[Wylug-discuss] Seeking Advice: Quality Mobile Sound Recording

[Dave Fisher]

On Tue, Nov 28, 2006 at 01:58:39PM +0000, Gareth Eason wrote:
> 	What do you want to use it for? What type of recording are you 
> 	doing? What kind of microphones / instruments / audio are you hoping to 
> connect in and capture? What is your target media? CD? weblog? podcast?
> 
> 	What you should and should not purchase depends almost totally on 
> 	what you're trying to achieve. Do let me know and if I can help I will.

Hi Gareth,

There's an awful lot of questions there. I'll try to answer them in
turn, but please be patient, because I'm quite ignorant of even basic
concepts in sound enginering.

I'm planning a podcasting project as a learning exercise. 

I don't expect to be able to produce quality output for quite some time.  

The initial objective is, rather, to 'learn by doing'.  Not least,
because, merely reading-up on the subject gives very little useful
insight into the practical mechanics.

  1. What do you want to use it for?  What type of recording are you
  doing?

     Field recording, initially interviews, later acoustic music.
     Often in places with lots of ambient noise (e.g. pubs).

  2. What kind of microphones?

     I don't understand the technology well enough to be sure, but
     dynamic microphones sound like the right thing (unintended pun) for
     basic voice recording.

       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_microphone#Dynamic_microphones

     Several people have recommended the Shure SM58:

       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SM58

     Eventually, I'll want to record acoustic music.  I imagine that a
     suitable form of mic will be needed for that, since most
     instruments won't have electric pick-ups.
  
  3. What sort of instruments are you hoping to connect in and capture?

     Traditional instruments. Guitar, mandolin, fiddle, accordion,
     harmonica, ... all the 'folky stuff'.


  4. What is your target medium?

     Ogg podcasting initially, possibly using bittorrent for larger
     files.

In effect, the first milestone is to capture interviews with
singers/musicians and publish edited versions as podcasts.

I hope that makes things a bit clearer.

Dave