I want to record my digital piano and psr3000 in stereo.
I downloaded audacity to my laptop but because I only have a mono microphone input
I cant record stereo and the results are not very good.

What options do I have with my laptop if any so I can achieve good stereo results.

When I have recorded I want to convert to mp3 for my own use and sending demos.

How do most people record here on synthzone?

Cheers
Daren

Many modern laptops share one 1/8 inc input that allow for either a ( mono ) microphone or stereo line in. Are you certain that your input jack is mono ?

That said, the quality of most internal soundcards is usually fair at best. You can improve performance by adding generic ASIO drivers, such as the freeware ASIO4all. This will drastically improve latency, but will not address other low end soundcard issues like high noise floor and distortion levels.

If you have a PCMCIA slot ( or a free USB port ) you might consider adding an external soundcard that has at minimum stereo inputs, uses ASIO drivers, and can record at 24 / 96 if you want higher quality recordings ( the minimum would be 16 bit 44 khz ). Creative's Audigy, at the low end of the scale, should do a decent job here. A bit higher up the ladder would be the M Audio or Echo cards, which are made strictly for the purpose of recording music / audio.

I found for myself that I could fill up the three USB ports on my computer without any noticeable degradation in performance. I have a mouse, an external hard drive, a USB soundcard, and a synth that all work on USB ( for midi in and out ), giving me the need for 4 slots. Once I added an external USB hub, I noticed a serious performance drop off.

So.. I dropped the Soundcard for now and instead I use an external digital recorder, the Zoom H4. I am quite satisfied with it's performance, and it can also double as an external soundcard for the laptop. It can record in both WAV and MP3 formats. Now I only use the computer as a host for my VST synth and effects and as an external midi sequencer / beat box. Those tasks alone take up enough power that I will probably keep my setup like this, as some of the VST's are a bit CPU hungry. If I wanted to replace the USB soundcard though, I'd likely go with an M-Audio PCMCIA based card. I used Sonar as my internal recording app, but Audacity is an excellent free program that can yield quite good results.

Regards,
AJ


[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 04-15-2007).]

Hello AJ
Some points you should know about USB
1. The USB Ports on your Laptop are isolated from each other.
2. When you plug in a hub, the available resources are shared, which means if every item was working, then you would only have a quarter of the speed available for each item.
3. If you plug a USB 1 device into a USB 2 Hub, the hub will drop down to USB 1 speeds for all the ports. (Mouse and Midi Keyboards are normally USB 1)
To maintain the speed you require, I would suggest that you plug the hard drive and Soundcard directly into the laptop, and the Mouse and Keyboard into the Hub.
Hope this helps

Bill

I quite like the idea of the zoom h4 that you mentioned,being portable would make more sense to me as my keyboards are the otherside of the room from my computer.

It will set me back £200 for this unit is this a good deal or are there any other external options that are as good but not as costly?

Thanks
Daren

Thanks Bill,

I've tried every configuration available and I did plug it in exactly as you stated, but there was still a noticeable drop off in performance.

For playing VST instruments only, the laptop soundcard with ASIO4all actually seems to sound as good and with less latency than my M-Audio card, even with updated drivers. If I am only using 1 or 2 Vsti tracks, the noise floor issue isn't a big deal. It becomes much more of an issue when you combine 8 or 10 recorded tracks and mix down to stereo from within the computer, because the noise from each track then has a cumulative effect, and it does become quite apparent in a mixdown.

I used to use 2 computers, but really the second computer was strictly an Audio DAW. I find it much more convenient to use the H4 instead. If I were only recording and not using much VST stuff, then I would happily record into my laptop.

Daren,

I'm not sure of the pricing due to my lack of knowledge of the exchage rates, but I paid $299 USd, and really I couldn't find anything that was a better value in that range. The H4 fits inside of a jacket pocket, and even though I mostly use direct line in recording, the built microphones themselves do a pretty good job of recording

Here is a link for one review, and although it isn't from a dedicated audio site, it pretty much mirrors some of the other reviews that I saw online before I purchased mine.
http://homerecording.about.com/od/productreviews/fr/h4_review.htm

Regards,

AJ



[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 04-15-2007).]

Firstly, as computers and arrangers get more and more integrated, I would try a setup where your arranger is in front of your computer monitor, with the mouse and keyboard on a slide out tray below it. Plenty of inexpensive computer workstands with that form factor.

Now, it's a LOT more convenient to record, or sequence, or manage memory backups. I still refuse to sequence on an arranger, having got used to how much more powerful a computer is for those tasks, not to mention a nice big display instead of a tiny cramped screen. USB makes it a snap to transfer work on sequences or styles to the arranger.

An H4 is a really good location recording tool. but it doesn't hold a candle to what you can do with a computer. I mean, face it, even after you've recorded your keyboard, you need to master and compress your results, and how about an overdub or two....?

You can use the H4 as a USB front-end for your computer if you don't have a decent sound card, as well. Just get your arranger and your computer together, and a world of possibilities opens up...

Just so you get the whole picture Daren, the H4 can record up to 4 seperate tracks. If your computer accepts an SD card, it is a simple matter to plug the SD card in from the H4 and save the wav or MP3 files from the H4 onto your computer hard drive, where you can edit and master your wav files.

If you need to record multiple audio tracks, then an internal ( computer based ) DAW will definitely have an advantage. If you do go this route, most pros will recommend that the computer you use be set up strictly for that kind of work. No internet, and remove or disable any programs that are not part of the music process. I simply chose to use an external recorder because I use a lot of VST instruments and per channel effects, and at some point when you begin adding audio recording and master effects processing to thayt, it isn't very difficult to stress out even some of the faster CPU's out there.

Regards

Yes, but that is most pros.... If you are just a hobbyist, a single computer is fine. Maybe a dual-boot system can help you keep a stable recording system, otherwise, a regular PC is fine. And take a good look at the new Intel Macs.

They can run Mac or Windows OS's, and a lot of PC music programs run quite well in Windows, even on the Mac hardware... and zero viruses, trojans and malware.

i would only add that even with a dated old 450mhz celeron processor (back in 2000) i was able to use multitrack recording, for four tracks.
with my new laptop, i can run easily sonar for multitrack recording and use a good amount of vsts or other softsynths without having problems at all.
and i should mention that i use the same laptop for music, but also for eveything else that can be run on a computer: gaming (quite demanding of course), word processing, internet, music listening, video capture and editing, graphic and movies, webpage design, etc.
nowadays, the computers are very powerful, and even a 1000 dollars laptop is amazingly able to get the job done, when talking about making music.
but you need a good external (usb2 or firewire) audiocard.

The H4 is only able to record two tracks at a time (while listening to another two tracks for overdubs), but it CAN playback four, and then do a bounce-down. But it can't record four simultaneously.

Using one as a front-end for your computer is quite an attractive idea (although I can't say how well it handles low latency operation for VSTi's), as it gives you a soundcard AND a location recording tool in one package...