Recording for "internal use" (i.e. practice)

Boomtime · #1 03-05-2007, 01:56 PM

I've searched through the TB posts and I don't think this has been addressed yet:

I play in a four piece band. Three of us live in San Francisco, the fourth guy (keys) lives about an hour away. Drums, bass, and guitar sometimes practice together without him.

When drums, bass, and guitar practice, I want to record songs we work on into an powerbook with garageband to send to the keyboard player so he stays up to date. I don't care about quality -- as long as the three instruments can be heard. Ideally, I want some kind of mic that I can put in the middle of our practice studio and run it directly into the powerbook.

Again, quality does not particularly matter and I don't want to spend much on the mic(s).

Any suggestions?

Boomtime · #2 03-05-2007, 02:37 PM

RadioShack PZMs have been getting some attention for room mic'ing. In a pinch, however, it is apparently possible to use a '58 as a room mic. According to Camcorderinfo.com:

This can be accomplished by laying your microphone on the floor or against a wall with a small piece of foam or rubber material underneath it. Enough to separate it from the surface by a quarter to half an inch while insulating it from vibrations. You want the mic capsule to be as close as possible to the floor (or wall) without touching it and you don't want any of the material to be directly between the capsule and the boundary.

See the full article here:

http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content...microphone.htm

I'm going to try this tonight with powerbook and garage band. Hope to post some clips in the near future.

derrico1 · #3 03-05-2007, 03:27 PM

Hmmm. No mixing board in your rehearsal space? If you already have a plausible mixer, just send a stereo mix via aux to the Powerbook.

If you want to record a room mic, a PZM mic will likely give better results than a budget dynamic. The key is to mount the PZM to a big flat surface (a wall, a piece of plywood or acrylic, etc). Note that you can't just run the mic cable into the Powerbook; you'll still need a pre-amp of some sort to boost the signal from mic level to line level.

BTW, if you really don't care about the quality, just try recording into the Powerbook's built in mic.

Boomtime · #4 03-05-2007, 03:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by derrico1

If you want to record a room mic, a PZM mic will likely give better results than a budget dynamic. The key is to mount the PZM to a big flat surface (a wall, a piece of plywood or acrylic, etc). Note that you can't just run the mic cable into the Powerbook; you'll still need a pre-amp of some sort to boost the signal from mic level to line level.

No mixer at present (we just moved into a new practice space with no PA). Hmmm.. good point about the preamp. I might opt for a USB recording interface with an XLR input. GC sells one for $99. I'm sure it's a POS, but I want to see how cheap I can go.

Quote:

Originally Posted by derrico1

BTW, if you really don't care about the quality, just try recording into the Powerbook's built in mic.

I'd like to go one step up from the built-in mic. At this point, I'm going to try for a USB interface and the SM58 up against the wall and see what happens.

Jimbob Jones · #5 03-05-2007, 03:50 PM

sony does a little stereo mic that goes straight into the "mic in" on your computer, i think it costs about the same as a shure SM58 (i live in the uk so im not sure how much it is for you guys over in the us) but its a great little microphone, and i used it for what you need...recording a small group of musicians in a room. the quality wasnt that bad either!

Boomtime · #6 03-05-2007, 03:54 PM

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll look into the Sony mic.

In the meantime, I just found a Tascam US-224 (http://tascam.com/Products/US-224.html) for sale on craigslist for $75 -- complete with cubase sx and USB cable.

Best part is that the guy lives a block away from where I work. I'm going to check it out tomorrow morning.

Baleen · #7 03-08-2007, 09:22 AM

A little off topic, but if you have an iPod...

I got a Belkin TuneTalk for my iPod for recording rehearsals. It works great. There're two gain levels (one's higher and has auto adj.). $80. I set it down in the room and manage to get everyone - clear enough to document or to rehearse to. Then I have it on my iPod so I can listen to it anywhere, or even play it back through some computer speakers at the next rehearsal. Real easy and simple. The new Belkin is the only iPod mic I saw that allows an external power source while using the mic - the others won't pass power through.