I'm going to continue to recommend the Rode NT4 stereo mic. Runs on
internal 9v battery or standard phantom power. 2 x XLR and stereo
minijack cables included. Along with a portable minidisk recorder
it's the ideal tool for this job.

Yep, minidisc all the way - I reckon on 4 safe hours then change the AA
battery, using a Sony MS907 mic for ordinary stuff or a pair of Superlux
HM8-A through a behringer preamp or a yamaha mixer for anything important

In article ,
Triffid wrote:
1) I have a portable cassette deck that can happily flatten any minidisc
recorder out there, ta very much (Sony TC153).

It would, being heavier.

But not in a subjective test on 99% of programme material. And that's with
a cassette well up to spec, which most in practice aren't.

--
*Give me ambiguity or give me something else.

Dave Plowman London SW 12
RIP Acorn

Thanks for all the excellent advice. I seem to be homing in on a workable,
compact solution, which would mean using the Minidisc player as the recorder
and forgetting the PC. I have an old pair of National Panasonic WM-2244-N
microphones (bought as a pair, reference RP-8135). They are "low impedance"
500ohm dynamic, and seem to work OK with the MD player, providing I set
"high sensitivity". That would avoid the need for pre-amps and electrical
power, since the MD player will record happily for long enough on its
internal battery coupled with a piggy back alkaline AA.

My only concern would be whether the mikes would be sensitive enough when
placed, say, 40 feet from the centre of the choir and orchestra. Might it
help to make the mikes more directional if I place some kind of cones around
them?? Or an umbrella behind??

Thanks for any more thoughts.

Steve

steve wrote in message
...
Thanks for all the excellent advice. I seem to be homing in on a
workable,
compact solution, which would mean using the Minidisc player as the
recorder
and forgetting the PC. I have an old pair of National Panasonic WM-2244-N
microphones (bought as a pair, reference RP-8135). They are "low
impedance"
500ohm dynamic, and seem to work OK with the MD player, providing I set
"high sensitivity". That would avoid the need for pre-amps and electrical
power, since the MD player will record happily for long enough on its
internal battery coupled with a piggy back alkaline AA.

My only concern would be whether the mikes would be sensitive enough when
placed, say, 40 feet from the centre of the choir and orchestra. Might it
help to make the mikes more directional if I place some kind of cones
around
them?? Or an umbrella behind??

If your MD recorder is anything like mine (relatively boggo Sharp), it's
possible to monitor the signal with a half decent pair of headphones and
alter the recording level as you go along to get something reasonable.
Obviously some bits will be louder than others, so you'll want to check
you're not going to get clipping when you set it up.

steve wrote:

Thanks for all the excellent advice. I seem to be homing in on a
workable, compact solution, which would mean using the Minidisc player as
the recorder
and forgetting the PC. I have an old pair of National Panasonic WM-2244-N
microphones (bought as a pair, reference RP-8135). They are "low
impedance" 500ohm dynamic, and seem to work OK with the MD player,
providing I set
"high sensitivity". That would avoid the need for pre-amps and electrical
power, since the MD player will record happily for long enough on its
internal battery coupled with a piggy back alkaline AA.

My only concern would be whether the mikes would be sensitive enough when
placed, say, 40 feet from the centre of the choir and orchestra.

With a choir *and* orchestra you have the potential for some serious use of
dynamic range so when they go full pelt mic sensitivity may not be a
problem. if you are placing the mics 40 feet away I assume that means the
choir + orchestra is about that width? if it is less you can bring them in
closer.

Might it
help to make the mikes more directional if I place some kind of cones
around
them?? Or an umbrella behind??

Definitely not, you would almost certainly introduce unwanted side effects.

Ian

"steve" wrote in message


I may want to have a bash at making a recording of my wife's choir. I
realize it will not be remotely professional quality, but I hope I
could do better than a portable cassette deck!

I had in mind recording in two ways:
1. On my Sony Minidisk player
2. On my PC, creating a WAV file onto the hard disc, which I could
later put onto CD.

I have an old but decent (I think) pair of Panasonic microphones
which I could experiment with. I assume I would stick them into my
stereo amplifier (circa 1975), and then feed the output into my
Minidisk player and into the sound card of the PC.

I know my home PC (Athlon 1400 processor) seems quite happy at making
decent WAV files, using Musicmatch software. I haven't tried yet
with my work laptop (Intel 900), and I don't know what software I
would use on that.

Thanks for any (polite) suggestions, or any pointers to web sites
that I would find useful.

Were I to use a portable recorder, I'd stick to stereo, use my Nomad Jukebox
3 which records .wav files,, a Behringer MXB1002 mixer and a pair of mics.
My choice of relatively inexpensive mics would be either my Behringer EC8000
(omnidirectional) or MXL 603 (broad directivity cardiod). I'd upload the
recording to my PC and edit and master with editing software ranging from
Goldwave and Audacity (freeware) to Adobe Audition.

Were I to use a PC, I'd probably not want to limit myself to stereo but
enjoy the flexibility of multichannel recording and the ability to pick,
choose and mix from more channels and more microphone positions. For
example, spot micing soloists is a common technique. It would be possible to
use separate mics for any accompanying instrumentalists.

Sound card of choice would be a M-Audio 1010LT, which has 8 analog line
inputs and outputs (includes 2 mic preamps but they lack phantom power). My
choice of mics (above, just more of them) require phantom power, so I'd pick
a mixer with 8 mic preamps, phantom power, and insert points where I could
tap off the outputs of just the mic preamps. I'd use the mixer itself for
real-time monitoring, but do the actual mixing for the final delivered
recording, after-the-fact. In this case I still sense that cost is an issue,
so another larger Behringer mixer, such as the MX2642 would probably be my
choice. I'd do the recording and mixing with my copy of Adobe Audition.

Ian Bell wrote in message ...
Triffid wrote:

Ian Bell wrote:
Triffid wrote:



1) I have a portable cassette deck that can happily flatten any
minidisc recorder out there, ta very much (Sony TC153).



If you're interested, this was taken with my TC153 and a cheapo
audio-technica stereo mic meant for video recorders 10ft from the
stage of a small church in the centre aisle, on a camera tripod.




http://punter1.users.btopenworld.com..._Flat_Op77.mp3

Pity about the hiss and distortion though.


Would that be hiss and distortion as in 'sex and violence'? There is some
hiss, but not a lot of distortion, and the point was that it's
representative of what you're likely to get if you just walk into a room
armed with a recorder rather than get the chance to set it up properly. I
think it sounds a bit thin, but that's cheapo mics for you.

The hiss sounds like band limited Dolby hiss typical of cassette recorders.
the distortion could be from a number of sources but the tape itself is a
prime one. I think the only way your TC153 would flatten a minidsik
recorder is if it were dropped on it.

Ian

With a laptop, Super Mp3 Recorder at http://www.supermp3recorder.com helps much.

Bill wrote:

Ian Bell wrote in message
...
Triffid wrote:

Ian Bell wrote:
Triffid wrote:



1) I have a portable cassette deck that can happily flatten any
minidisc recorder out there, ta very much (Sony TC153).



If you're interested, this was taken with my TC153 and a cheapo
audio-technica stereo mic meant for video recorders 10ft from the
stage of a small church in the centre aisle, on a camera tripod.





http://punter1.users.btopenworld.com..._Flat_Op77.mp3

Pity about the hiss and distortion though.


Would that be hiss and distortion as in 'sex and violence'? There is
some hiss, but not a lot of distortion, and the point was that it's
representative of what you're likely to get if you just walk into a
room
armed with a recorder rather than get the chance to set it up properly.
I think it sounds a bit thin, but that's cheapo mics for you.

The hiss sounds like band limited Dolby hiss typical of cassette
recorders. the distortion could be from a number of sources but the tape
itself is a
prime one. I think the only way your TC153 would flatten a minidsik
recorder is if it were dropped on it.

Ian

With a laptop, Super Mp3 Recorder at http://www.supermp3recorder.com helps
much.

YuK!!!!!

Ian

In article ,
Arny Krueger wrote:
Were I to use a portable recorder, I'd stick to stereo, use my Nomad
Jukebox 3 which records .wav files,, a Behringer MXB1002 mixer and a
pair of mics.

Yes. IMHO, the problem with any portable domestic machine is likely to be
the mic amps - far more so than the medium used for the capture.
It's a bit like a pickup pre-amp - regardless of how good a cartridge you
use, and power amp and speakers, if this is poor the results will be poor.

The internal mic amps might well be ok for recording a voice with a hand
held mic, but are rarely adequate for much else.

--
*When cheese gets its picture taken, what does it say? *

Dave Plowman London SW 12
RIP Acorn

On Wed, 11 Feb 2004 21:35:21 -0000, "steve"
wrote:

My only concern would be whether the mikes would be sensitive enough when
placed, say, 40 feet from the centre of the choir and orchestra. Might it
help to make the mikes more directional if I place some kind of cones around
them?? Or an umbrella behind??


40ft back may be a sensible recording position if the stage is 40ft
wide. If not, get closer. Rather like speaker placement in a
listening room. Putting them in the right place is almost more
important than what they are :-) Especially if you're after any sort
of stereo experience.