Re: simple audio recording

[Michael West <quagly@mitzit.net>]

Thanks,
     I was hoping to avoid an external mixer/equilizer since I would
     like to make this system portable.  I should have mentioned this in
     my original post.  Maybe I should just get a mini-disk for
     portability and do as you suggest for the rest. 

     sox sounds perfect.  I am glad there is a command line option to do
     this.  

     Is there a mic recording card available which could allow quality
     recording directly to my laptop?



On Sun, Sep 14, 2003 at 12:20:44AM -0600, Jacob Anawalt wrote:
> Michael West wrote:
> 
> >I would like to record single track audio to my computer.  I do not need
> >to sync to video, I have little interest in editing.  However, I would
> >like high quality recordings.  What do I need from a software/hardware 
> >side to
> >record org-vorbis or wav files from a high quality microphone?
> >
> > 
> >
> Since you said simple, here is the simple system I've used for recording 
> from the line-out of my mini-disc player of recordings I've made or of 
> other audio I want a digital copy for portability.
> 
> Hook the line-out of the source device to the 1/8" line-in of your PC 
> sound card. (Unless you have a better PC sound in option.) Use rec (from 
> the sox package) specifying the data size, output file, format (WAV), 
> and the sampling rate you want. Encode the WAV file to  ogg-vorbis format.
> 
> I noticed that sox (at least the version in Sid) has ogg support. Maybe 
> you could record right to vorbis if you have a fast enough computer. 
> It's worth giving a try, since the WAV files will be quite large.
> 
> Recording a tape of Let Sleeping Vet's Lie (audiobook) to ogg to listen 
> to from my computer instead of my tape deck later:
> 
> rec -V -c 1 -s w -r 44100 lsvl-2.wav
> oggenc -b 8 lsvl-2.wav
> 
> Sox is quite flexible. The manual might be a bit of a read and 
> disqualify itself on the 'simple to use' grounds, but it's a 'simple 
> system' of command-line recording that I quite like.
> 
> Jacob
> 
> P.s. Don't make the common mistake of recording by hooking to the mic 
> jack on your sound card. Most consumer grade sound cards don't do a very 
> good job of recording off of the mic, and even if they would people 
> often give them the wrong type of input since they are made for a 
> _microphone_ and not the output of say your headphone jack on your mp3 
> player. The best recordings will be line out to line in, and if needs be 
> use an external mixer/equalizer's line out.
>