Recording quality sound on your laptop

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roughy

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

# 79717 21-Mar-2011 21:24

Hello fellow geekers
This weekend im recording my grandfathers life in an audiofile. Any idea how i could go about doing it? My android phone seems to do an ok job so ill use that but only as a backup.
Have trialed with my computer using some free programs to record but i think it comes down to the receiving speaker on my computer. I have got an aux input.
Does anyone have any experience with this?
or any other devices that could help me along?

Thanks

roughy

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

# 450535 21-Mar-2011 22:15

Even something thats used to record conferences...

gzt

10982 posts

Uber Geek

# 450569 22-Mar-2011 00:05

You will tend to find the the laptop internal mic will pick up a fair amount of fan and hdd noise. You will need an external mic (therefore a mic socket on the laptop, usually red.) minimum.

Personally, with what you have now, I would use the Android phone as the primary recorder.

Niel

3267 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

# 450591 22-Mar-2011 07:37

You can use the mic input (pink/red socket), but consumer mics are rubbish. To get good quality you need to use the line input (aux, think it is blue?) and an external mic pre-amp (something like a pro sound mixing desk or old tape deck will do) and a proper mic which retails around $300 (150 pounds, if you are still in the UK like your profile says). With all respect, I think this is beyond your current skills so Android will probably be best for you.

One option is ask at any church if they would lend you a sound guy. Charismatic or Pentecostal churches are better for this, as they deal with full bands and have all the right gear. Also often have less "red tape" to deal with. The primary function of a church is to serve the community, so you have a good chance getting help for a genuine need.

You can never have enough Volvos!

lchiu7

5175 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

# 450651 22-Mar-2011 10:55

If it's my grandfather's life I would do video myself and use a decent HD camcorder. You can always extract the audio from it later and video is so much better. Of course if you grandfather is self conscious that might be a proble. If that is the case then I would use a digital recorder - something people use for recording meetings or even music.

I gave one of these to my son to use to record his music lessons and the quality is brilliant, even with just the built in mics.

http://tascam.com/product/dr-07/

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