Recording Music from a CD to computer

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Dracon

Dracon

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Hello:

I have some music on CD that I want to add some vocals or mix vocals into it.

I am going to record the vocals with a UB802 and a E835 but I want to know if it's better to record the music by plugging a CD Player to the UB802 and go through the Soundcard or direclty from the Computer CD Drive?
 
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if your recording software lets you go from cd to wave directly ,
then it probably would be cleaner than going through more electronics into the pc. i would try both ways and see which you like better.
 
That's what I figured, but I want to make sure since I don't have any experience in recording from a mixer using an external CD-player.

I figured that internally the CD does not need go through the sound card.
 
ya,
if i were you i would stick the CD into your computer and rip it to a .wav file. then import that wav file into your multitracking software and track the vocals over that. mix those 2 together for your new diddy.

that may be tough to mix as the CD is already mixed down
 
minofifa said:
that may be tough to mix as the CD is already mixed down
Click to expand...

I don't know what mixed down means, but I'm sure you may be referring to the fact that the CD has already been mixed. I think that my software will record directly from the CD, but I will have to try it out first.

If not then I have to rip it to WAV and not MP3?
 
yes - to wave.
if you dont have this facility in your software to do this , hitsquad.com
have a bunch of programs. then - just import the wave into your multitrack software.
 
manning1 said:
yes - to wave.
if you dont have this facility in your software to do this , hitsquad.com
have a bunch of programs. then - just import the wave into your multitrack software.
Click to expand...

Hey Manning: No I got several rippers all of which convert to WAV. In fact, your handy dandy Windows Media Player will rip to *.WAV from any CD you put into the CD Drive.

So when I record from the UB802 will it also be in WAV format?
 
Dracon said:
Hey Manning: No I got several rippers all of which convert to WAV. In fact, your handy dandy Windows Media Player will rip to *.WAV from any CD you put into the CD Drive.
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Sorry I misspoke. Your handy dandy WMP will not ript to *.WAV it Ripps to *.WMA format. However, I do have several that will rip to *.WAV format.
 
i think you will get better results if you rip from your CD to .wav rather than recording the CD. when you record from the CD, you have to go from the digital to analog, sample the analog signal and put it back to digital. When you rip, everything stays in the digital domain. the reason you want to rip in .wav and not in .mp3 or .wma, again is for quality preservation. .wav are not compressed, whereas the other two are.

And yes, when you record your vocal track in your software, it will most likely save as .wav format. this is a good thing. when you record that track and then mix it with the CD track, you can export as an mp3 or a wma if you want. doing this last kepps the quality at a maximum. good luck, let us know how it turns out.
 
minofifa said:
i think you will get better results if you rip from your CD to .wav rather than recording the CD. when you record from the CD, you have to go from the digital to analog, sample the analog signal and put it back to digital. When you rip, everything stays in the digital domain. the reason you want to rip in .wav and not in .mp3 or .wma, again is for quality preservation. .wav are not compressed, whereas the other two are.

And yes, when you record your vocal track in your software, it will most likely save as .wav format. this is a good thing. when you record that track and then mix it with the CD track, you can export as an mp3 or a wma if you want. doing this last kepps the quality at a maximum. good luck, let us know how it turns out.
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Hey thanks Minofifa - I've learned something new today. Cool!
Well, now that explains why everyone talks about HD, space and all that jazz.
Not that it pertains to this forum, but since it seems you know your stuff. What should I expect the size of a WAV file that is 1/2 hour long (30 minutes) be? Can I expect to record vocals for 30 minutes or will the Gremlins come out?
 
heres an easy calculator for working out wav file sizes.
assuming you record MONO 44.1 16 bit each sample value occupies 2 bytes on your hard drive. so thats 88,200 bytes per second of audio.
lets round it off. 88k per second. so a minute is
60 * 88k = 528k bytes of storage.
what are you using to record vocals ?
 
manning makes a point, if you are concerned with saving space, be sure to record your vocals in mono. i used to record mine in stereo until i realized it was pointless and wasteful. no sense in recording the same thing on both channels when one centrered channel will do the same thing.
 
manning1 said:
heres an easy calculator for working out wav file sizes.
assuming you record MONO 44.1 16 bit each sample value occupies 2 bytes on your hard drive. so thats 88,200 bytes per second of audio.
lets round it off. 88k per second. so a minute is
60 * 88k = 528k bytes of storage.
what are you using to record vocals ?
Click to expand...

15MB for one mono recording is not bad at all. Heck I thought it would be a lot bigger for some reason. That's with your calculations of 528K per minute for thirty minutes you get 15840KB which roughly comes out to 15MB.

I am not using anything yet. However, my plan is to (after I audition the mics) probably buy a Sennheirs E835 or a Shure M58 and a Eurorack UB802, some inexpensive cable and recorded with either Audacity or some other free tool. I'll have to test which one captures voice better and which one works better. So what do you think?
 
minofifa said:
manning makes a point, if you are concerned with saving space, be sure to record your vocals in mono. i used to record mine in stereo until i realized it was pointless and wasteful. no sense in recording the same thing on both channels when one centrered channel will do the same thing.
Click to expand...

Would there be a selection in the software to tell me that I am recording mono or stereo? Is that something can can be controlled by the mixer?
 
minofifa said:
i think you will get better results if you rip from your CD to .wav rather than recording the CD. .... .wav are not compressed, whereas the other two are.
I just ripped one of the tracks of music from the CDs and I'm playing it right now with Audacity and I can tell you that it just sounds phenomenal. Anyway, the whole file (which is in stereo) is 311,546 or 304MB which is nothing. By the way has anyone heard of Kristal? I downloaded and I could not figure out how to import a WAV into it.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
yes, in the track pane of the software you are using, there will be an option to select it as a mono or stereo track. if you can't find it, do a search in the help for mono or something. it will be easy.

i've heard of krystal but i havn't used it.
 
;)
minofifa said:
i've heard of krystal but i havn't used it.
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Okay, I think I officially have had too much caffeine tonight. Anyway, like I said earlier I ripped to wav all the files already.

I also converted all of the files to MP3 and I sampled both. I have to say that I am amazed at the detail in sound of those wav files.

In addition, I played the wav on Window Media Player and then I played it on the Audacity. I don't know if I'm going insane or if I'm hearing things (perhaps the caffeine is affecting me), but the sound when I played the wave file with Audacity was significantly better.

I have my computer up to date with all the Window patches and stuff, and I have to tell you that it's nothing that I'm missing for Window Media Player. I think it's probably in the Decodex or however WMP interprets the information vs. Audacity. Has anyone experienced this or are my ears that sensitive? ;)
 
manning1 said:
your ears arent fooling you. ...
Click to expand...

Hello again! So as a software engineer do you have an insight as to how WMP is interpreting the information? I'm glad it was not me, hearing things.

I'll look into pgmusic for sure, especially when I'm ready.

P.S. I just went to their website, and have found that I've been there. However, I wasn't sure about the Band in a Box deal 'cause I'd heard no one mention it here.

Like I've bought Music Maker 7 from Magic ($7.00 on sale) and it just kept crashing on me and loosing all the work that I had done. After the 10th crash I gave up on the software.
 
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