Recording in a car

  • Thread starter Thread starter AlexMck
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AlexMck

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I know this is not a typical recording question for this forum but does anyone know the best way to record the radio directly out of a car. I am working on a project recording certain elements of radio programs directly out of cars but have no clue how to do it... can I burn the information directly to a cd or do I have to start in a cassette format... If anyone has any suggestions it would be greatly appreciated... again I have no idea what im doing.

Thanks
 
Well, you'd have to have some kind of direct out from the car radio...like a headphone jack or something. I've never seen one like that though, but I'm sure they exist lol. You could always mic up the car speakers but that would be a little bit strange.

Does it have to be a car radio? Can you just get one of those old handheld units and record from that? Those would have some kind of direct out on it, I'm sure.

Not sure what you mean when you're talking about the cd vs. the cassette...explain?
 
yea i think it has to be a car radio, the project is for conceptual art piece where I drive for extended periods of time over long distances keeping the radio set to a particular FM frequency (for example 96.1) as I move in and out of different regions different radio stations will have the rights to that frequency such that the audio is constantly in flux over the course of the drive (also im talking about driving for 24+ hours). I want to have the audio recording of the changing radio to serve as a form of audio documentation for the physical action of movement and transit.

(thats the general idea of the project)

when asking about the cd cassette thing I was really just asking if I could burn the audio directly to a cd while I was in the car or what device I would need to use to physically record the audio.... I am not a musician or involved in the recording business, so I really am new to the idea of recording audio thats why my question may seem vague... hopefully the explanation of the project might give you a better idea of what I need.

thanks for any advice you can give
 
AlexMck said:
yea i think it has to be a car radio, the project is for conceptual art piece where I drive for extended periods of time over long distances keeping the radio set to a particular FM frequency (for example 96.1) as I move in and out of different regions different radio stations will have the rights to that frequency such that the audio is constantly in flux over the course of the drive (also im talking about driving for 24+ hours). I want to have the audio recording of the changing radio to serve as a form of audio documentation for the physical action of movement and transit.

(thats the general idea of the project)

when asking about the cd cassette thing I was really just asking if I could burn the audio directly to a cd while I was in the car or what device I would need to use to physically record the audio.... I am not a musician or involved in the recording business, so I really am new to the idea of recording audio thats why my question may seem vague... hopefully the explanation of the project might give you a better idea of what I need.

thanks for any advice you can give
Click to expand...

Ahh ok. Thanks for clearing that up! So are you planning on recording with no interruption for 24+ hours? That's what I'm feeling from your post, but that would be hard to accomplish. My recommendation would be a handheld recording device (Zoom makes some good ones) but you would have mainly two problems: battery life and the size of the recording. Most handheld recorders only last for like 10 hours max on their battery, and a file that size would be really bulky to download or burn to a disk. If you get a good handheld recorder, most of them can record up to 50 hours so that wouldn't be a problem, but you couldn't just burn 24 hours of sound onto a cd due to lack of space.
 
The other thing to keep in mind is that audio CDs will only hold a max of 74 minutes, though you can get some that do 80 minutes. You are therefore looking at between 18 and 20 audio CDs.
 
AlexMck said:
the project is for conceptual art piece where I drive for extended periods of time over long distances keeping the radio set to a particular FM frequency (for example 96.1) as I move in and out of different regions different radio stations will have the rights to that frequency such that the audio is constantly in flux over the course of the drive (also im talking about driving for 24+ hours). I want to have the audio recording of the changing radio to serve as a form of audio documentation for the physical action of movement and transit.
Click to expand...
guitaristic said:
So are you planning on recording with no interruption for 24+ hours ?
Click to expand...
This is what I'm also wondering because your wording isn't entirely clear.
guitaristic said:
My recommendation would be a handheld recording device (Zoom makes some good ones).
Click to expand...
If you need to record a car radio, you might want to look at the Zoom H1 which is a great little bit of kit. I use it to record sound effects and snippets of conversation, barking dogs, foreign accents, thunder, crowds, you name it.
Are you really going to continuously record the radio for 24 hours ? Even for conceptual art, that's pushing it ! :drunk:
 
If you're going to be in a car for that long a period of time, maybe look into one of those converters that will let you plug a standard AC house plug into your car socket? That could help with the power situation... but that being said, I don't know much about grounding/etc/risks of plugging sensitive equipment into it, etc. I'm not an expert, it's just an idea. Best of luck!
 
Sounds like a horrible experience, since you will probably have a lot of dead air and bad music, as well as partially tuned stations etc.

Anyway, if I was going to do that I would throw a radio in the trunk with a digital recording device (like the zoom). Then you wouldn't have to subject yourself to listening to the same frequency for 24 hours.

Are you doing penance or something?

I'm guessing (hoping?) you will be editing it down to like 2.4 minutes or something?
 
Thanks for the advice guys... yea I dont know exactly how all the logistics of the project will work out... but the Zoom sounds like a good start.

Thanks
 
Remember you are going to have to stop for gas, bathroom breaks, and to change out memory cards (if you are using a device that has them).
 
If your spending that long in a car you might want to look into a portable toilet and pre packed sandwiches! lol
 
A good mate of mine (sadly died suddenly very recently 10yrs my junior!) Had a new ford van with a serious sound system in it. All his music came off a laptop on the passenger seat.
This was kept charged by an inverter producing 230volts 50Hz but you can now buy 12 to 18ish volt converters that run from the fag lighter socket. 24hrs at 16 bits 44.1kHz is not a lot of hard drive space these days.

To get a signal I think you really need to tap into the speaker lines and feed a 10k pot and then you need nothing better than a Behringer UCA202 as the interface.

But! FCS do a "dummy run" at home to be sure the laptop will record for 24hrs solid!

Dave.
 
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