the good old days vs. laptop recording

[tri]

hummm...what ever happened to the good old days? Im in a band now and researching (that's how I came about this site) how to make a simple live recording with my new laptop. Remember when the boom box came around with that little bitty hole for a mic and most of them handled recordings of live garage bands back then with no buzzing? Yes, I know it was a very cheap and simple recording and sounded like it to but that is all Im looking for now and that boombox is 15 years in the garbage.

I don't expect my new laptop to record at studio quility just something I can record and play back. I did give the built in mics (2) a 1st time try though and it was as if someone was blowing a whisle 2 inchs away form the mic. Big Buzzzz! Is there any way to get rid of the buzz? I tried to find a mic level to turn it down but there wasn't one. The record bar that displays volume input was not in the max zone only maybe half way if that much. What can I do with out spending oodles of money on a simple present day recording? Back to the old tape deck boombox? Come'on. Don't tell me. I'll try sticking a cardboard box upside down over this laptop before I go back to tape. If that doesn't work I'll try stuffing the box with pillows (which would sound realy dull Im sure). Any second hand avice out there? Only looking for one fat nasty not so nasty track (we're good! haha!) Thanks. BTW I noticed the thread was only 5 years old that I just wote on so I decided to start a fresh one.

[David McCarroll]

um - what recording software are you using? The inbuilt mic on almost all Laptops is most likely extraordinarily low quality, as they are really only designed for voice bandwidth, and almost all Laptops have no input gain controls, so you are most likely saturating the input level ridiculously!

If you can gain access to any small mixer, and two decent (say Shure SM 57) mics, you can adjust the input gain before it gets to the audio in of the laptop, and you'd most likely get a half decent stereo recording as a result.

Cheers

David

[tri]

It is called simply "windows sound recorder" I believe. what kind of mixer and do I step down the 1/4'' jack to mini jack to fit in mic jack in puter? I then disable the on board mics, eh? sorry this is so new to me. I can get an old four track mixer (tape) a buddy of mine has just sitting up. thanks.

[tri]

ok...light bulb is on now...two mics into old four track mixer which will be to adjust the level then find output from mixer to mini mic jack on puter. right? hey, thanks for the jump start. It's been awhile.

[Drew]

You CAN use Windows Sound Recorder, but I'd advocate going with Goldwave, a great freeware audio editing app - www.gooldwave.com

Aside from that, well, pan one mic hard left and one hard right and then run it into either the mic in or the line in (preferable, if you can get the signal hot enough from the mixer as a laptop's built-in mic pre isn't going to be that great) and I'd say you're in business.

[David McCarroll]

Originally Posted by Drew

You CAN use Windows Sound Recorder, but I'd advocate going with Goldwave, a great freeware audio editing app - www.gooldwave.com

Aside from that, well, pan one mic hard left and one hard right and then run it into either the mic in or the line in (preferable, if you can get the signal hot enough from the mixer as a laptop's built-in mic pre isn't going to be that great) and I'd say you're in business.

Well, you certainly wouldn't recommend anything from Microsoft..... Windows Sound Recorder is probably designed purely to record 8 bit, mono System sounds (y'know, like a whoopee cushion sound when you close a folder, that sort of thing...), so, as Drew said, search out something a wee bit more sophisticated and you'll do yourself a favour!