirements and software that does not work with the Macintosh. They tend to go their own way with their technology, and it shows in the interface.
2) Copy protection of the digital output. I want to record vocal numbers without the vocalist singing so that I can give a practice disk to vocalists to practice against without wasting the bands time bringing them up to speed on the basics of a given number.
With the Sony device, it can be done, but not digitally, since the digital recording is copy protected from the very start. Even if you record a composition of your own, played by yourself, you end up with a copy protected file.
I can play the recorder back and record it through the audio in port on the computer, but you gain all sorts of noise with this route plus you have to do it in "real time". (With the digital files, you should be able to just transfer the file, but not under Sony's system.)
3) a cumbersome control system on the recorder itself. Everything is controlled through a selection wheel and a confirm button. Adjusting anything on the recorder is an ordeal, and the menus are not all that intuitive. I've yet to find anyone who can consistently operate it correctly, and I know that I still have to refer to the horrid manual whenever I try to use it again.
4) If the battery goes out on you while recording, you can end up with an unusable disc (until it is reformatted). This happened to us twice, and was the main reason for putting it aside for the most part.
I'd like to use it to record band jobs for quality control purposes, but it's just not feasible. You have trouble getting a good location to site the microphone (a friend of mine often puts his in a chandelier in front of the group in which he plays), you have to change the disk when it is located in that remote location, and you have to worry about the battery endurance.
My ideal setup (placing the microphone (a very good stereo one made for video cameras) on a Fiberglas collapsible tent pole (a long one, with the shock cord up the center) with the base for it all back in the last row of our group and the flat black pole arching out and over the group) works just fine, but ideally I'd want to put the recorder at ground level, extend the microphone cord up the pole, and then have the recorder where it could be powered with the power brick and the discs could be changed. Haven't found the time to make the mike extension cord, however.
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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Author: hans
Date: 2006-10-02 03:07
I agree with at least one of Terry's Sony minidisc objections; namely, the controls are awkward and not intuitive. It takes much longer than it should to learn to use them effectively and that is disappointing.
My model has an attachment that allows an auxilliary AA battery to be easily attached, resulting in > 3 hours of continuous recording time. Last week's band performance was for 3 hours and the unit still showed plenty of remaining power at the end so that power has not been an issue for me.
I have not had the copy protection problem that Terry described, perhaps because I use a PC. It is quite easy to transfer the recording to the computer and then edit and burn CDs using the supplied software. I just produced 16 excellent copies of last week's performance for band members.
The minidisc is far from perfect, but the sound quality is so good (certainly far superior to the Technics tape deck that I used before getting the minidisc) that I'm willing to tolerate the other issues.
I have no relationship of any kind with Sony other than as a consumer.
Hans
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2006-10-02 14:34
There was one other issue with the Sony mini-disc recorder that I forgot to include.
My friend, the one who locates the recorder and microphone in lighting fixtures, once did a gig where the chosen spot was located immediately adjacent to one of the banquet rounds in the seating area of the venue. (The setup was band>short but wide dance floor>seating area.)
A vocalist with the band who had a particularly loud and "grating" speaking voice chose the round near the recorder. During those tunes when the vocalist was not singing, s/he sat at that particular table, conversing with other vocalists and members of the audience.
When the recording was sampled, every time the vocalist sounded off in conversation the recording was "overridden" and (in effect) ruined. Apparently, the microphone chosen was not directionally sensitive enough, and the nearest "loud" noise influenced it more than the fifteen piece musical group located farther away.
As for the copy protection "feature", I got the impression from talking with others that the only way to circumvent it (and thus be able to export the sound files into other computer programs) was to do an analog playback and (in effect) rerecord the mini-disc output into another program. This is sort of self-defeating, not to mention very time consuming, and not something I'd want to do for a four hour gig (four fifty minute slugs of music).
As the finished quality is not that good (due to the extra analog transfer and the substandard miking quality), I've found that using the mini-disc just not to be worth the trouble.
If this is not the case, and if direct digital transfer is possible, please email me directly and explain how it can be done. I'd really like that capability.
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2006-10-02 14:40
Terry Stibal wrote:
> As for the copy protection "feature", I got the impression from
> talking with others that the only way to circumvent it (and
> thus be able to export the sound files into other computer
> programs) was to do an analog playback and (in effect) rerecord
> the mini-disc output into another program.
The Sony mini-disc format is "digital" in the sense it is composed of bits, but it uses a proprietary codec for compression/decompression. Internally it is not in a format that anything else can comprehend (like WAV, MP3, AIFF, or the myriad of other portable algorithms, both raw and cooked).
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2006-10-02 14:54
Any news in the digital world (à la Korg PXR4 etc) that is not overkill?
I somehow don't trust the "digital voice recorder gadgets" availabe, I could as well use my cellular phone for a live broadcast. ![[wink]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie3.gif)
--
Ben
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Author: DressedToKill
Date: 2006-10-02 15:03
I usually just use my Creative Zen Sleek Photo MP3 player for recording...the quality is actually excellent, and the mic is very sensitive. I occasionally do a little tweaking with WavePad (clean up fuzz, add reverb, etc), but the recordings are generally quite nice.
So, if you have an MP3 player that records, could be the way to go. (The Zen is 20 gigs, gorgeous, and can be had for relatively cheap on Amazon.com)
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2006-10-02 16:07
I have an iRiver H340. At the moment it can only record up to quality of mp3 at 320kbps, but barely anyone can tell the difference between that an a WAV file. There is a free firmware (I think open source) which allows to record WAV, but I haven't installed it yet. The inner microphone is pretty decent but the stereo microphone that comes with it is much better and really souds good. It is basically like a portable hard drive so you can just drag/copy - drop/paste any file you recorded to your computer. It connects with a USB to the computer.
This is not the newest model from iRiver. The newer model is much prettier and smaller but it needs an extra dock to connect a microphone, and it does not have as much space as far as I know. I don't know if most places still stock the older model. Maybe that's one of the only advantages in leaving in a country that is constantly years behind in some areas 
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Author: Sylvain
Date: 2006-10-02 17:53
Edirol R09 and R1 are nice little recording devices.
The Marantz PMD670 is also nice if you have good external microphones.
If you own an ipod, Belkin's TuneTalk device is a cheaper alternative, but of lesser quality.
-S
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Sylvain Bouix <sbouix@gmail.com>
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2006-10-02 18:11
Amazing, I tried with my el cheapo 512MB mp3 player (some 29.99$). It records only at 128kbps/4-bit/32kHz/ADPCM, but it does indeed sound like a clarinet, and not even bad at that.
Tiny enough for the case, good enough for a reality check.
--
Ben
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