Recording Audition Tapes

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Hi, first post here.

I study violin at a music college, and fairly frequently (well, maybe once in 6 months?) need to make recordings to send to competitions and auditions and what-not.

I just finished making a recording on my own Sharp MD portable with a cheap Sony stereo mic. Yeah, let the groans begin. It was all quite last-minute, and we did what we could with the equipment we had. I was actually surprised at the decent quality I got out of that. We used the school's concert hall which has excellent acoustics, so that must've helped greatly. We later did some splicing with CoolEdit which worked almost flawlessly.

But, I would like to get something better sounding for next time. I have an Mac iBook, so I was considering buying a USB soundcard such as this one:
http://computersandmusic.com/xcgi/S...mobilepre.html?L+mystore1+jwxq8345+1067360676

Would something like that, plus some editing software (I downloaded Sound Studio, is it any good?) and a decent mic (or two?) be sufficient to make very good recordings? I'm not looking for something to send to EMI or Sony, just enough to sound very good.

Does recording directly to the computer generally make better recordings than using a DAT machine?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
For good acoustic recordings you need to start with the source. Obviously a good instrument and acoustic space are the most important elements. Assuming you have that then a good Mic, Preamp and soundcard are vital.

Recording through an external Preamp and then into the DAT will most likely sound better than going through a cheapie sound card. But if you are going to edit and burn to CD then you still need to get the audio into the computer.

What is your total budget? To really make any worthwhile upgrades your probably looking at around $500-1000 US at a minimum. You don't have to buy it all at once though.

You might be better off finding somebody willing to record it for you either at their studio or on location. You would probably get the best quality and not have to worry about the technical aspects.
 
Well, I'm not prepared to pay $1000 just like that. ;)

One more thing, in recordings such as these, I'd be usually accompanied by piano. What would be the most cost-effective way to mic the two instruments well?

Also, I have some skill at soldering and stuff, and I'm guessing there are decent DIY preamp solutions out there? I've also read about DIY mics, but the idea sort of scares me. Are they any good?
 
You could probably make some decent preamps but not mics.

A good budget setup would be something like two MXL 603's for stereo micing, a DMP3 preamp and an Maudio card. It won't be super quality but probably a big step up.

If you guys can play at the right levels you could probably get by with just a stereo mic setup out in the auditorium. That's how most classical music is recorded.
 
I'd get a pair of Audio Technica Pro 37s and a Behringer Tube Pre-amp... one for the piano, one for you. I would run them into a two channel soundcard and then mix them with your software. I would definately like to have some control of the individual instrument volumes just in case.
 
Hmm.. Ok, would you guys consider the M-Audio Duo a good deal? This way I can get a "one-box" mic pre/sound card solution.

The one thing that bothers me is the lack of digital inputs... not an issue for direct recording, but I might regret it later when I want to transfer stuff from a DAT machine? What do you guys think?
 
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