7 votes
Accepted

How do I read this frequency response chart?

The response curves are for each of the three selectable roll-off switch positions... Flat –6 dB/octave below 100 Hz –18 dB/octave below 80 Hz From the spec sheet - Low Frequency Response ...
  • 7,902
6 votes
Accepted

Should I use pedals for guitar effects while recording?

I wouldn't record using FX unless I was very sure about the end result I wanted and how it would sit in the mix, just to leave my options open since you can't go back and remove the FX. On the other ...
  • 1,563
5 votes
Accepted

How to pick drum notes for a song?

Drum tuning is largely dependent on the style of music being played. A jazz kit will usually be tuned to exact pitches in a scale, such as the snare being tuned to the root, one tom tuned to the ...
  • 239
5 votes
Accepted

Connecting electric guitar to XLR

Assuming you don't have some kind of Franken-cable running from ¼" jack to male XLR, then you'd have to go via a DI [Direct Injection] box, if only because the plugs won't fit otherwise. If you do ...
  • 7,902
5 votes
Accepted

Recording multiple microphones tightly synchronised

Virtually all modern audio interfaces for computer use have clock-synchronized sampling across all inputs. This is a prime requirement for most ordinary multi-track recording. It would be difficult ...
5 votes
Accepted

How to record wav file in bit depths lower than 8 bit?

Lower bit depths are not easily available simply because they are not looked for commercially, not because of some intrinsic technical difficulty. Audio interfaces or other capturing devices have ...
5 votes
Accepted

What can I expect from this pc when producing audio?

less tracks per project. less plugins opened. if you use your factory soundcard (the one on your motherboard) you'll probably suffer from latency and a bad signal/noise ratio. But you still can ...
  • 1,095
5 votes
Accepted

Microphones for instruments ranging from double bass to fife

If you're specifically after something that's versatile, the Shure SM57 is the best microphone you'll find for that budget. It can be used for pretty much anything, it sounds good live and in the ...
5 votes
Accepted

Best way to record drums with one Mic?

The short & realistic, if somewhat cynical, answer would be... Do it like they did in the 50's - find a good-sounding room, keep moving the mic around the room until you get the best sound. ...
  • 7,902
4 votes
Accepted

Finding loud events in lengthy ambient recording?

Software with a spectrogram would be my choice because the sounds would probably be more noticable at a glance. e.g. Izotope RX (it has useful options to customise the spectrogram rendering ...
  • 66
4 votes

Wav file matching

How is your coding? You could put together this functionality using an acoustic fingerprint library such as http://acoustid.org/chromaprint
4 votes

Wav file matching

If you use or have access to a mac, Similarity should be able to help with this. The free version may be sufficient for your needs. From the site: Similarity rapidly scans your music collection ...
  • 305
4 votes
Accepted

does a di box can run a condenser microphone?

Basically, the purpose of a DI box is to act like a microphone (balanced XLR output, low impedance, Galvanic decoupling) when you're not really using a microphone. When you are using a microphone, you ...
4 votes

Cheap hardware to record multi-channel audio on mac

Here is 4 channels for $250 with mic pre amps and dedicated outputs should you need them. There are a handful of 2 channel units for under 200 here is a 4 channel right at the $200 mark. You are ...
  • 1,010
4 votes

Software to identify words or voices in a recording?

The most relevant piece of software I could find is called Praat. It's free, and it offers spectral, pitch, and formant analysis—but it was developed for the study of phonetics. This is deep software ...
  • 81
4 votes
Accepted

Why can't computer software "shift" the recorded audio by whatever the latency is, thereby eliminating any latency in the track?

If you are talking about recording audio, latency is not an issue in 2016. Today, audio interfaces that are designed for multitracking have zero-latency monitoring. The audio input is split and you ...
4 votes

Are there any significant differences between using a dedicated audio interface and a field recorder with audio interface capabilities?

I have both devices and to be honest I wouldn't buy either of them. Haven't used H4n as interface and have used 2i2 for recording only in some rare situations, so I'll just list pros and cons. H4n: +...
  • 606
4 votes
Accepted

getting multitracks from a file

There are essentially two ways to get hold of source material broken down to stems or tracks. Legitimately. a) Negotiate with the record company for the rights to use, pay the fee, agree the ...
  • 7,902
4 votes
Accepted

Why we hear noise (when it's silence) while AUDIO - RECORDING

In a way everything other than the signal you're interested in is noise. Silence is the 'weird' thing, not noise. There are many types of noise produced in different ways. But the most common (the ...
  • 1,563
4 votes
Accepted

What dBFS threshold should I set for differentiation between silence and NOT silence

This question, as stated, is not answerable. The answer is "it depends". What you need to determine is the noise level in the file. Silence is rarely silent, but there is a large difference between ...
  • 8,122
4 votes

How can I as beginner learn Sound Design cheap?

The best advice I can give is to make a lot of mistakes. And learn from them. So, if you really are serious about this: start today. Select one animation, any animation already there, download it to ...
  • 1,324
4 votes

Preamp Outs Clipping on my AD Converter ins, but not in DAW. Is it bad?

This is really a fundamental question around recording technique for bands, of which there are a number of schools of thought that are equally applicable. Personally, I come from a classical music ...
  • 8,695
3 votes

Can I record a sound frequency I can't hear and play it back so I can hear it?

I would like to expand on the caveat in @Rory Alsop's answer, since to me he answers one part of your question (can I play it back so I can hear it?) while relegating the arguably far less trivial ...
  • 293
3 votes

Why are these two recordings of the same event slightly different in length and how do I synchronize them?

Unless the recording devices are locked to each other or a common masterclock like a blackburst generator the devices will drift over time. The best thing to do is probably slice and readjust as ...
  • 1,304
3 votes
Accepted

Where should I turn up the output when recording from a keyboard through an audio interface?

I would keep the source (keyboard) loud, turning recorded strip in the DAW mixer down. It gives you flexibility during the mixing/mastering stages. If you record low signal in, it would take you a lot ...
  • 271
3 votes

Music Muffled nosie

Use a low pass filter or EQ to remove high frequencies.
  • 674
3 votes

Howto enable sound recording from the pc and not from microphone?

You're probably trying to find the "What You Hear" (or, depending on the sound board of your PC, "What U Hear" or "Stero Mix" source), which is not visible in your posted screen shot, as opposed to ...
3 votes

What is this microphone connector?

Looks very much like a vintage Switchcraft 2501 connector. Note that those were typically used for vintage high-impedance unbalanced microphones. So even if you had a cable with that connector on one ...
3 votes
Accepted

Recognition of timing information by sound device

When using a DAW, wether for midi sequencing or audio recording, the fundamental timing of the DAW is managed by a high frequency clock. Depending on your DAW and audio interface, this clock source ...
  • 2,784

Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible