Open Stage for Country/Any kind of music ขอเชิญทุกท่านมาร่วมแจมครับ

[napman]

Dear Cin, I jumped a gun before I could hear from you about “Mic Gain” thing.

I used Kodak Zi8 as the camcorder and directly used 1/8” male jack at Zi8’s external jack to connect to Tascam DP-02 at RCA jack. So in a nutshell I used Tascam as an editing machine for audio editing everything that can’t be done by Kodak Zi8 and also as external mics.

DP-02 is a Digital PortaStudio that has 8 tracks total but you can actually use more than 8 tracks by apply the “Bouncing” technique. This DP-02 is mainly invented to accomplish the audio recording and able to create Album (CD) as all-in-one stand alone machine.

I connect the vocal mic to “Input A” and 2 guitar mics to “Input B” (these first 2 Input have both female XLR jack and ¼” female stereo jack). I assign the vocal to Track #1 and 2 guitar to Track #2 but of course you can switch around as you like. I also use the adapter cable to combine 2 mic cables from guitar mic to plug just one female XLR at DP-02.

And just like general Mixers, each track has EQ High, EQ Low, Effect Send, Pan and individual volume fader that I tweak around to try to get the best sound to my ears while using the headphone to listen to the sounds (both of vocal and guitar and sometimes electric guitar or electric bass and my own voice when I put some harmonizing part or even the backup music that I found from another sources) that I produce.

I also use the built-in Effect from this DP-02, there are quite a few options to choose from Electric guitar, Acoustic guitar, Bass guitar, Vocal, and Drum. And for each of these types there are several Preset settings to choose from to get some distinctive sound as I like. For example at Acoustic guitar there are Heaven, Stroke, Solo, Blues…etc, and at Vocal there are Chorist, Shout, Moody, Duet….etc.

I also use the built-in Reverb from this DP-02. There are 4 types to choose, Hall, Room, Live and Studio. Each of these option give you different TIME of reverb that you can select for your taste.

There are more options to choose to play around from this DP-02 than I just explained. Such as Mono or Stereo, Phantom power for mic….etc. But I think one of the most important options that plays a big part is the Recording Level for Input 1 and Input 2 that I have to be very carefully adjust or else they will CLIP badly and create some distort and ugly sound out. I think the trick is you have to combine all of the knobs that you adjust and play around to get the best sound that YOU like. And also have to be careful about the Master fader volume too! I don’t have enough flight-hour at PC editing to know what I can do there to get the best result. But I have played/fooled around with these stand alone machines for quite a while and seemed to know how to keep it under control (more or less, of course) without clipping or distorting that I used to have when I first started.

I think audio recording (Analog or Digital) is the combination of Science and Art that each of us must do it first-hand to really know/feel about. Reading is nothing at all compares to Doing. You can read a thousand books of recording and accomplish nothing if you don’t start recording it yourself just like you can listen to a thousand songs but never stick your head out to sing just one of them!! You also have to learn how to USE your mics too (here, I’m talking about the distance, the angle,…etc, and even the ambient noise from the room that you put the mic/guitar to sing/play it. There are so many factors that will involve to MAKE or BREAK your performing clips that you will begin to know after you get down and dirty with it)

Now the last step;
When I already set-up all of my equipments as I mentioned above. I just turn on Kodak Zi8 which connected to DP-02 which using the 3 mics as the external mic while the DP-02 is already set-up as I like and start performing LIVE and hope for the best.

When the performing song is done, I turn off the Zi8 and now the audio recording is already DONE and waiting at the SD card at the Zi8 card slot! I just simply turn on my PC, get to my YouTube channel and upload it by using the normal YT upload program there. Now I no longer use any other recording software to upload onto YT anymore. No editing of any kind after I finish shooting my performance, no vocal clip/VDO clip to sync up, just plain LIVE as raw as it should be. I’m DONE!

As of today I’m still learning to get the best out of this Recording stuff. It’s much fun and sometimes frustration to fool around with it, I‘m just scratching the surface of this ART and there are so much more SCIENCE that I can do with this DP-2 for so many years to come, and I feel that I‘m beginning to get a hang of it! I also know one thing; If I stop learning the things that I like then I may as well be DEAD my friends.

Cin, Please let me know again if I can be of any further help (in any matter, of course)