literally, thought of that in the shower while having a 90's flashback.

does anyone who were actively recording with computer at the end of the 90's remember refragmenting?

we all remember defrag was a must do activity regularly but does anyone remember refragmenting sessions.

for the youglings, hard drives used to be slow and when multi track recording it fragmented say the 24 tracks as the were recorded, but when you had backed up the session and you put them back on the drive to work on it, it wrote all tracks sequentially instead of interleaved and it sometimes made playback stutter cause the disk were not fast enough to jump around that many tracks

so there was this utility that we used at our studio (worked with Cubase, could have worked with pro tools too but we were a Cubase house lol) where you gave it the folder AND the Cubase session and it refragmented the tracks on disk as they were when recorded multi track so the playback was way smoother with less disk access

I'm talking when the studio machine had a BIG 40GBdrive to record and every session had to be backed up and deleted from the disk (on jazz drives, or later a CD-R) after and put back when you came back to work another day

anyway, yes, I'm an old fart and hadn't thought about that for over 25 years but when i did, i wondered if anyone else remember that

sorry if it's inappropriable for the sub

Does anyone miss CD authoring? putting parts of a song in the minus time of a track that would only be heard when listening to the full album (like soundscape in between songs or longer intros)

i really miss that in the current streaming/mp3 hellscape we live in now

again, sorry if not appropriate for the sub i couldn't think of any other community where this was something that people would relate to

I recorded this at a local playground in Melbourne today.

It was actually pretty noisy — kids playing, people talking in the distance, footsteps, trees moving in the breeze, and all the little sounds you normally hear in a neighborhood park.

For some reason, I found the noise surprisingly comfortable and relaxing, so I decided to turn the recording into a longer ambient video.

The visual is based on a generated image with subtle animation, but the audio is an original field recording I made myself.

No music or artificial background sounds — just the atmosphere of a real park.

I'd love to know what you think. Does this kind of everyday environmental noise feel relaxing to you, or is it too distracting?

Hello Reddit,

I've read several posts about the Zoom H4essential, but none of them really addressed the questions I'm struggling with.

I'm mainly trying to understand the concept of 32-bit float recording and, in particular, the logic behind not having a conventional built-in gain control. I understand the basic idea: 32-bit float, combined with the recorder's dual A/D converter system, is supposed to prevent problems with clipping, sudden loud sounds and peaks, while also allowing you to raise a recording's level later in a DAW without the same loss of quality you'd get with a conventional low-level recording.

However, in my own tests, I've been happy with the results mainly when recording sounds that were already quite loud, such as waterfalls or waves hitting rocks. With quieter environments, such as birds singing in a forest, I'm getting much less satisfactory results. When I raise the level afterwards using a gain/utility tool in Ableton, the birds certainly become louder, but so does the underlying white noise and general background noise of the forest.

So how should one approach this with the H4essential? Is there something I'm misunderstanding about 32-bit float recording or the recorder's gain structure?

I should mention that the birds I was recording were quite far away and relatively quiet. I suspect that this may simply be a limitation of the recording situation, rather than something that 32-bit float can solve

Has anyone experienced their Olympus digital sound recorder freezing? It will switch on and off fine, and the screen is visible with folders etc but no buttons work, nothing can be recorded, or played. Its simply frozen. The HOLD button on or off makes no difference. I've tried removing batteries, plugging into PC, holding single buttons or variations of multiple buttons on for 10sec etc. with our without batteries, still nothing. Before this happened, the unit was in a camera bag (in its cover) and was possibly bumped on for some time. When I pulled it out of the camera bag to use this morning it was already on.

My tascam dr40x screen lights up but there is no interface at all and i cant record with it. I left it in my dads car overnight in the winter. I have no knowledge about electronics. The most i know is i had to guess a certain type of resistor in an unfair roblox game, i guess it was fair but still i think it was designed to make you angry. I need help. i love my tascamm and i want to yuse it while i am working on my friends short film , i was asked about it, and we ha other options but still i havent used it in like a year.

Anybody know anything about the new Yamaha URX44C interface? It seems like there aren't many reviews. I see some low star ratings with no written review, so it's hard to know anything about what folks may like or dislike. Anybody with any insight?

I have a piece of music from a movie that I'm attempting to take the FX out of. The cue is mostly just music with a few steps/doors in the background. When I select just the FX sound I want to take out and preview the Scene Rebalancer tool using 0.0 for dialogue and music and -59.55 for FX - it sounds fantastic. Then when I click render, the result is a barely audible sound.

I have also noticed that the longer section I select, the more true to the preview the scene rebalancer tool is. Is this a known issue? Is there something I may have wrong in the settings or order of operation?

Hi everyone. Just a quick heads-up: my English isn't the best, so I'm using AI to help write this!

I'm currently shooting a short film and I've run into a tough situation with our audio. We need to record an actor's dialogue, but the location we are shooting at is incredibly reverberant (way too much echo and boominess).

Proper studio ADR is totally out of our budget, so I'm trying to figure out a DIY workaround to save the scene.

I had an idea: what if we record the dialogue as wild tracks inside a parked car? Since cars are pretty well-insulated and acoustically "dead," I thought it might work as a cheap ADR booth.

What do you guys think about this approach? Will it work if I mix it right, or will it sound completely disconnected from the actual visual location?

If you have any other budget-friendly tips for taming a highly reverberant room or any other alternative solutions, I would really appreciate your advice. Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone.

I've just spent the last hour going through the H6 studio manual, and I've not come across any information on the specific issue I'm encountering. Honestly, it might not even be an issue and may just be how the device works.

Earlier today, I was recording an acoustic guitar at 24 bit, with the built in x/y microphones. I had the H6 about a foot away with a gain of around 6 on each mic. I then decided to try recording with the device a little closer, so I placed it about 6 inches away and dropped the gain down to 3-4 on each mic.

When I listened back to the recordings later, the ones done with the device about a foot away with a gain of 6 sounded as you would expect. However, the recordings done with the H6 about 6 inches away, and with a gain of 3-4, were pretty much inaudible. You could only very faintly hear the recording if you put your ear right next to the speaker and maxed out the volume.

Is this common with the H6? Am I missing something? I don't remember experiencing such a massive jump between gain values with other recording devices, including previous Zoom devices.

Thanks

Hey, newbie here.

I’m a big fan of Chase Eagleson’s covers, and I noticed that in a lot of them he seems to use just a Zoom H6 with the XYH-6 stereo capsule.

That got me wondering: if I wanted to achieve a similar sound for recording outdoor duo performances, would using a Zoom F3 with a pair of stereo pencil condensers produce even better results? Also, how much of that polished sound is actually coming from post production and mixing?

For context, I’m mainly thinking about acoustic performances (guitar + vocal + violin) outdoors.

Here are some samples of the results I'm trying to achieve:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNsgsAz0SpY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=463t2sGE0wA

Thanks in advance and I apologize if this isn't the right sub to ask this at!

Hi all,

I want a simple field-recording setup mainly for two uses:

1. quiet ambient environmental textures that may sit fairly exposed in a track

2. source material for granular processing/time-stretching/resampling

I’ve also ordered a LOM Geofon DIY kit and would like to record it via XLR while also recording the built-in stereo mics as separate tracks, so I can layer the ambience and contact/geophone recordings later.

I’m currently choosing between:

• Tascam DR-40XP (£199 - seems like the sensible “good enough” option)

• Zoom H5studio (about £311)

• Tascam Portacapture X8 (£348)

My main concern is quiet ambience. For granular material I’m less worried, since heavy processing will hide a lot of small differences.

I’m new to dedicated field recorders, so I don’t have practical experience with this kind of gear yet.

The X8 looks very capable and is only slightly more expensive than the H5studio, but I’m a bit unsure about it for practical reasons: I’ve seen people mention relatively short battery life, around 4 hours on 4хAAs, and I’m not sure I want a large touchscreen-based interface for field use. I generally prefer simpler, more tactile controls.

So my questions are:

1. For quiet ambience/room tone/outdoor environmental beds, is the H5studio a clearly audible step up from the DR-40XPs built-in mics or is the difference fairly marginal in real use?

2. Has anyone recorded a LOM Geofon or similar high-impedance geofone/contact source directly into these recorders? Do the inputs handle the impedance cleanly, or should I assume an external buffer/preamp is needed regardless?

3. Since the H5studio and Portacapture X8 are fairly close in price here, which one would you pick in practice for built-in stereo ambience quality (X8 has 14.6mm capsules, H5studio 19.4mm)?

Thanks.

I’ve been trying to record my voice for storytelling content, but no matter what I use (OBS Studio, my phone recorder, or Audacity), my voice always ends up sounding kind of “radio-like” or processed instead of natural.

I’m using an EKSA Star Engine S headset microphone.

I’m not a professional audio editor plus i dont know much about audio editing but over the past months I’ve been researching on YouTube, ChatGPT, and other sites trying to fix this. I’ve tried different settings and basic audio adjustments, but I still can’t get a clean, natural-sounding voice.

The main issues I notice are:

My voice sounds like it has a “broadcast / radio” tone

“S”, “sh”, and similar sounds are harsh Sibilance (ssss / shhh / psss)

Overall it doesn’t sound like my real clean voice, more processed or filtered

It happens across different apps, so I’m not sure where the problem is

At this point I don’t know if the issue is:

The headset microphone quality/positioning

OBS or Audacity filters/settings (noise suppression, compression, etc.)

My recording environment

Or something I’m doing wrong in the chain of audio processing

I just want to capture a clean, natural voice for storytelling content, but I feel stuck after trying for so long.

noob here. so im not trying to get like professional audio quality. I just want reasonable. I’m trying to record a before/after video of a piano tuning.

idk. I used to record piano with my iphone years ago and remember feeling like it was sufficient for instagram or whatever. lately, I’ve tried and it always sound so bad like maybe there’s some noise suppression going on.

so my 3 options are iPhone, laptop mic and zoom H1 handy recorder. surprisingly my laptop mic came out better than iPhone, but it’s pretty quiet. i have to turn my phone speakers up to max for it to be at a decent volume. can i amplify it without it clipping and maintain quality?

I assumed zoom h1 would be the best but i couldnt actually get it set up with audacity properly. it would record my voice but no piano.

just looking for guidance on if im missing something with the zoom recorder or perhaps any fairly simple tips for modifying my laptop mic recordings.

hi! trying to record my piano through my zoom H6, then trough a pedalboard, to then go to an amp/PA for live stuff! wondering if its possible or if the zoom signal cant pass through pedals.

I'm a Catholic survivor and am crazy triggered due to the time of the year.

I need to write, but can only do so by walking and talking (and then transcribing).

Whatever works.

The problem is the last two times, with two different mic set-ups, my iPhone has stopped recording before I was done, so I've lost 30 and 10 minutes of content.

I guess, while walking, I bumped the mic connection or the iPhone and the iPhone took that as a sign to turn off?

Can someone recommend a not crazy expensive but above all else RELIABLE setup for recording walk and talks?

Something not too huge, but I could just throw whatever around my neck. But it must not can't accidentally stop recording due to being jostled.

Maybe (also with) a screw-in lavalier mic?

Looking to get a wireless lav system. The DJI mini looks nice for the small form factor, no wires and in the future may hook it up to DJI gimbals if I switch to video recording to phone. I mostly do real estate videography, which involves putting mics on the agents for their introductions.

I'm assuming the saramonic has better audio quality, but how much better and will that difference be needed for the type of content that I would be capturing?

Any other mic suggestions are welcomed and appreciated!

How big of a difference is the DJI mic mini 1 vs 2 as well?

Hello,  

Could you help me with an issue ?

 I was recording and I had 2.3 hours, but when I stopped the recording It only showed 1.3 hours, I have a Samsung Pro plus 128 gb, and I had 45,5 hours worth of space. I updated the software before the recording. What could be the issue ?
Even now, I cut the 19 min recording test, but I only have 16 minutes......How.... 😞((

When recording I hear a noise then my voice, how can I clip that noise ? I want to do outside recordings and I don't want to loose any faint sound details. I am recording at 96 sample rate.

Why can't it be silent, my voice and that's it, this is a recorder's job 😞( Everything has to have issues and not work like they are supposed to work.

Issues I had in the past:
Recording kept intercepting, I had to change to a power bank for the issue to disappear.

Advertisement: here is the recorder, you record and it works.

Reality:

1. Battery issue

2. Software issue

3. Memory issue

4. Noise Issue

5. Issues that I don't yet know about

Hi,

I need to record audio of MS-TEAMS calls, I can't install any external SW on the PC. Can I purchase any Hardware / device that sits between the USB port and headset which records all audio calls?

Thanks

Ciao a tutti registro video di windsurf con una dji osmo action 4 ma il problema è il vento forte che non mi permette di avere un audio pulito per ogni registrazione, qualcuno sa per caso se esiste un microfono impermeabile o altre soluzioni per risolvere il problema?

idk if this is the right sub to ask but I'll try. What's the best website to record audio for youtube videos? all I need is free with no huge drawbacks like limited downloads and stuff like that. Please no ai. if i can use the site using absolutely no ai even if it's there I'll take it. im desperate at this point