Audio Recording Nightmare - Knowledgable help greatly appreciated!

jg wrote on 11/19/2001, 1:17 AM
Here's the dilemma.

I'm recording a personal demo tape for a talk radio show I'm developing. I'm trying to produce the open, which is a mix of voice over and music.

The music sounds full, rich and vibrant, but the voice over lacks the resonance that you typically associate with radio announcers. It sounds hollow and tinny.

I do have tv production experience, but I'm a real novice when it comes to audio.

A friend of mine suggested that my problem could be that I was using a cheap microphone. (He's right, I was. Audio Technica ATR-35R Lapel mic. $30 bucks at Best Buy.)

Another friend said that even with a good mic, I'll never achieve FM DJ type sound, recording straight into my mini DV cam. (Sony TRV-10) He said I needed some type of pre-amp with phantom power.

So, I managed to scrounge up a pretty decent cardoid mic. (I'm not exactly sure of the brand, but it has a capital T logo and it sounds tons better than the cheap AT I was using) and a Mackie 1202-VLZ Pro Mixer with phantom power.)

My problem now is that while my voice over sounds great over the monitor headphones plugged into the mixing panel, (and the levels look great there) when I try to record into either my camera or sound card, I am absolutely pummeled by buzz and distortion. The guy who loaned me the gear is too slammed to help me troubleshoot and I've spent hours on line surfing websites for audio recording tips.

Can anyone out there direct me? I've been working on this 2-minute piece for nearly three weeks now and it's freaking driving me crazy!

Thanks in advance for any suggestions you may have!

JG

Comments

Cheesehole wrote on 11/19/2001, 2:01 AM
make sure you are going out of your Mackie at 'line level' and not 'mic level'

also try plugging all your equipment into one single power strip.

- ben
Chienworks wrote on 11/19/2001, 6:43 AM
You were probably plugging the old AT mic into the mic input on your
sound card, and that mic put out a signal level of around 0.001 volts.
The Mackie mixer's output is line level, which is about 1,000 times more.
You'll have to connect it to the line input on your sound card instead of
the mic input.
jboy wrote on 11/19/2001, 9:29 PM
Also,elementary, but..if you're outputting the Mackie into a mini 1/8" plug converter, check it. These things are notorious for producing all manner of unwanted noise if they're not perfectly plugged into their little holes.
Victorious wrote on 11/20/2001, 2:06 AM
make sure the line input level (in the windows mixer) for your soundcard is not clipping...