Topic: First post need some help with analyzing some audio/problems

[mattrix]

I went to Pearl Jam last night and taped my first show, I used a Sony PCM-D50, Church Stealth mics and a church CA-9100 pre. I can not figure out for the life of me why the recording sounds great some parts and some parts sound really muffled. Looking for some tips and or suggestion on how this may have happened. It does this quite a lot during my show, and yet I have parts that are 20 minutes long with no problems. Please see the file below. Coverted from wave to 128kb mp3. I had the mics resting on my ears and wearing a baseball cap so it is possible that it is simply user setup problems or a directional problem.

Follow up, I made the same mistake two nights later at The Cure concert! I was simply tpaing with the internals, I never switched the line in/mic in switch. I was under the impression that the unit would do it automatically. Next time I will RTFM!
here are two Cure songs from Friday the 13th that were taped with the internal mics and I did not put the unit in the bag I had so they actually came out good.

The direct download link is: http://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/ptt8m7
The download page link is: http://www.sendspace.com/pro/ptt8m7

[Brian Skalinder]

Post a good and a bad sounding sample?

You should be able to attach MP3s directly to your post - underneath the "Reply" box, click the Additional Options link to access attachments (each attachment limited to 512 KB).  Alternatively, you could link to larger files on sendspace or some such.

[Josephine]

Sounds as though you may have turned away (looked back, down or perhaps sat down) from the sound source . .  or someone stood very close in front of you and formed a block between your mics and the PA system.

[George]

Sounds as though you may have turned away (looked back, down or perhaps sat down) from the sound source . .  or someone stood very close in front of you and formed a block between your mics and the PA system.

Yeah, it literally sounds like he turned around away from the PA.

mattrix,

         Maybe the batteries were dying in the pre?  It's happened to me before with batteries that were fresh out of their packaging...unfortunately duds do occur on occasion. 

[powermonkey]

Does the sound go good > bad or good > bad > good? (If that even makes sense)... what I mean is does it start off sounding fine then suddenly go bad? I've had batteries start dying in my pre a couple of times... recordings start off fine, but then suddenly sound bad... less dynamic, noisier, less clear. Unfixable, needless to say.
 

[mattrix]

I figured it out I AM AN IDIOT, I never turned my unit from internal mics to line in!!!! OMG I just did the cure show last night and the same thing happened to me. It was from me putting the unit in and out of my case and it was getting muffled. Well at least I know now and the cure show came out great because I at least kept the unit of the case for over an hour. Pretty amazing how good the built in mics are on this Sony. Oh well live and learn. Always more shows to tape coming up.

Thanks guys and sorry for wasting your time.

[powermonkey]

I figured it out I AM AN IDIOT, I never turned my unit from internal mics to line in!!!! OMG I just did the cure show last night and the same thing happened to me. It was from me putting the unit in and out of my case and it was getting muffled. Well at least I know now and the cure show came out great because I at least kept the unit of the case for over an hour. Pretty amazing how good the built in mics are on this Sony. Oh well live and learn. Always more shows to tape coming up.

Thanks guys and sorry for wasting your time.

No time wasted here. It's a pretty steep learning curve, getting this taping stuff down. I taped a few weeks back, really excited, realised halfway through I was plugged into the mic-in rather than line-in. Gutted. You live and learn, though. I can barely listen to the first recording I made, but after a year I'm getting some I'm really proud of.

One thing I'm learning now is to leave everything the hell alone once I've started recording. Might mean the volume coming out a little low sometimes, but there are so many buttons everywhere.... all too easy to turn on the bass roll-off, or nudge volume, switch internal mic power off, etc etc.
 

[Dede2002]

I figured it out I AM AN IDIOT, I never turned my unit from internal mics to line in!!!! OMG I just did the cure show last night and the same thing happened to me. It was from me putting the unit in and out of my case and it was getting muffled. Well at least I know now and the cure show came out great because I at least kept the unit of the case for over an hour. Pretty amazing how good the built in mics are on this Sony. Oh well live and learn. Always more shows to tape coming up.

Thanks guys and sorry for wasting your time.

No time wasted here. It's a pretty steep learning curve, getting this taping stuff down. I taped a few weeks back, really excited, realised halfway through I was plugged into the mic-in rather than line-in. Gutted. You live and learn, though. I can barely listen to the first recording I made, but after a year I'm getting some I'm really proud of.

One thing I'm learning now is to leave everything the hell alone once I've started recording. Might mean the volume coming out a little low sometimes, but there are so many buttons everywhere.... all too easy to turn on the bass roll-off, or nudge volume, switch internal mic power off, etc etc.
 

Exactly.
I've made terrible mistakes as a taper. Funny thing: the parts where you've messed up things, are always the best parts of the show 
Have fun. Thats what really counts.