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About Me

To learn more about me and my history playing the trumpet and learning jazz, please start with the following links: About this site // Five-year anniversary // My playing history - the beginning // My playing history - the blowout // My playing history - the comeback // My introduction to jazz // Recommended recordings // Equipment information

Archived "About Me" blog entries are listed in the left-hand column.

ABOUT ME | thursday, march 16, 2006

Recording equipment

recording infoI'm posting the following because several people have asked about my recording equipment:

Microphone: Shure SM57
Recording Software: CubaseSL
Audio Card: Creative Labs Audigy Platinum2
Digital/Analog Converter: M-Audio FireWire Solo

Frankly, I don't really care for the quality of my audio clips. They sound too raspy to me, especially by the time they become mp3's.

As should be obvious from the list above, I use my computer to do the actual recording. The microphone plugs into the left channel of D/A converter and a second computer's audio output plugs into the right channel --the second computer plays the play-a-long track. The D/A converter's output then plugs into the SPDIF input on the audio card. Cubase does the actual recording, which I rip into an mp3 with Audiograbber. What a mess!

There are plenty of other applications you can use to record, many of which are cheap or free. Audacity, for example, is free, runs on a variety of operating systems, and is open source.

comment by STANTON

Hi Rick,

I'm also thinking to start recording my trumpet play like you're doing here. What kind of equipment would be easy to begin with? I have a microphone and a laptop, but I don't have any equipment to mix my play with some play-a-long.

Hi Stanton,

Some applications allow you to "monitor" tracks while recording. Cubase, for example, has this feature. If you find software that will do this, you can pre-record the play-a-long track and have the application play that track while you record a second track with your trumpet.

Perhaps other people will have suggestions.

-Rick

comment by TONI AMENGUAL

hi everyone,

as i'm working with computers all day and i get tired of it, i decided to buy a non-digital recorder, a sony analogic recorder MV-575V - microcassette-corder. For me its quicker to record and hear the results of my playing. Anyway, you get better results with a laptop, Cubase and a good microphone.

A month before purchasing the recorder, i tried to record myself with a small mp3 machine but the sound was terrible - well, i can't make my trumpet sound like a Kind of Blue's solo either ;)

greetings from Spain

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