Topic: Newbie needs help to do a soundboard pull

[MarkGrimes]

Ok....i have a powerbook and a sony vaio at my disposal for this job.  I was hoping to get some tips on how to do a pull off a soundboard.  I have this little tool but I'm sure there are better ways out there to do this.  Any help would be much appreciated.  Thanks!

[jkoch]

looks like a cheap r a>d convertor there. that may get the job done, but may not garner stellar results. you'd also need the venue to supply you with male RCA outputs which is far from a given.  one problem is what outputs the venue is going to give you and what inputs you have on your computer. they could have female or male RCA outputs, female or male XLR outputs, male or female stereo mini output, who knows. to be truly prepared (if you don't know what you're dealing with and can't find out) you need to be able to get all of these to a type of input your computer has...

also, what software do you have on your computer? if you don't have any good audio editing software i'd suggest getting at least something like audacity (google it, it's free).

[MarkGrimes]

getting the access to the male RCA outputs is done.  no problem there.  Software is the software that came with the converter.  Im the rawest definition of "newbie" when it comes to taping.  I'll get Audacity asap.

The only input i thought would work would be firewire or usb...didnt think there would be another way in unless they had sound cards installed with rca inputs (which they dont)

[jkoch]

they wouldn't need a soundcard, you would. what sort of inputs are on your lappy? only firewire and usb? i don't tape with a computer in the field myself but i know people use external soundcards which connect via the spdif in on the laptop. whatever you end up using as far as cabling and hardware is concerned make sure you have a practice run ahead of time. use audacity and make sure your setting are set so that you are getting a signal and it's recording.

[MarkGrimes]

haha...ya, i know I need the sound cards...by they i meant the computers im borrowing to do this   I dont have a notebook myself.

if im forced to use this converter, which im coming to the realization that im going to have to do this since the show is tonight, will Audacity be able to receive the signal from the usb port?  I didnt see an option from the pull down menu that was bluntly screaming usb input at me

As far as testing, i do have the performer coming over to my house in a few hours to test to make sure we have the set up working and then were going to test again at the venu.  Im recording a friend for him.  He's an AMAZING talent so hopefully it will be you guys, the "professionals", taping him soon    Anyways, other than its working, is there anything else i should specifically mess with or should i let the program just do its job?

[eman]

getting the access to the male RCA outputs is done.  no problem there.  Software is the software that came with the converter.  Im the rawest definition of "newbie" when it comes to taping.  I'll get Audacity asap.

The only input i thought would work would be firewire or usb...didnt think there would be another way in unless they had sound cards installed with rca inputs (which they dont)

So you have a "converter"? What is it? It comes with drivers? Whatever it is needs to be installed, which will probably happen more or less automatically when you plug it in. If not, go to the Device Manager and add hardware. When the computer installs it as a sound device, then that device can be picked from the recording software. It doesn't just say "USB", it looks for what is connected through the USB.

[jkoch]

he messed up the link in the first post. if you remove the first http:// it works and shows the gear he's trying to use.


your options won't say "USB input" it'll be something like "line in" or "digital in" or "analog mix" etc. it depends on what software is on your computer in regards to the internal sound/soundcard, etc.

[MarkGrimes]

ok...the show has been taped using the converter i posted and audacity.  Now i just have to figure out how to track the show...but that is something I will work on tomorrow.  He covered "The Stone" so i may post that here when all is said and done just to get opinions of this local talent. 

Thanks for all the help thus far. 

[fsulloway]

http://www.etree.org/cdwave.html

This should help you with the tracking.