Equipment & software

[mysx]

Please post questions, comments and suggestions.

Examples of questions:
What equipment do I need to get the best quality?
Will I ask my neighbor to drill a hole in the wall?
Do you know better PC software for audio?
Do I have to buy a special program?
Is Creative Audigy 2 good enough?
How to fix bad quality?

I'm using freewares. Are they good enough?
CDex - Convert MP3 and WAV files etc. (sourceforge project)

Audacity - Edit audio (sourceforge project)

I've seen a link to Audacity in another post but it's what I have
and I wonder if there's something better. Also I haven't seen
any topic like this. I apologize if there is one already.

[yeppie]

Also I haven't seen
any topic like this. I apologize if there is one already.

We have quite a few posts like this, we even have 3 special sub-forums for topics like know-how, software and equipment. that´s why i moved the thread to the know-how forum.

btw. i think that audacity is the best free software by far. if you want a software that is even better and easier to handle, you should have a look at adobe audition. but you should be prepared to pay a serious amount of money. i´m using audition 1.5 which i bought on ebay for a good price. recent version is 2.0 for which i did not see a good offer yet.

[mysx]

Sorry, I didn't see

Thanks for moving the thread

[yeppie]

you are welcome.
that´s what moderators are for.

[mysx]

I'm using another program sometimes: Mp3CoolPlay-Xtreme It's a player for
many different formats and where it's possible to decode MP3 to WAVE. There's
encoders and decoder plugins to download that isn't included with the setup.

[mysx]

Some equipments do not have the right stuff, there's no line-in for mic
and one have to apply another mic. I changed a walkman with a TALK
button once, connected to a tape recorder and the recordings was
superb! But is wasn't portable of course

Here's some microphone element's.
Condenser mics needs extra power and I know there's place
for at least one battery in handheld microphones. I hope it's
not necessary with condenser mics to get superb quality.

Impedance, hertz and sensitivity is important I think.

[mysx]

I'm using CDex v.1.51. Version 1.70b2 is available
right now. But I'll wait until it's "stable".

[mysx]

I'm about to buy a mp3 player but I cannot find what I want. It will not
be ipod, I've read some bad stories about it and I see there's not the
stuff I need for different things. There should be mic in + audio in/out
but I've only seen mp3 players with the mic built-in. Not so good.
There's mp3 players with harddrives but the battery will not last very
long on such. It might be good for home users like me but it's not so
good if you are traveling and the battery dies in the hotelroom.
I've have no time but I hope to find tips in some technical forum later.
I'm trying to stay in topic but please understand that I have different
needs and the device should be useful for other things also, like musik
and storing of data. I still want to be prepared if I hear sexsounds...

When it's about improving sounds I've found that WavePad is a little
better than Audacity Note that I'm not professional but WavePad
seems to be easier for n00bs like me. At least for improving sounds.
Audacity are still very useful for cutting, mixing and more. Still I
haven't got any good result in WavePad. A part of that is because
many files are damaged by too much compression. Ok, there's
different thoughs about that and we will not discuss it here.

Anyway, have some fun with the MODPlug Player It's old but still good.
There you can play with surround, presets, frequencies and you can save
wave files also. Just please don't upload edited files because I suppose
most of us like to hear the original. But in some situations maybe you
can improve the sound on bad recordings? Well I don't know.

Remember: Only edit renamed copies. Write protect your original
files and save them on a safe place. Burn on CD too if possible.

[sc0tt-uk]

hey RP - I'm also searching for an mp3 player to do all those things.
The best I could come up with so far that was still cheap is the Samsung Yepp series. It has inbuilt mic (not good), but it also has a stereo line-in port, they say its for recording music straight to your player from any device, but with a portable preamp you could use it to record the signal from your mic after its been boosted by the preamp.
I'm not recommending my player though yet, because as you might have seen in my other thread the realtime encoding sounds like total shit. I'm trying to get an exchange from the ebay seller, hopefully the next one will come and i'll find out i just had a faulty player.
Anyway, just thought it was worth posting to make sure you knew about the line-in combined with a portable preamp setup being a way round things. Keep looking, and I'd be interested to see what you find because if the encoding really is this bad even on my replacement player i'll have to buy something else.
The creative zen nano looked hopeful, might be a good place to start if you haven't looked in to those already.
sc0tt-uk

[yeppie]

there should be enought devices to choose from if you are willing to forget about the external mic - or use the line-in as scott described.

just a few (from mp3-player.de), all with built-in mic and line-in recording option:

Harddisk players

Cowon iAudio X5L 30GB
35 h duration (max)
€ 318.80
(this is the very best device if you ask the experts. i don´t have one but i´d like to - if it weren´t so expensive i´d go and get one)

Samsung YH-J70 20GB
25 h duration
€ 269.90

iriver H10 20GB
16 h duration
€ 199.90

Philips HDD6320 30GB
15 h duration
Low (64 Kbps), Mid (128 Kbps), High (196 Kbps)
€ 178.90

players with mini-harddisk

Cowon iAudio 6 4GB
20 h duration
€ 218.50

Maxfield MAX P-X PHOTO 6GB
18 h duration
€ 189.90

flash players

Cowon iAudio U3 2GB
20 h duration
€ 168.70
(1 gb is € 128.80)

Cowon iAudio U2 2GB
20 h duration
€ 149.90
(1 gb is 108.90)

Teac MP-500BT 4GB
50 h duration
€ 299.90
(also with 1 and 2 gb available)

Creative Zen Nano Plus 1GB
18 h duration
€ 77.50

Trekstor i.Beat organix mit FM 2GB
25 h duration
€ 133.80

AND many many more ...

[mysx]

Thank you very much sc0tt-uk and yeppie!
I appreciate your help but it might still take some time because there's
so many models. I'll check out the line-in recording option first of all.

At first I was thinking about to modify a mp3 player and replace the
built-in microphone with a line-in jack socket. I've done it before on
a portable cassette recorder with success, so I thought... But it's a
risc to take and the warranty will be gone.

[mysx]

I was at a computer store yesterday. Suddenly my hand grabbed
a program called MAGIX Audio Cleaning Lab 11 deluxe
I don't know if it was a mistake but it will be interesting to
see if it's better than other programs, like WavePad etc.

After some hours I'm still trying to understand how it works.
I would like to see a "express button" for n00bs

Check out http://www.magix.com/
There's many different programs but only MAGIX
Audio Cleaning Lab was available here.

[mysx]

I've used MAGIX Audio Cleaning Lab 11 deluxe some more now and
actually I've got better result. But of course it isn't much better. You
cannot have high quality with any program, especially when it's about
wall recordings and similar. But if the files isn't changed, it's actually
possible to make it better. Especially on voyeur recordings where it's
hard to hear anything. That's one thing it can be used for. However,
I've notied that too much noice reduction vill add a tin can effect and
it's much harder to fix the sound on too low bitrates! Unfortunately
my english is limited and it has been hard to explain what I mean.
You cannot have the best quality, it's not high tech I know. But the
best quality available is highly desirable for us who want to try.

[El Ciego]

[quote="RP"][color=black]Some equipments do not have the right stuff, there's no line-in for mic
and one have to apply another mic. I changed a walkman with a TALK
button once, connected to a tape recorder and the recordings was
superb! But is wasn't portable of course :?

Here's some [url=http://www.elfa.se/elfa-bin/thumbs.pl?M ... 15&2013813]microphone element's[/url].
Condenser mics needs extra power and I know there's place
for at least one battery in handheld microphones. I hope it's
not necessary with condenser mics to get superb quality.

Impedance, hertz and sensitivity is important I think.

[/color][/quote]

RP,

The power required by condenser mic elements can be carried through the shieldd in the microphone cable. The power can be provided by a single battery located closer the recorder. Diagrams on how to do this should be available on the Internet; the cost of a battery power supply for a condenser should run less than $10.00 U.S.. Also, pro audio dealers sell "phantom power" setups for condenser microphones.

Yes, impedance, frequency response in hertz and sensitivity are all important. The condenser microphone gets help from the electricity, so the microphone is more sensitive to sounds at a wider range of sound pressure levels.

BTW, the nearly-extinct minidisc recorders made by Sony and others have a phantom power lug surrounding the microphone jack; electret condenser mics are the only type the recorder can use effectively.

Dynamic mics are used more for sound reinforcement, vocal and amplified instrument recording in studios, and public address (PA) applications.

Does this help? Hope so!

Hedo,

P.

[El Ciego]

[quote="RP"]I've used MAGIX Audio Cleaning Lab 11 deluxe some more now and
actually I've got better result. But of course it isn't much better. You
cannot have high quality with any program, especially when it's about
wall recordings and similar. But if the files isn't changed, it's actually
possible to make it better. Especially on voyeur recordings where it's
hard to hear anything. That's one thing it can be used for. However,
I've notied that too much noice reduction vill add a tin can effect and
it's much harder to fix the sound on too low bitrates! Unfortunately
my english is limited and it has been hard to explain what I mean.
You cannot have the best quality, it's not high tech I know. But the
best quality available is highly desirable for us who want to try.[/quote]

The problem with noise reduction (in Audacity in particular) is that the algorithm does the job okay, but not as well as Sound Forge, for instance.

If you go into the archives in the Various A-Z category, you'll find a file called Liz-Remix.

It's not attributed to me, but I was the one who remixed (wrong term, but that's what I called it). Here's the process, using Sound Forge; other programs might work in a similar way.

1. Reduce volume on the wave file to barely perceptible levels. You should only be able to hear the moans etc.

2. Use a 'noise gate", not "noise reduction" effect, if available. All sounds other than the moans etc. will be silent. If you have reduced the volume during Step 1 too low, you might miss some important sounds, so the first two steps will take some experimenting.

3. Normalize the volume of the file.

4. Use equalization (EQ) to get rid of any artifact noise, hiss etc.


5. Apply a warm room reverb.

6. Mix the processed file 50%-50% with a copy of the unprocessed original. Voila!


That's how liz-remix.mp3 was done, as I recall.

I love voyeur recording, but I like to hear the sex sounds, not necessarily the traffic noise, air conditioner hum, air whoosh from ventilation etc. Yes, the processed recordings will "lose" something of their "real" ambience, but the results are more pleasing to my ears sometimes.

Now, if only someone would invent something to null out TV noise and camcorder rumble! Ha!

You worry too much about your English, my friend. Keep practicing here, and your English will get better. I tell you it's not bad now!