#1
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Upgrading Home Recording Mic – Samson Go Mic to AKG C1000s?
I’m currently using a Samson Go Mic to do some recordings at home so I can listen to myself play and share with friends and family. It’s almost entirely just acoustic guitar and ukulele with no vocals.
I was thinking of upgrading my Go Mic to an AKG C1000s. Would I expect a fairly noticeable difference in sound quality? I normally just keep the mic about a 1 foot away from the 12th fret. I use Adobe Soundbooth to capture (I don’t edit / EQ but am learning). Beyond that I use nothing else. If I do get the AKG, I will get a desktop mic boom as well. And actually, if you have a recommendation for a small form factor / desktop mic boom that would be great too.
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GUITARS »» ESTEVE 7SR | APARICIO AA52 | SAEZ MARIN 715 | TAYLOR GC3 | MARTIN D-1GT | GIBSON LPMM UKULELES »» KAMAKA HF-3 | KOALOHA KTM-00-R | KANILEA K-1 C SF | KOALOHA KCM-00 | OHANA SK50-MG Last edited by the.ronin; 03-05-2012 at 10:46 AM. |
#2
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How will you connect your new mic to your computer?
Fran
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E ho`okani pila kakou ma Kaleponi Slack Key in California - www.kaleponi.com My YouTube clips The Homebrewed Music Blog |
#3
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Hi Fran, yes, the mic will be connected to my computer.
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#4
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Your current mic is a USB connected device. It has built-in to amplify the mic signal and convert it to digital form, which is then delivered over the USB connection to your computer.
Your proposed new mic, the AKG C1000S, is a conventional microphone. While it can be battery powered, it still requires a preamp and a/d conversion in order to deliver the signal to your computer. What sort of preamp and a/d converter will you use with the new mic? Fran
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E ho`okani pila kakou ma Kaleponi Slack Key in California - www.kaleponi.com My YouTube clips The Homebrewed Music Blog |
#5
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LOL, sorry, as you can see, I am totally new to proper recording. I actually just thought I could plug the AKG into the mic in of the computer. (I do know you need a particular cable for that.) Am I overlooking anything else?
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#6
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Is there some specific aspect of your current recording setup that you want to improve? Fran
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E ho`okani pila kakou ma Kaleponi Slack Key in California - www.kaleponi.com My YouTube clips The Homebrewed Music Blog |
#7
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hi ronin,
I'll let the knowledgable ones answer the tech questions, but for a mic stand option.....IF you sit down to play/record exclusively..... Look at the Sweetwater catalog under mic stands. They have one there that is "kick drum/amp stand with boom" listing.....since I sit, It works great with a mic for recording. The boom allows more than enough height for all set ups....and the stand itself is quite low to the ground and works for anyone sitting and playing guitar. It all folds up so it can be stored upright in a corner and out of the way. Good luck, Fred
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#8
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There is no particular aspect of my recording setup that I'm focusing on to improve - just the overall quality of recording. Listening to others’ recordings, mine is clearly of sub quality. I don’t mean to achieve their level since I suspect they are doing some post production EQ editing and such (not to mention being FAR better players than I am). As for my hardware specs, building and souping up computers is another hobby of mine. Granted, we always say that today’s motherboards have excellent onboard sound, I don’t know if this is to the same standard as even a casual music recorder. [Warning … geek content ahead!!] I’ve got an EVGA X58 SLI3 motherboard which supports 8-channel hi def audio – although there is only one mic in I think. As far as processing power, I’m running an Intel i7 920 overclocked to 4.0 Mhz. All graphics is offboarded to an Nvidia GTX 570. I’m running a x64 system with 12GB of RAM. Primary drive is a solid state Crucial M4 which is exponentially faster than the fastest traditional platter drive. Not that it is the best gauge of performance but my “Windows score” is maxed out. [Geek content finally over] But with that said, I’d also like to look into some dedicated recording interfaces like you speak of. Would you have anything in mind for my particular situation? Maybe what I’ll do is post up some sound samples using the Go Mic (no post production at all – using Adobe Soundbooth to capture) and see if you guys think I may not get much of a quality upgrade. Quote:
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#9
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http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/f...d.php?t=237148 It sounds like you have a nice computer audio system. Those are usually aimed at playback, understandably, not recording, even tho they toss in a mic input. Just search on "audio interface" to see the kind of thing you need at all price points: https://www.google.com/search?q=audio+interface Or go browse Sweetwater, very instructive - if dangerous to your wallet.
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#10
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Geek content, always interesting. On-board mic input? I haven't checked recently and they could be installing wonderful preamps these days, but that would be a very recent development and not one I would expect. Doug's "anatomy" thread is an excellent suggestion, as is his Sweetwater browsing advice. I don't have any specific unit I could recommend, but I would look for USB, two to four mic inputs with phantom power and 50+ dB of available gain, and a good track record with drivers. Once you identify a few candidates on tech specs, visit their support forums to try to get a read on driver issues. Doug has posted some classic stuff on the recording front, but the single most useful I think was his semi-quote from Joe Weed, an experienced acoustic recordist and studio owner. As Doug told the story, Joe explained that the the player and their performance far outweighed every other detail of the recording process. Followed by the instrument, then the room, then the experience and expertise of the engineer, and only after all these other factors did the gear contribution appear. So my absolutely best advice is to record a lot with your current rig and use that existing tool to focus on your arranging and performing and engineering. Fran
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E ho`okani pila kakou ma Kaleponi Slack Key in California - www.kaleponi.com My YouTube clips The Homebrewed Music Blog |
#11
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Doug, thank you for that and I will definitely go through your thread to learn more about post production - maybe that will help me bridge the quality gap I'm perceiving.
Fran, I think I'm leaning towards your suggestion of making the best use of my setup as it is now until at least after I've gotten my arms around this whole thing starting with Doug's post. In any event, I thought I'd share a sound sample anyway to get your opinion on whether I have much more for quality improvement given the hardware that I'm contemplating. Again, relative beginner here on guitar so please try to overlook the playing skills and just try to gauge the quality of the recording ... http://k003.kiwi6.com/hotlink/z1a9u5...b_20120304.mp3 This was on a Taylor Big Baby using the Samson Go Mic situated about 6 inches from the 12th fret. I used Adobe Soundbooth CS5 to capture. No post production.
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#12
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The most obvious thing I hear is noise, lots of it. It may be noise from your room, noise of the computer (how close are you?) or noisy preamps, or even the mic. Hard to know. The sound is also a bit harsh, which could be lots of things, including room acoustics, the mic, the guitar, and others. How does this compare to the sound you hear with your guitar acoustically? Another really big thing you can do, if this is meant to be a solo guitar track, is record in stereo with 2 mics. For that, you need, naturally, 2 mics, and some sort of interface/preamp that supports 2 mics and brings both channels into your computer.
But this is sort of the sound I'd expect from a computer mic input. I suspect almost any external interface will be a pretty big improvement over the computer audio. The differences between preamps is often very small (as are the differences in mics), once you get above a certain bar, but builtin audio in any computer I know of is below that bar. Fine for a webcam or something, not good enough for recording anything were you'd like to get a nice sound.
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#13
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It is definitely noise coming from my computer. I'm doing all of this on an L-shaped desk where the desktop tower is maybe 3-4 feet from the mic. It's outfitted with noise dampening fans and the CPU is liquid cooled so it's actually relatively quiet but clearly being picked up by the mic.
As far as the sound I hear from my guitar, I think its generally accurate but I'm not hearing some of the lower end bass. As an aside, I do have a Boss ME-25 effects pedal from back when I thought I would get into electric (not so much lol). I understand that this can also be used as a digital interface? It also has a USB out.
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#14
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If you want to sound at all like a pro or semi-pro recording, that's the first thing you'll want to fix. The hallmark of any really good recording is that it sits against complete silence, no noise. A longer mic cord, and moving across the room may help. I use a Mac that is whisper-quiet compared to even the "Silent PC" I used to use. I still had to put it in another room to get usable noise levels. Acoustic guitars are quiet.
Quote:
Getting decent recording is all very much about having the right setup. It all seems hard if you don't, easy if you do. Some is hardware, some is acoustics, some is the player, guitar, etc, some is knowing what buttons to push. The hardware doesn't have to be expensive, and you don't have to go crazy with room acoustic treatment if you have a typical furnished house - tho some attention to it will definitely help. If you're recording solo guitar, the fastest path to a good sound is something like the Zoom H4n, or equivalent. Shut off the computer, put the H4n in front of you, and hit record. You'll get stereo, and it will sound much better than what you're getting, quite good actually, unless your room acoustics are really terrible. Transfer to the computer to mix (the H4n can act as an interface, too, if you need to multi-track).
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#15
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Thanks again for the feedback, Doug.
I was inspecting my room layout and it occurred to me that I was sitting just a couple feet from a wall with the Go Mic clipped to the edge of my desk (made of glass if that has acoustic influence). I suspect the sound was bouncing off the wall as well perhaps creating more distortion. In any event, I think I will go the portable digital recorder route. What’s funny is that I picked up my first Acoustic Gutiar magazine on a whim over the weekend grocery run. In it are some thorough reviews of portable digital records!! LOL So changing tack to a portable digital recorder, I came across this great discussion (Fran, you’re in there lol). I’d like to spend less than $200 if possible and so far the Zoom H2 is looking like a strong contender. Although my original intent was simply to record myself playing, there are some great points in there about the various applications that should be considered. Still doing research but any input would be greatly appreciated.
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