External sound Card.

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External sound Card.

Postby papadeedee » 12 Mar 2015 18:18

Hi,
I use my lap top for recording my organs sometimes with poor quality of sound. Is there some kind of external sound card available that would improve matters ?
I use windows 8.1.
Thanks,
Brian D
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Re: External sound Card.

Postby dragon » 12 Mar 2015 18:20

Malcolm is already using one. .. Fred
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Re: External sound Card.

Postby Brian007 » 13 Mar 2015 07:23

Hi Brian,

Is the organ your using a real organ or a vst type organ,
how do you record it, via midi or audio ?


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Re: External sound Card.

Postby Rev Tony Newnham » 13 Mar 2015 11:00

Hi

There are plenty of options - take a look atthe Studiospares web site for example. I've got one of their "budget" own brand units on here, but I only use it for playback at present. For recording, I have a semi-pro soundcard with XLR input connectors - my mind's gone blank as to what make it is - must be getting old! I can't go and look either, as it's not yet unpacked. The on-board sound on most (all?) domestic computers leaves a lot to be desired. Even a relatively budget outboard USB soundcard will make a difference. My main one coast just over £100 mark - but there are cheaper options out there that are almost as good.

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Re: External sound Card.

Postby papadeedee » 13 Mar 2015 12:04

Fred, Thank you, Malcolm has emailed me and I will phone him soon.
Rev. Tony, Thanks, I will look into it,
Brian, I use audio line out from the organ into my laptop with Cakewalk Music Creator 6. I am getting better reaults keeping the recording levels very low I haven't tried midi
I would prefer to stick with audio if possible.
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Re: External sound Card.

Postby Brian007 » 13 Mar 2015 12:47

Hi Brian,

You could try this http://www.dv247.com/computer-hardware/ ... ace--36113

it will take the output of your organ and convert it to a digital signal which you can then feed into the laptop via a usb connection and then into what ever software you use.

Brian007 :D
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Re: External sound Card.

Postby papadeedee » 13 Mar 2015 15:06

Brian,
Thanks, I had a look and it looks good, I will definately keep it in mind.
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Re: External sound Card.

Postby Mike Bracchi » 13 Mar 2015 16:15

Wotcha Brian,

Check this out - a topic on the same subject ;)

About the only thing I miss from my Yamaha PSR-S900 that isn't on my Korg Pa600 is the on-board 'audio recorder' ... The Korg does have an excellent recorder but it requires a lot of faffing about replaying the recording through a program like 'Audacity' in order to convert the resulting wav file to an mp3 for uploading to a sharing site :roll:

Not any-more ...... John Pringle (jackoj) told me of this neat little gadget that alleviates the need for that palaver :D

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Mp3 Hardware Encoder/Decoder connects directly to the output of your keyboard and records direct to a USB or SD card - once the recording is complete simply upload the mp3 file to boxnet (or the like) for sharing ... how simple is that 8)

Details from the vendor ... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Audio-Encoder ... 4173e4ce18

Record to mp3 format without the need to use a PC or software:

With the encoder decoder you can play music through the device in digital format through sd card or usb flash drive. Record music from your vinyl records, cassettes or cds and convert them to digital mp3 format then listen on the device or through an mp3 player.
This is a revolutionary format conversion device you can simply plug your hi fi , record player or cassette recorder into it and if you wish them saved to sd card or flash drive then insert these - you can listen to the music whilst converting through the supplied earphones and the item comes with all the necessary leads

NO COMPUTER OR PC NEEDED, NO SOFTWARE TO GO WRONG!!!!!!! STRAIGHT FORWARD REAL TIME ENCODING AND DECODING WHILST YOU LISTEN TO YOUR FAVOURITE TRACKS! CONVERT AND RECORD TO SD CARD OR USB FLASH DRIVE WHILE YOU PLAY!


And all for less than a tenner :wink:

Thanks John :D
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Re: External sound Card.

Postby papadeedee » 15 Mar 2015 13:58

Mike,
Thanks, that seems to be just the ticket. I will look into it post haste.
Kind regards,
Brian D
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Re: External sound Card.

Postby andyg » 16 Mar 2015 17:08

Looks like a good, cheap and cheerful solution but do be aware that not all mp3 compressors are equal. Some introduce unwanted artefacts when producing their mp3 files. No way to know about this one without hearing the results but the low price does worry me a little. Can we have some audio clips from users of the device?

And there are going to be times when you'll still want something like Audacity - for things like trimming start and end points, normalising, adding fade ins/fade outs etc.

In general, you do get what you pay for and I would recommend something like the small Behringer USB mixers. These allow you to get the recording levels exactly right, and you can even mix the audio from the organ/keyboard with miked inputs, either for adding vocals or getting a more 'live' sound from an organ. With Orlas, Yamahas and Rolands, for example, there's always a difference between what you hear through the speakers and what comes out of the line outputs. This is especially true when using the organs' electronic Leslie simulators, which produce a ping-pong left-right effect when recorded direct.
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Re: External sound Card.

Postby Mike Bracchi » 16 Mar 2015 17:34

Hi Andy,

I got a copy of Audacity with it.

'Jackoj' records mp3 performances on his Korg PA3x with one of these and, I have used it on a dozen or so occasions and there doesn't appear to be any issues with the recordings - it is a low cost piece of kit for sure but every bit as good as the 'audio recorder' that is on the S900 I had ... it is however very sensitive to excessively high gain.

I last used it several weeks ago to lift a track off an LP for this video ....



Let me know if you want to try it Andy, I can easily bung it in the post to you, it's light as a feather as well as cheap :D

Regards,

Mike
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Re: External sound Card.

Postby SysExJohn » 18 Mar 2015 09:37

Mike Bracchi wrote: ... it is however very sensitive to excessively high gain.


As a bit of an audio techie, I experimented with several wav to mp3 compressors a while back.
The key thing to note when doing a conversion is that all converters I tried seem to push the volume UP on occasion.
This means that if your wav file has peaks that reach digital maximum (0dB), the conversion process to mp3 format can push those peaks into 'clipping' (the top of the waveform gets chopped off), which will often manifest itself as a nasty, loud clicking sound.

To avoid this try to keep audio peaks a couple of dB below maximum.
Audacity has an 'Amplify' feature that can also be used in a negative way, so one can specify an amplification of, e.g. -2dB to reduce slightly the volume of the recording.
This can also be used to attempt to recover files that have been recorded too loud.
It doesn't always work though, only on files which occasionally 'go into the red!'

The converter that I use is now always LAME.

Just a few tips from an audio geek!
Regards,
John.
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Re: External sound Card.

Postby Rev Tony Newnham » 18 Mar 2015 09:45

Hi

Digital audio files should never be normalised to 0dBFS. Some types of converter can produce peaks in excess of the maximum level of the file, causing distortion. I normalise to -1dBFS and have not (yet) had any problems.

Bob Ketz's book on audio mastering has a lot to say about recording levels and dynamic range. Recommended if you want to do more than very simple recordings. It's published by Focal Press.

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Re: External sound Card.

Postby papadeedee » 01 Apr 2015 21:13

Hello Andy,
Iv'e just read your post, I did in fact get an encoder/decoder, with delivery it was about £15. I just wanted something to use to post my recordings on the forum. I don't do anything at all sophisticated and I am happy with the results I am getting. If you want to hear how it sounds, You could listen to the song entitled" Tonight* in the musical challenge board, I used organ orchestral sounds (EL 70) on that one and was happy enough with the results. On the performance board I posted the tune "Memory" playing on my digital piano. Again I was happy with the results.
Regards,
Brian D
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