Recording Devices
 

Does anyone out there have any ideas on recording? I would like to start recording my singers and playing them back during other singers, etc.

Couple questions:

Is there an external device that can record, say an MP3, or WMA file?

Or is there a way to do this through a PC?

And what about volume?


I know I hear allot of people using laptops, but I use a desktop for various reasons. Pain in the butt to transport but I seem to get more out of my show. I would rather not put any added pressure on my processor but I would be interseted in the options out there.

Thx
Cableguy

i bought a lexicon desktop recording studio and for some reason it would not work with mstudio..i'm not sure if there is anything out there that would work ..except i guessed is to get an external cd recorder and plugged it in your mixing board.and i'm not sure if that would be legal too

There is a way
 

If you do a search on recording you can find several topics on the subject.

You can definitely use external devices such as a DAT recorder or Mini-disc recorder but you get into legality issues when you consider that you would probably be getting the main mix off of your mixing board including the Karaoke music which is copyrighted.

You can record your singers directly into your computer (provided it is sufficiently powered) with the use of several types of external and internal audio interfaces. To do this you will need to reroute how the microphone input travels within your computer. The mic will have to be plugged into the input of an audio interface and separate software (I use Ableton Live but I think Microstudio will work, though I haven't tried) will be necessary to record the sound from it. In your computer you will need to direct the audio coming from the mic to both the software and the main output to travel to your mixing board (be careful of latency issues, which could cause a slight delay on your main output).

You will need to find a program that has built in effects capability. The signal coming into the computer will be a dry signal (basically exactly what is coming in from the microphone). A dry input is usually best so you can tweak the effects later to give the best sound.

I have only recorded a few times and this is how I did it. Others may have different ideas. This works with the equipment I have at my disposal.

Feel free to ask any questions if you need help figuring this out to do for real.

Good luck,

Jon

Monolith Entertainment

Great reply.....thanks for the info. I will start my search based off your feedback thx!!!



Cableguy

I use a tape or disc recorder hooked to my mixer. Then take it to my PC at home and use Roxio Easy Media Creator. I has a whole bunch of enhancement capabilities. I originally bought if for converting some tapes to cd, with a little input from that program they sound better than the original. Not the best system in the world but then some tapes were never put to cd any other way.

Thx do you have a Disk recorder (make/model) you can reccomend?


Cableguy

More than likely the best way to go now, would be a digital and transfer to PC for the CD. MTUs stand alone CDG copier also can record. Tapes are surprisingly clear and transferrable to CD. I use both. Do your shopping and get the best buy.

What about Micro-Studio? It has some kind of record function (button), will this record vocals?

Microstudio 4.004 does support recording a Mic In and mixing it internally (within MS) with the playing music. You can click the SAVE AS button to save the file as a .wav file, which is what is needed to write a quality CD. We may add WMA compression later, but it's not there now.

We are adding the same RECORD function into Hoster 4.0 right now. It will have an added feature to select INTERNAL MIX (you give us the Mic signal only and we mix with the music - on-screen volume controls) or EXTERNAL MIX (you give us the output of your mixer with mic+music and we don't mix, only record to a .wav file).

Hoster is not expected to contain CD WRITING code. That is fully implemented in Microstudio now. Our goal is to allow you to record a singer while they perform, then with 1 button click (our goal) to add it to Microstudio and start burning their Audio CD.

We currently are trying to have the first release of Hoster 4.000 out before the end of December with this feature and Tempo Change (including the lyrics staying with the faster/slower audio).

There is the issue of copyright violation. We are expecting to display a warning message to you (the Host) if it is your song. If it is a song imported from the Singer's disc, we won't display this as they already own the disc (that is our assumption anyway). You can ignore the message or not... your choice, and your hide if you are caught. We're just toolmakers adding this requested feature to our software. If a method ever evolves where we can allow you to pay a royalty for the copied music, we'll acquire it so you can pay one per show, week, or whatever "the licensing means" requires.

Since it hasn't been completely stated in this thread (though it has been discussed in several others) it is illegal for you to use your purchased songs to record your singers and give them a copy of the same. However, it is legal for you to record them if the CD the music is from belongs to that individual.

I appreciate all the help and the legal message. This thread was not made for all the legal mumbo jumbo, it was to simply talk about recording singers so they could here themselves for what ever reason or for the vocalist that wishes to improve their own vocal talents.

Thanks for all the "heads up". Thanks for the info on the upcoming Hoster, I will be looking forward to it.


Cableguy

Here's a site covering songs in public domain. First time Ive seen a comprehensive list. I'd imaging it would of nature have to change annually, at least.

Read section A...very interesting.

http://www.pdinfo.com/list/a.htm