Recording
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Tubainsauga
Recording
I've been playing around with recording myself for some audition tapes and I'm having a heck of a time doing it. I borrowed a friends mic and it seems to work alright but the quality is questionable. I was thinking of getting a silent brass system for both a practise mute when i go off to university and for recording purposes. I'd assume that the quality of the output of the silent brass is very good as it is built for a tuba. Does anyone have any thoughts?
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clarke
- bugler
- Posts: 57
- Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2004 9:29 pm
i wouldnt suggest the silent brass for your purposes...if you are going off to school there should be lots of rooms where you can practice unmuted...the silent brass is basically for people who practice at home in apartment buildings or other places where the loudness is a problem...as for recording silent brass will really not do justice to your sound...while the sound quality it provides is acceptable it is not comparable to a open tuba...if you are looking to get something just for audition tapes i would try see if anyone i know has a minidisc you could borrow...if you are looking for a recording device to continue using in school i would really suggest a Sony NetMD minidisc, im guessing the price for one is lower than the silent brass...the quality is excellent and long lasting...so i guess my advice is to find a minidisc and a big hall to record yourself in, the difference between being recorded in a big hall compared to being recorded via Silent Brass is huge and could mean anywhere from the difference to getting accepted somewhere to even scholarships...hope that helps
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humphrey
- bugler
- Posts: 79
- Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:43 pm
- Location: UK
Silent mute for recording
I use a silent mute for late night practice, including playing along to backing tracks I've sequenced up. I find the tuba sound from the mute adequate for this purpose but would definitely not consider it a true or accurate representation of the unmuted sound of my instument.
The mute has a pickup built into it that seems to work in a similar way to the piezo pickups found on electro acoustic guitars. This gives it a very artificial sound that the onboard reverb unit improves but can never cure. I also find the mute causes some notes to speak in a most peculiar way (the c above the stave being the worst offender on my aging Besson EEb), requiring some major adjustments in embrouchure whilst playing.
If you want to record your instrument for the purposes of checking sound/intonation or to let others hear your playing there really is no real alternative to a reasonable mic (preferably a condenser model) plugged into a decent recorder. There are quite a few makes of digital recorders on the market these days that don't require a second mortgage or the sale of your firstborn into slavery. as with anything in life you do get what you pay for, but the big differences in price tend to reflect the number of tracks and features offered rather than massive differences in the recording quality. The cheapest recorders tend to write to smart media cards with some form of digital compression but the recording quality is still immeasurably superior to the old cassette based recorders I cut my recording teeth on, plus most of them include a range of outboard effects that I'd have killed for ten years ago.
I can heartily recommend the Rode mics but there is plenty of large diaphragm condensers from Samson, red5, sdk for silly money that have had good reviews. On the recorder front I use a Yamaha aw4416 digital recorder but anything from Roland, Korg, Boss or Zoom is worth a look.Hope that's of some help.
Russ Kennedy
The mute has a pickup built into it that seems to work in a similar way to the piezo pickups found on electro acoustic guitars. This gives it a very artificial sound that the onboard reverb unit improves but can never cure. I also find the mute causes some notes to speak in a most peculiar way (the c above the stave being the worst offender on my aging Besson EEb), requiring some major adjustments in embrouchure whilst playing.
If you want to record your instrument for the purposes of checking sound/intonation or to let others hear your playing there really is no real alternative to a reasonable mic (preferably a condenser model) plugged into a decent recorder. There are quite a few makes of digital recorders on the market these days that don't require a second mortgage or the sale of your firstborn into slavery. as with anything in life you do get what you pay for, but the big differences in price tend to reflect the number of tracks and features offered rather than massive differences in the recording quality. The cheapest recorders tend to write to smart media cards with some form of digital compression but the recording quality is still immeasurably superior to the old cassette based recorders I cut my recording teeth on, plus most of them include a range of outboard effects that I'd have killed for ten years ago.
I can heartily recommend the Rode mics but there is plenty of large diaphragm condensers from Samson, red5, sdk for silly money that have had good reviews. On the recorder front I use a Yamaha aw4416 digital recorder but anything from Roland, Korg, Boss or Zoom is worth a look.Hope that's of some help.
Russ Kennedy
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David
- bugler
- Posts: 111
- Joined: Sun Sep 12, 2004 7:26 pm
- Location: Canada
?
What are you recording to? A tape? I've had some trouble with recording myself... I've used casset tapes, but ended up using a mic hooked up to my vcr. This turned out.... alright... but I had problems with signal strength, so though the tuba sounded fine, the constant hissing made this not entirely adequate.
One thing I've tried and seems to work very well, would be using your computer to record.
Mic placement depends on the size/shape of the room your recording in, but a good place to start is 1.5-2 feet away from the bell diagonally. Going any closer will give a sharper sound, but consequently much harsher (again, depending on the room.)
If don't wish to blow a great deal of money, I'd advise using a standard mic, into a bass-amp head (signal boost, its good to find one with an eq, you can rent one to try it out) into your computer. Use a program available for free on downloads.com called "wavepad." It may not be the most decked-out sofware, but with full spectrum eq, noise gate, high/low pass filters, noise reduction, reverb and a few other functions, its pretty functional.
Hope this helps
One thing I've tried and seems to work very well, would be using your computer to record.
Mic placement depends on the size/shape of the room your recording in, but a good place to start is 1.5-2 feet away from the bell diagonally. Going any closer will give a sharper sound, but consequently much harsher (again, depending on the room.)
If don't wish to blow a great deal of money, I'd advise using a standard mic, into a bass-amp head (signal boost, its good to find one with an eq, you can rent one to try it out) into your computer. Use a program available for free on downloads.com called "wavepad." It may not be the most decked-out sofware, but with full spectrum eq, noise gate, high/low pass filters, noise reduction, reverb and a few other functions, its pretty functional.
Hope this helps