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Subject:Acid 4.0 Recording audio?
Posted by: Harrington
Date:4/20/2004 1:22:07 PM

I have the acid 4.0 and it is great, however how can I hook up my microphone through the system to get it to sound ok when I record? For example to either sing along with a track or put in one shots. regards, DJ Harrington

Subject:RE: Acid 4.0 Recording audio?
Reply by: marcarotsky
Date:4/20/2004 10:15:53 PM

i would plug into some sort of outboard mixer first. then into your sound card. if your doing it the poor mans way get a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter (assuming your mic has a 1/4" plug on it" and plug it into your sound card. stock sound cards (sound blaster and things of that sort have very poor mic pre-amps. so you should try to go through an outboard mixer first then from the mixer to your input on your sound card. and if possible, record into sound forge first, THEN bring it into acid.
HTH
--marc

Subject:RE: Acid 4.0 Recording audio?
Reply by: Harrington
Date:4/21/2004 2:49:58 AM

Thanks for your input :)

Subject:RE: Acid 4.0 Recording audio?
Reply by: Iacobus
Date:4/21/2004 12:28:03 PM

Adding to what marc said, some pro-level soundcard/audio interfaces have mic preamps built-in (in addition to having the quality XLR inputs required). You'd not only gain quality mic preamps but a great soundcard as well. (I'd still recommend a mixer regardless.)

Be sure to look around before you decide.

HTH,
Iacobus
-------
RodelWorks - Original Music for the Unafraid
mD's ACIDplanet Page
Guitars 4 Kids

Subject:RE: Acid 4.0 Recording audio?
Reply by: Spy
Date:4/22/2004 1:09:02 PM

Greetings All,

Just a few other points of information:

1. Find out if your soundcard supports full duplex recording, i.e. that it allows simultaneous playback and recording - this is important if you plan to record overdubs.

2. If you're going to record vocals or anything with a mic, you'll need to ensure that the mic isn't too close to any extraneous noise sources (e.g. your computer) and, in the case of vocals, a pop shield will be very useful for reducing plosives - try putting your hand in front of your face and saying "Peter sits" to see what I mean.

3. If you can afford it (in terms of finance and space) get a good quality mic stand. Place the stand (+ mic, of course) in various places in the room in which you're recording until you get the cleanest (i.e. least noisy and/or 'boxy') signal. You can place some absorbent material behind (i.e. facing the mic) the spot where the vocalist/musician stands/sits to help stop room reflections being picked up by the mic - you can always add reverb later but you can't unrecord a poor sounding room.

4. Make sure that the recording levels in Acid (or whatever your recording into) don't peak above -6dBFS - you can always increase the level of your tracks once their on the timeline but you can't unrecord distortion/digital clipping.

HTH



One Love, Spy!

Subject:RE: Acid 4.0 Recording audio?
Reply by: Harrington
Date:4/23/2004 2:44:06 AM

Thanks again for all of the advice :)

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