"roywwp"'s problem with recording

[blueprintstudios]

i got a weird error saying user doesn't exist when replying him.. so i thought I might as well put it up here.

Hi, can you help?
Hi Ron,

I am having a bit of a problem here with my recording. I am totally new at this and by reading all that posts you had on your thread somehow confuse me even more. And thats why you are receiving this email...

I have a sennheiser mic, DC adapter (to generate 40W), Behringer FCA202, Sony DV Camcorder and a XLR to right-angle mini jack.

I have tried to connect the mic to the camcorder and the sound was good but there background noise was terrible.

Thats when I got a FCA202 to record from my laptop (thinkpad T43) instead. I tried 2 ways...

1) Mic > FCA202 > Laptop (thru firewire)
Result: Very poor signal (low db/volume)

2) Mic > XLR to right-angle mini jack > Soundcard MIC port
Result: The volume is alright but the quality is very poor compared to when I record it using the Camcorder.

Now I realised there are a few options to solve this. Get a better Camcorder or Get a Preamp or Get a Good Soundcard. Any advice?

Regards,
Roy

hey roy,

your "Right angle mini jack" = 1/8 inch earphone jack.

1/4 inch is the jack used by guitar etc.

anyway using a sony DV camcorder as a recording medium would be quite noisy I think. cos I think sony has "auto-gain" , making anything recorded loud. so naturally even the background noise would be increased.

i'll tell you what went wrong here :

>1) Mic > FCA202 > Laptop (thru firewire)
>Result: Very poor signal (low db/volume)

i'm assuming your sennheiser mic is "Balanced" XLR. and because your FCA202 (wrong purchase actually) only accepts "UNBALANCED" inputs and there's no "PREAMPS" , that's why it the signal is very low volume.

>2) Mic > XLR to right-angle mini jack > Soundcard MIC >port
>Result: The volume is alright but the quality is very poor >compared to when I record it using the Camcorder.

this one I assume the noise level (created by your soundcard mic input) is also just as high or near to your camcorders.

>Now I realised there are a few options to solve this. Get >a better Camcorder or Get a Preamp or Get a Good >Soundcard. Any advice?
any camcorder would be the same result, your soundcard (FCA202) is sorta totally wrong purchase, you probably saw my recommendations on soft to get a line6 toneport UX2, because it's a "soundcard" and "preamp" and "cabinet simulator" all in one. your FCA202 is just a "soundcard". and only accepts "1/4jack unbalanced" , toneport ux2 accepts both unbalanced/balanced and XLR together.

so my recommendation now is, either save for that, get rid of your fca202 , then get a couple of XLR cables and you're good to go.

 

[godchuanz]

Hi,

Just to add on:
Think of signals in 3 different levels:
1) Mic-level (low level, need a preamp)
2) Line-level (industry standard level to transmit audio signals between audio components)
3) Speaker-level (Very high level, high enough to move your speaker cones)

When you try to record anything using a microphone (mic-level), you need to amplify it in order for it to be recorded onto the computer (line-level). When you playback your files on the computer (WAV, MP3 etc), it needs to be amplified greatly by the amplifier before hitting the speakers (speaker-level).



Let's analyse what went wrong:
1) Mic > FCA202 > Laptop (thru firewire)
Result: Very poor signal (low db/volume)
Reason: The FCA202 accepts Line-in, i.e. it expects your input signal to be at line-level. You can't just plug a mic into it.
Solution: Like what blueprintstudios said, you need a preamp between the mic and the FCA202.

2) Mic > XLR to right-angle mini jack > Soundcard MIC port
Result: The volume is alright but the quality is very poor compared to when I record it using the Camcorder.
Reason: The Mic-in port accepts Mic-level (it has a builtin preamp). So you're doing nothing wrong in terms of matching signal levels. But, most soundcards' mic-in are designed for use on voice quality sounds only. There's typically a noisy low-pass filter in it somewhere, and the circuits use very cheap, inferior components in the AD stage. If you are using Windows, it doesn't help that the Windows kernel mixer "optimises" sound from the mic-in port for voice. So, the result is a very poor sounding piece.
Solution: Don't use the Mic port on typical soundcards for recording music. They are not intended for that purpose. It should only be used for Skype etc.


Suggestion:
Same as blueprintstudios - Get rid of FCA202. Get rid of all cables except an XLRmale-XLRfemale. Get a proper audio interface with builtin preamp.

Ultimately, your recording quality should at least be "close to professional quality". If not, you're doing something wrong.