[TheWart]

i have a friend at school who used a MD (i dont know how to do it acoutically, i'm dumb). what would you all recommend? unit must be portable. will be used for:

--recording me playing solo and with piano so i can send in audition tape/cd (needs to be better than tape quality

)

--able to hook into computer to edit/delete/change order of songs

--mp3 is not necessary, but ability to copy cd songs to it is.


i value your input.

 

[aeberbach]

MD is about your best option. Perhaps there is a film and television school or rental place near you? You might be able to get a Nagra tape or a DAT unit for a day, then import it into the PC.

 

[meithkiller]

That's a bit of a tall order to meet all of your requirements, unless money is no object. MD will probably be the closest thing to what you want, unless you have a huge budget, then I think there are portable CDRW recorders available. The biggest problem with your requirements is the ability to put the songs back on the computer to edit them. This can be done with MD, but unless you buy a full sized deck with a digital out and your computer has digital input, you will be transferring the songs to the computer in the analog realm. If done right, it can still sound pretty good, but not as good if every thing is kept digital. Your minimum cost for something like this would be about $200-300, about $150 for a portable MDR, then another $100 or so for a decent microphone. You can get by with using a cheaper mic, but sound quality would suffer.

-Keith

 

[TheWart]

thx for the input. i dont need to edit them on teh computer then.

 

[Matt]

Hi.

I have used DAT (Sony PCM-M1) and MD (Aiwa) for musical recording before. If you must have a MD unit, get one, but it seems to me the easiest and cheapest way to record yourself in realtive hi-fi is to get a mic and battery box (such as the mono instrument ones from soundprofessionals.com) and stick that into your computer's soundcard.

Even cheaper, easier and faster would be just to set yourself up in an acoustically OK room (such as a walk-in closet that has clothes hanging all around) and just use a regular old computer mic stuck into your soundcard. Put the computer outside of the room (to reduce fan noise) and have a friend hit record using goldwave or some other such program.

I mean, let's face it: college audition juries don't expect audiophile sound quality...chances are they'll be listening on a boombox, so don't worry, really.

By the way, which school are you auditioning for? What major?

Best,
Matt

 

[TheWart]

thx. don't know where yet