uploading music to computer

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persondude

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How would I go about doing it? Not for serious recording or anything like that, just so I can bounce ideas off people. Do they make mp3 recorders that I can use like a tape recorder and then just USB it to my computer? :confused: :o
 
You do not want an mp3 recorder. MP3'ing sound throws away 80% of the quality (that's why the files are so much smaller.)

You can get tons of recorders that record to .wav and then can upload to a PC. Go to any of the major catalog companies (musiciansfriend, zzounds, sweetwater, etc.) They will gladly send you tons of catalogs...
 
mp3's are not 1/5 the quality of wavs. it depends on the mp3. if you're recording 64 bit mono, yes, that would put it to crap quality.

160....192....you'll be fine.
 
cello_pudding said:
mp3's are not 1/5 the quality of wavs. it depends on the mp3. if you're recording 64 bit mono, yes, that would put it to crap quality.

160....192....you'll be fine.
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Depends on whether you can actually hear high frequencies and on whether there are cymbals involved. If both answers are yes, MP3s start being palatable at 256 kbps.... :)
 
Ok, thanks. Specifically, what i want to do is be able to send drum or guitar parts to the rest of my band, to give them something real rough to work with. Anything to keep me from having to go "ch-ch-dumbuddadumdum" over the phone.
 
some day i'm going to make a can you tell the difference thread with an exact clip of a cd's raw wav, and of varying mp3's from 160 192 and 256. converted back to wav, of course.

i would put 20 bucks on the huge majority of people not being able to tell the difference
 
cello_pudding said:
some day i'm going to make a can you tell the difference thread with an exact clip of a cd's raw wav, and of varying mp3's from 160 192 and 256. converted back to wav, of course.

i would put 20 bucks on the huge majority of people not being able to tell the difference
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That's a good idea, but it would never work as everyone's playback setup would be completely different. Being able to hear MP3/WAV depends on your monitoring source as well as how well trained your ears are (or not)
 
persondude said:
Ok, thanks. Specifically, what i want to do is be able to send drum or guitar parts to the rest of my band, to give them something real rough to work with. Anything to keep me from having to go "ch-ch-dumbuddadumdum" over the phone.
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Do you want someting with only a built in microphone, or do you want to be able to plug in external microphones as well?

Marantz makes some nice flash recorders with USB. I have a Hi-MD MiniDisc recorder that also has USB. A TimOBrien said though, there are a lot out there.
 
as long as they are listening to it on the same system...hopefully a decent one, there should be no problem.
 
cello_pudding said:
as long as they are listening to it on the same system...hopefully a decent one, there should be no problem.
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That's true. It's like anything else though, it's just a matter of training. If you know what to listen for, particularly with material you're very familiar with, it shouldn't be that hard to notice the differences.

My guess would be if you took 100 people (general audience, not musically trained) all listening to the exact same song on the exact same setup, one is the MP3, one is the WAV (and assuming they didn't even know if there's difference between the two clips they were listening to), the majority would not even hear a difference at all.

Now if you told a group of 100 musicians (one's with "good" ears, haha) that one of these clips is an MP3, and one is a WAV, and pick which one you think is the better one. You might get half picking the WAV, and half picking an MP3. I'm just theorizing here, nothing to back this up.

These compressions schemes are definetly getting better all the time though, I'll give them that. Doing a direct A/B comparison with music I know, I've been able to tell a difference, but I think that's getting harder and harder as the technology gets better.

I'll sum up by saying: MP3s are bad on principal. I need those "extra" bits to be happy :)
 
just a free hint:

if you put a wav into itunes, play it, then play its mp3 convert, it may default to changing its tone. there's a default that is called soundcheck. for whatever reason it only adjusts mp3 and not wav. i thought that the mp3 conversions were hideous and terrible until i turned that stuff off. i turned soundcheck off, and it plays both under the same umbrella.
 
cello_pudding said:
just a free hint:

if you put a wav into itunes, play it, then play its mp3 convert, it may default to changing its tone. there's a default that is called soundcheck. for whatever reason it only adjusts mp3 and not wav. i thought that the mp3 conversions were hideous and terrible until i turned that stuff off. i turned soundcheck off, and it plays both under the same umbrella.
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That's interesting. Good thing to be aware of. I've only recently started using iTunes as a player, and usually just CDs. The comparisons I've done are in recording studios off of CDs (audio CD/MP3 CD). I use to use a MiniDisc recorder to record practicing and that recorded to ATRAC compression, but it always just fine to me. But this wasn't a full mix or anything, just a solo instrument. I did upgrade to the Hi-MD though. 94 minutes of stereo PCM recording - Oh Baby!
 
MP3's are not for critical listening at all. They are meant and thought of as background music. I don't know anybody who critically listens to music that uses MP3.

I have an iPod, and I like to keep everything in WAV format. It takes up space, but like RAK said, the extra bits make a difference.

Having said that, I think for what this guy is trying to accomplish, just showing his ideas to bandmates, MP3 would be more than acceptable. All you need is hear where the idea is going.
 
jimmy2sticks said:
Having said that, I think for what this guy is trying to accomplish, just showing his ideas to bandmates, MP3 would be more than acceptable. All you need is hear where the idea is going.
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Speaking of which, where are you guy who started this thread? Did you end up going with something? I think I was still wanting to know if you wanted something with a built in mic or not? I agree MP3s would be fine for what you're doing.
 
RAK said:
Speaking of which, where are you guy who started this thread? Did you end up going with something? I think I was still wanting to know if you wanted something with a built in mic or not? I agree MP3s would be fine for what you're doing.
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I just want something cheap. All the recorders I've found from places like musician's friend are well into the hundreds or thousands of dollars. I was thinking more like a digital version of a talkboy. Quality isn't really that big of a deal, we'll worry about that once we get ready to record, since my 'studio' is where most of my money is being spent right now.
 
persondude said:
I just want something cheap. All the recorders I've found from places like musician's friend are well into the hundreds or thousands of dollars. I was thinking more like a digital version of a talkboy. Quality isn't really that big of a deal, we'll worry about that once we get ready to record, since my 'studio' is where most of my money is being spent right now.
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So what would you quote your price range at? Are you trying to stay under $100, or is spending $300 okay? It would seem to me to be a better investment to get something with halfway decent quality you could use for other applications, or if you decide you really do want something to sound a little nicer.

Here a variety of digital voice recorders with built in mics from Radio Shack that range in price from $39-$229. You'd have to be careful about the clipping the mic though with tracking drums on something like this. The built in mic of these cheaper products may not be designed to handle hjigher SPLs.

http://www.radioshack.com/family/in...+Voice+Recorder&fbc=1&categoryId=2032336&pg=1
 
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